Page 49

When his brother’s face turned a similar shade as his hair, Rusty wondered what the fuck his brother had gotten into. Flame didn’t blush. He made others blush. Hell, most days he was an absolute dick who got a kick out of seeing people squirm, like it was something to be proud of.

Had it finally happened? Had someone finally turned the tables on Flame?

“Maybe this isn’t the best time,” Flame muttered and started to turn away.

Oh, hell no. Now there was no way Rusty was leaving until he found out what was going on, god damn him. He grabbed Flame by the arm, shocked when his brother didn’t yank it out of his grasp. Instead, there was actual vulnerability in his brother’s eyes when Flame turned around, something he hadn’t seen much of since they were children.

Rusty softened his tone, and his grip, and inclined his head toward the parking lot, where a row of snowmobiles were parked. Flame nodded and fell in beside him, walking across the lot, bypassing the snowmobiles to reach the large boulder at the edge of the cliff. It offered a beautiful view of the Comet Lake with the reddish hues of the setting sun spreading out over the surface of the water.

“Alright, talk to me,” Rusty said once they’d gotten settled.

Flame heaved a heavy sigh while fiddling with a rip in his jeans before the silence between them stretched on so long Rusty started growing restless again.

“I was out at the lake the other night and ran into Pops,” Flame began, forcing Rusty to smother the growl of impatience he was about to let out.

His brother’s foul mood was beginning to make sense now, so Rusty waited to hear the rest of the story.

“He asked me up to his cabin for a couple beers,” Flame said after another long pause. “Was bored and lonely so I went.”

“That was your first mistake right there,” Rusty declared. “Letting him get in your head was the second.”

Flame’s head whipped around and all Rusty saw in his eyes was devastation. “I didn’t. If he’d been an ass, I’d have just walked away with my beer. If anything, this was worse.”

“What, is the fucker dying?”

“No.”

Rusty motioned with his hand for Flame to continue, but his brother just sighed again and hung his head.

“If he wasn’t an ass, why did you spend all day spoiling for a fight?” Rusty asked, hoping to cut through the bullshit before he missed out on the opportunity to play in the snow with the pups.

“Because a part of me wishes he had been,” Flame admitted.

“You’re losing me here.”

Flame rubbed his chin, and Rusty could tell his brother was struggling, not just with his emotions, but to put into words what had taken place during the conversation.

“I guess he was over by the park a few days ago and saw you with Wren and Logan,” Flame began. “He asked if I remembered him taking us there when we were little. Then he went on to describe us in our fur, chasing fireflies and racing in and out of those old metal tunnels that they turned into the new maze. I didn’t. I mean, I remember us playing there plenty of times, obviously, but never once did I remember him going with us.”

Rusty rubbed the back of his neck. “Can’t say that I do either.”

“Probably because it was the one and only time,” Flame replied.

“So, what, he wanted a pat on the back for it?”

“I wish. I could have walked away from that too.”

Groaning, Rusty pressed his hand to his face and mentally counted to ten so he wouldn’t snap at his brother, who knew their Pops was a sore subject. Hell, he’d listened to Flame curse the man more times than he could count, so why did it even matter what the fuck he’d said about some trip to the park? Rusty was truly beginning to regret encouraging him to talk.

“He told me that he missed out on a job opportunity that night because he wasn’t home and no one answered the phone to take the message,” Flame said. “And that was the reason he never tried to do fun stuff like that with us again.”

“Oh, boo hoo, fuck him. I’m going home to my pups,” Rusty said, having more than enough as he slid off the boulder.

“Damn, get off my wavelength, bro, that’s what I told him too,” Flame replied. “Then he apologized and said it was a mistake for him to act that way. That we weren’t the ones who ruined his life, that he did it all on his own, by treating his mates like they were an inconvenience.”

Blink.

Blink. Blink.