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“Make one for me too?” Everett sounded about as tired as I was.
“Not a problem.” A big part of the reason I couldn’t sleep was now standing a few feet away. “Why are you up so early?” I sloshed both cups with cream and sugar before filling them up.
“Haven’t been sleeping well. When I heard you moving around I decided to stop fighting it.” He took a cup and made himself comfortable at the counter.
I waited until we both had some coffee in our systems before I said anything. “I haven’t been around much. How have you been?”
“I see you every day.”
“We see each other but we don’t talk. It’s work. And most of the time we’re not even near each other. Not the same thing.”
Ev shrugged his wide pitcher’s shoulders. “I just don’t want to get in your way. You haven’t seriously dated anyone since Amanda.”
I studied the way he sat. Stooped over, shoulders hunched, like he was holding back the world. “Kate and I are solid. Don’t worry about that.” It was clear that while everything was going right for me, something was going wrong with my brother. “Is it me, baseball, or Dad?”
He flashed a smile without looking up. “It is weird having you be the boss of me, but no. It’s not you or Dad.”
Dad accepted it when I walked away. He couldn’t fight my reasoning. But Everett? He fought him tooth and nail. “So it’s baseball again?”
“Not the same as last time, but some of it’s real familiar.” He set his mug aside and clenched his hands, flipping them over and doing it again. “The feeling inside is coming from the same place.”
That wasn’t good at all. “But it’s different?”
“Yeah. I don’t know. It’s why I’m not sleeping. I can’t figure it out and it’s driving me up a wall.”
“Is Liam any help?”
Ev wobbled his head from side to side. “A little. But he’s as in the dark as I am.”
“So what’s the plan?”
He shrugged. “Make a big breakfast.”
“Ev.”
He sighed. “Willa called.” Once upon a time Willa had been the third Amigo to Seth and Everett in college. She went along with their pranks and parties but was the cool head that prevailed when they went too far. “She and Seth have been talking. Seth and I have been talking. Obviously we’re both in a weird place, so she called me.”
“How long has it been?”
“Too long. I let it drift. I own that. She sends me emails and text messages randomly. I only reply on her birthday or at Christmas.”
“So this is the first time you’ve spoken in a while?”
“Yep.” He huffed. “It was good to catch up. She said Seth invited her out since we’re on the same team. We’re going to have a little reunion.”
Fuck, maybe my brother just needed a friend. “You want to head over to Reds and shoot the shit for lunch today?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, I think I do.”
We sat in the corner booth and ordered burgers and wings. It was pretty quiet so we put our feet up and watched the sports news feed over the bar. I did not ask him questions or try to fix his problems. At The Red Tourist we were always friends and I wouldn’t change that now.
“You remember Lori?” he said out of nowhere.
Lori? I searched back through the annals and came up blank. “No.”
“She was Seth’s girlfriend in college.”
Oh…Lori. “Yeah. I remember her.”
