finally let him go, then looked over at me. “Shit, you didn’t tell me it was Nicky who picked you up!”
Max frowned. “Nicky? It’s not. This is Dominic.”
Hal looked between the two of us like we were crazy. “Max, Nicky is Dominic. You can remember every article and amendment of the Constitution but you can’t remember my little brother’s name?”
“No, of course I remember Nicky’s name, I just—” He turned to me, and this was it. Playtime was over. I was about to go from Dominic the competent cop he’d just low-key flirted with to Nicky, Hal’s little brother.
“I didn’t recognize you at all,” he marveled, looking me over with a fresh perspective. “At all. Jesus, you’re taller by a foot. And you’re so…different.”
“Uh…surprise,” I said, hating that I sounded so small saying it. This was it. Now he was going to—
And then he blushed, blushed as he stared at me, and I thought, Oh. Hey. Maybe this isn’t over before it begins after all.
Chapter Three
Max
Oh my god. Little Nicky had become Dominic, a man with a couple of inches on me, broad shoulders like his brother, and a face that had gone from the heart-shaped cherub of his youth to a sword-wielding Archangel Michael. He looked a lot like Hal now, actually, except without the permanent lumps across the bridge that were the results of a few broken noses. His hair was a couple of shades lighter and a little longer, with just enough curl in it that it would wrap around my fingers if I ran my hands through it.
Or if I grabbed it. Not hard, just enough to—
“Max. Max!” Hal snapped his fingers at me, and I blinked.
“Sorry,” I said, belatedly realizing that I’d been staring at Dominic for the past ten seconds without speaking. “Right, sorry. I’m—” Stunned. Stricken. In awe. “I’m tired,” I finished, because there was honesty and then there was being frank to the point that it was uncomfortable, and I didn’t want to make Dominic or Hal uncomfortable.
“Tired?” Hal caught my chin with his hand and turned my head to the side, looking at the bruised half of my face with concern. “Or maybe you’re concussed. Do we need to get you to a doctor?”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not concussed. I hit the airbag, not the steering wheel, and I wasn’t going all that fast in the first place. I’m just a little banged up.”
“Max was in a little bit of shock,” Dominic told Hal. “But I’ve been keeping an eye on him, and there’s no concussion.”
I was touched that he’d been looking after me, but Hal only frowned, no doubt focusing on the shock part. “There’s an urgent care place not a mile from here. It wouldn’t be out of the way.”
“Hal.” I pulled his hand off my face but didn’t let it go immediately. Hal was a worrier, and naturally tactile. When I’d come out in high school, everyone had assumed Hal and I were dating, we were so close. That assumption couldn’t be farther from the truth—Hal had wanted to talk about nothing but girls and football, even when he had his arm slung around my shoulders or his feet buried under my legs on the couch.
Dominic, on the other hand…
What was I saying again?
“I really am fine. It’s just some bruises and a few scrapes, not worth going to a doctor for. If I feel worse in the morning,” I continued, already knowing what he was going to say, “I promise we can go then. But after the long drive, and the meeting I spent all morning getting ready for…” I shrugged. “I really am just tired. And I need to get back to the city tomorrow.”
“Yeah, you mentioned that earlier, but…” Hal shared a look with Dominic I wasn’t sure how to interpret. “The weather is supposed to get worse before it gets better. Plus, with your car being broken, you’re not going to make it back to the city until Monday.”
Shit. I shut my eyes and resisted the urge to snap, because the universe really didn’t seem to understand just how little I wanted to be in Edgewood for an entire weekend. I wanted to go back to how things had been five minutes ago, when Dominic was just the incredibly good-looking cop who’d picked me up off the side of the road and shared dinner with me, instead of the brother of my best friend who I hadn’t even recognized. I wanted to see