My Cone and Only (King Family #1) - Susannah Nix Page 0,70

life the way you want. Fuck Brady.”

I smiled despite myself, grateful to have Andie in my corner, spitting mad and ready to fight on my behalf. I pressed my face into her hair. “You know he’s the one who taught me to play guitar?”

“I know.” She took my hand and squeezed it. “And I know how much it hurt you when he left. And how much it still hurts that he never once reached out after.”

A caustic lump clogged in my throat. “He could have fucking called or at least sent a goddamn postcard.”

“He should have. You deserved that much and more.” Andie lifted her head to look at me and pressed her palm against my cheek. “He was in a bad place after Chance died. Whatever he was going through and whatever he felt like he needed to do to survive, you know it didn’t have anything to do with you, right? You were just a kid.”

“Yeah, a kid whose mom was dying.” My face twisted as I spat the words. “And he walked away without even saying goodbye.”

I’d worshipped Brady too. That was what hurt so bad. He was the only one of Trish’s offspring who’d shown much interest in me as a kid. When my mom got sick, Brady had given me my first guitar and taught me how to play. He used to come over every day after I got home from school to give me lessons. Ryan had his hands full taking care of Mom at that point, and Tanner had retreated inside his books as usual. Brady gave me a way to distract myself from the scary shit that was happening. He’d helped me get through those horrible months of watching my mom get weaker and sicker.

And then right before the end, when I’d needed him most of all, he’d up and left without a word. No warning, no goodbyes, no forwarding address. He’d packed a bag but left his phone behind. No one knew where he’d gone or how to get in touch with him.

I knew he’d been fucked up by what had happened to Chance. Not only had he lost his twin, but Brady had been driving the car. It hadn’t been his fault—they’d been T-boned by some drunk who’d gotten off with a slap on the wrist—but it couldn’t have been an easy thing for him to live with. Brady had started pulling away after the accident, but I’d been too young to fully understand what was going on or know what to do about it.

I hadn’t expected Brady to pull away for good. I hadn’t been prepared to lose two brothers to that accident.

When my mom died a few weeks after Brady disappeared, I kept waiting to hear something from him. Thinking surely he’d call and check in to see how I was holding up. When he didn’t call, I told myself he’d come back for the funeral. And when he didn’t do that, I started to think maybe he was dead too.

I spent four years not knowing if Brady was alive. Until Ghost Ships started to take off and get some press. Then suddenly he was all over the music news sites and on the radio and playing at SXSW just an hour up the highway. By then I was too resentful to reach out to him myself. I just kept waiting for him to get in touch, but I never heard a damn word from him. Not when they had their first hit single, or when they headlined ACL Fest, or in any of the fifteen years since.

So yeah, fuck Brady. Fuck him for cutting me out of his life and making me think I’d done something to deserve it.

Andie’s hand hooked around the back of my neck, her expression fierce and tender at the same time. “He wasn’t there for you the way you needed, and that sucks. I know your dad wasn’t either, and that sucks too. But you’ve got a lot of people still around who care about you, Wyatt.”

I sank my fingers into her hair gratefully and pressed my forehead against hers. “Like you, you mean?”

“Of course me—and my whole family. But you’ve got your family too. Maybe you don’t get along with all of them, but you’ve got more good ones than most people do.”

She was right. I complained about my family a lot, but aside from Dad and Nate, they weren’t so bad. A few of them were pretty great. And I