Love Me Again - Aiden Bates Page 0,2

Kane, his brother has wanderlust.” Adrian lowered his voice like Kane could hear him. “I think Shayne’s just escaping their dragon of a mom.”

At Adrian’s mention of Kane and Shayne’s mom, my heart twisted. She’d always been a bit of a bitch. Back when we were—I swallowed—best friends, Shayne had spent a lot of time hanging out at my house, showing me photos in an album he carried around. They’d belonged to his grandpa and were his favorite thing in all the world—aside from me. I scoffed at that memory.

He’d always said he’d become a photographer like his grandpa—world class—and I’d helped him nurture those dreams.

We’d made so many plans. We were going to travel the world together, follow wherever Shayne’s lens pointed, check out all the places his grandpa had visited. But that didn’t happen.

I’d witnessed his fledgling enthusiasm for photography firsthand, including leveling up to starting albums of his own…although the first pictures he’d taken of me—persuaded me to let him take—hadn’t worked out so well for me. I pushed that unwanted memory away.

I’d known I loved Shayne. Never doubted it. I thought he loved me too, but he’d just been using me. I’d been his dirty secret while he hid his sexuality. But I’d loved him.

My heart twisted again at the thought Shayne was out of town working his dream job. I couldn’t decide whether I felt happy at the idea he’d made it and achieved all the things we’d talked about, or whether I was unendingly sad that I hadn’t been at his side to experience it like we’d planned.

I sighed and rubbed my face. We’d made so many fucking plans over hours lying on my bed and studying Shayne’s photographs. It was hard to think of those plans so screwed up. It was hard to remember Shayne had screwed everything up the day he screwed me over.

“You okay?” Adrian watched me, his eyes creased with concern.

I blew out a sigh. “Yeah. Just lost on Memory Lane, I guess. Having Shayne around brings back lots of memories for me.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t know any of it. I must not have been paying attention at the time.” Adrian shook his head. “I should have protected you better.”

I chuckled. “Dude. You know by now that the baby brother gets protected, not the other way around.”

“I’m deadly serious, bro.” Adrian sat back in his chair. “And you’d better bet your ass I’ll protect you every moment I can now. I won’t let anyone hurt you ever again—least of all Shayne.”

I chuckled at the idea of Adrian as my human shield. “You’re not very scary, dude.”

“There are six more where I came from, baby,” Adrian said, referencing our other brothers. “You’ve got your own army ready to march into battle for you.”

My next laugh caught in my throat in a bubble of emotion I hadn’t anticipated. I stretched my lips into a smile and nodded. “I appreciate that.” But my voice sounded too thick and felt like it might choke me.

“You’ll never be alone.” Adrian sounded determined, and his eyes shone. “Now get that burrito down you because I’ve still got time for a quick game of Call of Duty or Grand Theft Auto.”

“I’ll be fine if you need to leave.” I was pretty sure Adrian was hanging around because he thought I was too fragile to leave.

“No way. I owe you an ass whoopin’ after the way you handed me mine last time. This, my friend, is a matter of pride.”

“Yeah, yeah. Not to mention some sibling rivalry.” I lifted my eyebrows.

Adrian met my gaze. “Challenge accepted,” he murmured. “I’ll get set up while you finish your lunch.”

I glanced down at the burrito and my stomach roiled. I didn’t really want to finish it anymore. All of my issues with food had come roaring back into my head the moment I started remembering my good times with Shayne. My relationship with food seemed to be permanently tied to him now.

The first time I’d seen him when I went out to grab some lunch with Adrian shortly after he started his job at Lakeshore Dental, I’d wanted to binge eat my way through the Baked In menu. I was lucky we’d decided to get our lunch to go because I’d been mentally calculating the size of my credit card balance versus the size of my stomach.

Because of that, I didn’t know if I could stay in Lakeshore even if Shayne wasn’t around right now. Just the idea he could return