Make Me - Tessa Bailey Page 0,5
book, man. You’re jealous.”
“Jealous of what?” Russell asked, genuinely perplexed.
Alec slapped the side of the truck bed, letting out a loud whoop. “No one told you, little bro?”
“Jesus. Why do you still call me that? I’m a foot taller than you.”
“You’re four years younger,” Alec half shouted.
“And when I was born, a name was bestowed on me by our parents. Use it.”
“God, you are touchy today.” His brother bit into his ham sandwich, grimaced, and tossed it into the truck bed. “My wife is hot, but she shouldn’t be allowed to handle food. We should have built her another closet instead of a kitchen.”
Russell waited. “So? What’s this big news no one has told me?”
Alec adjusted his hard hat. “I’m not telling you now, you big fucking buzz kill.”
Another two fire trucks blazed past, tearing right through the red light. An accident downtown? A fire? The bite of sandwich he’d taken suddenly felt like dust in his mouth. Honey was uptown, attending her afternoon classes at Columbia. Ben was on the East Side, teaching at NYU. Roxy had just wrapped filming her first television pilot, so she and Louis had played hooky that day, very likely putting them in Louis’s bed on the Lower East Side. The only member of their group working in the Financial District today was Abby.
Worrying was ridiculous. There were thousands of buildings downtown. He had no reason to think those fire trucks were headed in her direction. None. At one time, he’d been just like Alec. Not a care in the world. Then he’d found something to care about, and he’d become the first to fear the worst. Those damn possessive instincts—so focused on Abby—wouldn’t be muffled. They were trying to remind him it was his job to worry about her. If he didn’t, someone else might, and that was flat-out unacceptable. Who knows how much time he had left before she picked someone else to be the one who worried? Until then, shouldn’t he make damn sure she never regretted letting him fill in for a little while?
“Tell me the news, Alec.” Distract me from my idiocy. “You want me to beg?”
“It wouldn’t hurt.” Alec grinned as he removed his hard hat, plowing a hand through his bleached-blond hair. “Ah, screw it. I got the call man!”
“What call?”
“American Ninja Warrior.” He punched Russell in the shoulder. “They want me to compete next season. On television, man.”
“You’re kidding me.” Despite his exasperation over Alec’s two-year-long crusade to get on the program, pride and disbelief clobbered him over the head out of nowhere. They high-fived with their filthy, callused hands. Which turned into a backslapping hug. Which immediately turned into uncomfortable coughing and backing away. “When are you going?”
“Get this. The show isn’t live, like we thought.” Alec cracked his neck. “I’ll admit I was a little disappointed to find that out, but I got over it when I remembered I can win one hundred grand. One hundred grand. I’ll build Darcy another useless kitchen if I win that. Just for the hell of it.”
“Sounds wise,” Russell murmured.
“They film in a week,” Alec continued. “I know it’s short notice, and we’ve got this big job.” His brother pounded a fist over his heart. “But I have to follow my lifelong dream, man.”
Russell did some quick math. “That show has only been on five years.”
“See?” Alec shook his head. “This is why I didn’t want to tell you.”
“Because I can subtract?” His brother hopped off the truck bed, and Russell followed suit, ignoring the buzzing in his skull when another pair of fire trucks flew past, sirens almost loud enough to break glass. “Look, I’m really happy for you. You know I am. It’s just . . . we’ve got that meeting at the bank next week. It’s kind of our last chance to get the loan we need to expand.”
“If I win American Ninja Warrior, we won’t even have to work.”
Russell narrowed his gaze. “You do know that one hundred grand has five zeroes and not six. Right?” A beat of silence passed where all he got from his brother was a blank stare. “Right?”
Alec scratched the back of his neck and laughed. “If you know so much about money, you’ll be fine handling the loan meeting on your own.”
Russell started to point out that he’d handled the previous five unsuccessful bank meetings on his own but decided against it. Alec didn’t feel the same urgency he did to expand, and Russell had already come to