The Slow Burn (Moonlight and Motor Oil #2) - Kristen Ashley Page 0,30
a family, since my woman wants fifteen kids, they’ll have their Uncle Toby around.”
Fuck, that felt good.
Though he hoped Johnny didn’t give Eliza fifteen kids. They’d both be run ragged, and birthdays and Christmases would be a bitch.
To explain all that to his brother, Toby said, “You’re not a dick.”
“No. But I’ve been bein’ one and that’s gonna stop. You got your own life to lead and you’re right, it’s time I laid off. That starts now.”
Toby blew out another breath before he muttered, “Thanks.”
“One other thing before I let you go.”
Jesus Christ.
“What?” Toby prompted when Johnny didn’t say anything.
“Something you might not know, Izzy likes you for Addie. Margot likes you for Addie. The only one of our crew who didn’t is me. So while you’re takin’ that week to think, now that we’ve had this out and you’ve shared where your head is at, think about the fact you might want to be around when Adeline gets her feet under her and hits her groove with bein’ a single mom.”
Toby stared at the counter of the island not seeing it, the shock his brother’s words sent through him struck that deep.
“Sorry I won’t see you tomorrow night,” Johnny continued. “If you wanna get some beers at Home tonight, I’m down. Addie called Iz and they want her for a couple extra hours of overtime tonight. Iz is takin’ Brooklyn over to the acres so she can feed him and put him down at home while Addie’s at work. I can be there for that, or I can be at Home with you. Your call.”
“I did the Home thing last night, brother. Already got the town buzzin’ about my shit. Don’t need them to think I’m becoming the local barfly.”
“Right, then if you want me over at yours for a couple of beers, your call on that too.”
“I’ve had a taste for nachos for two weeks.”
“Then I’ll be there at six.”
For the first time since his phone chat with Addie Wednesday night, Toby smiled.
“Right. Thanks, man.”
“And thanks to you for the honesty. Good we got that hammered out.”
So totally Johnny.
You got up in his shit, he listened, and if he was in the wrong, he didn’t get defensive and act like an ass. He owned up to it and made it easy for everyone to move on.
“Thanks for listening, brother,” Toby muttered.
“All good. Later, Toby.”
“Later, Johnny.”
They disconnected, and Toby went back to his water bottle.
He sucked some back, processing all that, and the relief it gave him, and the fact that felt really fucking good.
But he was left with his brother’s words bouncing in his mind.
Think about the fact you might want to be around when Adeline gets her feet under her and hits her groove with bein’ a single mom.
He’d stepped way over the line in some of the shit he’d spewed at Addie yesterday.
But her obstinately getting in his face, blowing him off and making him sound like a moron was way over the line too.
He cared about her and worried for her and maybe he didn’t use the right words or tone to share that, but she’d blown up and to save face, acted like he was an idiot.
It was the first time since he met her he had second thoughts about how he felt about Adeline Forrester.
They might be able to get past that, they might not.
In Toby’s mind, with the way their argument ended, that was on her.
What came after, he had no clue.
The issues he just handled with Johnny had gone in a way he never would have expected.
That was life.
It almost always went ways you didn’t expect.
You just sailed those winds. Fighting them served no purpose.
His mother had left her family, not looking back, when he was three.
Both the grandparents he knew, since his mother’s parents had never been in their lives, died way too young.
His father had followed suit.
He’d watched his brother fall deeply in love, just like their father, only to have his woman chose another man over him. That man was her brother, but since her brother was a pathologically self-absorbed lunatic, not a living soul with a head on their shoulders would have thought that was the right call. Johnny had found Eliza and had been healed, but it was only luck that Eliza was Eliza, or Toby knew Johnny would still be living half a life, going through the motions with a heart broken in a way that couldn’t be mended.