Studfinder (Busy Bean #5) - L.B. Dunbar Page 0,32

it.

It’s difficult to look Rory in the eye, and he’s suffering the same. Still, we put on a good show for Nolan. Everything for Nolan, especially now. My brother has become quite the cook in our kitchen at a wheelchair-accessible height, despite the peanut butter and jam sandwiches. He’d been a volunteer fireman like me, and his favorite thing was making dinner for the men and women in service. Typical Nolan, he loved to gather people and make them laugh, stirring in a little innocent trouble.

“How is school?” I ask as Rory takes a seat in the living room.

Rory rubs his hands against his thighs. “Yeah, good. Things are good.” Awkwardly, we pause in a position of sit and stare without actually staring at one another. With a tight smile, Nolan glances between Rory and me. My brother’s brows pinch as his eyes flit between us.

“So. Dinner?” I turn to Nolan, who nods, and Rory and I stand again, following my brother into the kitchen. The space is already tight with his wheelchair and the addition of me. Putting three of us in the room, it’s cramped. Still, we sit and eat in staggered silence and single-word answers to questions Nolan prompts, trying to pull his son into the conversation.

“How’s Brynne?” Nolan asks his son.

“Brynne?” I ask. “You got a girl?” A smile fills my voice, but Rory’s gaze drifts to his plate. He pushes around his food. Brynne. For a unique name, it sounds familiar.

“I’m getting married.”

My fork pauses midair as I turn my head to Nolan. “What? When?”

“This fall,” Nolan says, offering a weak smile.

“Why haven’t you told me?” Rory will be graduating this summer. Is the wedding a secret?

“I’m marrying Brynne Dunhill.”

I take a moment, but then the name registers. “Lisa’s niece?” My head twists from Nolan to Rory and back.

“Lisa came around a bit when I first got home, and she’d bring her niece. Rory met her then, but they didn’t start seeing each other again until he entered law school.”

“Brynne. Lisa’s niece?” My ex-wife’s niece will be joining our family, and no one told me. Hell, no one even told me Rory was getting married. “Why didn’t you say something?”

“I didn’t want you to be upset,” Nolan states. “I know it was hard when you and Lisa separated.”

“When she divorced me,” I remind Nolan.

“We didn’t want to make things difficult for you.”

“Difficult? How?” My heart begins to race, and the most awful thoughts about my younger brother enter my head. “Did you fuck my ex-wife?” I see it all playing out like some damn romantic drama. Younger brother loses older brother who takes care of fucking everything for him, and the ex-wife arrives having her heart broken, even if she did the breaking, and they find consolation in one another.

“Hey,” Rory defends.

“You know I couldn’t fuck someone at first,” Nolan states.

“Why is this even a discussion?” Rory interjects.

“You aren’t answering my question,” I demand of my brother.

“No. No, I didn’t fuck her. I wouldn’t do that to you,” Nolan states, staring back at me, and the implication becomes clear. Lisa wanted it. Maybe Nolan wanted it, too, but he didn’t act on it. I press my chair back, causing the feet to screech across the tile.

“I need some air,” I state. I toss my fork to my plate and stalk to the front door, pulling it open with more force than necessary. I don’t bother closing it. Racing down the ramp we now have installed before the house, I head for the street and walk.

Immediately, my thoughts fill with my ex-wife. She wanted the divorce. I didn’t. Can’t make a screwdriver fit a nail. We were in the middle of our separation when the arrest happened. Our future became one more part of my history. We were over. Still, I can’t get over the shock of Rory getting engaged and to a Dunhill of all people.

Continuing down the street, I inhale the fresh mountain air deeply, dismissing memories of my ex-wife. Our house is in an area of smaller homes a few blocks from downtown Ashbury. It’s a community where homes outside the town are growing larger and larger while the historic district grows more decrepit looking. The closest high school services five municipalities, making it a community unit school, and my thoughts drift to it. While it’s been over twenty-five years since I’ve attended high school, my nightmares return to the building often.

Most haunting in those nightmares is Rory and his friends standing outside