Velvet Midnight - Max Walker Page 0,1

and headed to the start line Ashley pointed to. Even though we were identical twins, the two of us were pretty different. My brother worked for NASA and had a brain the size of an orbiting moon, while I had concentrated on other muscles throughout my life. Lately, though, I’d been slacking with my fitness routine, so it really could have been anyone’s game.

Ashley lifted her hand as we lined up. “Ready, set, go!”

And we ran, and we laughed, and I almost tripped. Tammy joined on the second lap, bouncing behind me as Dusty took the lead in a final last-minute push. I saw him pull ahead and dug deep for some more speed.

I took first place at a photo finish. I grabbed Tammy and lifted her up as if we had won the gold in an Olympic race. The table cheered and laughed, and my brother gave me a pat on the back.

Next up was Aunt Gabbie, who pulled out a card of Ari the hawk we rehabbed last year. “You’re soaring high and collect a $25 prize.” She lifted her hands and wooted, my mom handing over her prize.

“Oh thank the Lord, I thought I would have to get up from my seat for something.” She leaned back, making an exaggerated display of counting her winnings.

We spent the next hour or so pulling cards and playing the game, going over the number of rounds we normally played. At one point, I looked around at my family and felt an overwhelming sense of gratitude. It was a reminder of how life used to be, when we were all together, hanging out at the same dinner table every evening, laughing and talking and joking.

It felt so freaking good, I couldn’t stop myself from smiling even if I wanted to. This was so different from how I’d been feeling lately, which mainly was just a mixture of numbness and sadness. I couldn’t even pinpoint exactly why or when I started feeling that way, but it was eating away at me little by little. It made moments like these seem so few and far between, which meant I just had to savor today as much as I could. I didn’t know when the gray waves would hit me, but at least for right now, the sun was shining and the tide had pulled the gray waters away.

We finished up with the Gold Grab Bag and settled into a relaxed mood. The sun was still high in the sky, but the fresh fall breeze kept us from getting too hot.

“Benji, want to go throw around the football?” Brandon asked, leaning over Dusty. Dusty gave his husband a kiss on the neck. Those two couldn’t have been more perfect for each other, brought together by a fire and still burning hot all these years later.

“Yeah, let’s do it.” If I even still remembered how to throw a ball. I used to love playing sports and was actually damn good at most of the ones I committed to. Football and wrestling had been big ones in high school. In college I’d started playing soccer and tennis, loving both of them but dropping them sometime after graduation.

Brandon, a world-famous rugby player and popular internet personality, probably wouldn’t have trouble throwing the ball.

We got up from the table, Brandon taking one last bite of cake and leaving the empty plate on the table. Before we could even leave the table, my mom called out, “It’s Mav!”

Coming from out of the house was my older brother, a carry-on suitcase in his hand and a bottle of water in the other.

Maverick waved, calling out to the table. He looked like he had just rolled out of bed, wearing a pair of gray sweats and a black T-shirt with impenetrable shades on his face, his honey-brown hair messed up in the way it always was when my brother was fighting a hangover. I’d seen that look a lot, which only made me appreciate him being here even more.

I got up from my seat and went over to him, Dusty close behind me. He opened his arms and wrapped me into a hug.

“Happy Birthday, little bro.”

“Thanks for coming,” I said. Maverick lived in New York, which wasn’t too far a flight from our house here in Georgia, but still, it was a flight, and when your head was sloshed with vodka and beer and whatever else Maverick chugged last night, then an hour-and-a-half flight could easily feel like a ten-hour flight.

“Of