Faked (Ward Family #2)(66)

But this time, I met his stare with my own. I knew this man as well as I knew anyone, and when I saw the disappointment in his eyes, I was the first to look away.

The screen on my phone lit up on the battered coffee table that held all my back issues of Sports Illustrated, and Scotty leaned forward to squint at the screen.

"Golden Boy," he read. His eyes lifted to mine. "Says four missed calls."

I leaned my head back against the couch and closed my eyes. "Yeah, he's been a real pain in my ass this week. Not the only one, I might add."

"Oh geez, people are worried about you. How rough you have it."

Opening my eyes, I pointed at the phone. "He's not worried about me. He is trying to cover his ass because if it weren't for him, I'd actually be ..." I stopped myself before I blurted it out. If it weren't for him, I'd actually be happy right now.

I'd be with her.

I could've spent the past four days with Claire, getting to know her, talking to her on the phone, seeing what she looked like in my bed. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I willed my mind to stop cycling around those thoughts because it didn't matter. It was one weekend of my life, and that was it.

I'd get over it.

I'd get over her.

My phone lit up again, and I sighed. "I don't know what he could possibly want to say to me."

The recliner squeaked as Scotty leaned forward. "I'm curious too. Hello?"

"What are you doing?" I yelled. "Give me that phone."

When I tried to swipe for it, he flipped me off. "Finn? Yeah, this is Scotty. I train the grumpy asshole."

Even though my leg screamed in protest, I stood from the couch and towered over Scott, holding out my hand and giving him my most forbidding glare.

He ignored me. "Hmm. Sure, yeah. Makes sense."

"Give me the phone, Scott."

"Great idea, Finn. Yeah. I like it."

When he handed me the phone, I exhaled heavily. Then I saw the call was already disconnected.

I blinked. "He hung up?"

"Guess so."

My eyebrows lifted slowly. "What did he say?"

Scotty leaned back in the recliner and let his hands rest on his stomach. "Gosh, I can hardly remember since I'm so old."

Muttering curses under my breath, I hobbled back into the kitchen and yanked open the fridge. It was the off-season, so if I wanted to have a beer with my lunch, even Scotty wouldn't stop me.

"Tell me about her."

I pinched my eyes shut as the first swallow of beer went down like a brick.

The way she laughed slid like fog through my unwilling brain.

The way she smiled.

How she felt under my hands and lips.

What she did to my heart, that horrible waste of an organ that refused to stop thinking about her just yet.

"I can't," I managed.

Scotty got out of the chair with a groan, and I braced myself for the interrogation to continue.

But it didn't. He walked past the kitchen to the apartment door.

"Are you leaving?" I asked.

"Nope."

Shaking my head, I took another swig of beer. "You and that crazy-ass cat deserve each other."

He opened the door, and I almost spit out my beer when Golden Boy walked in.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I roared.

The two assholes in my apartment completely ignored me, shaking hands and introducing themselves like they weren't completely intruding on my privacy. Finn had never come here. Not once.

"Nice place," he said, looking around the small condo I'd lived in for two years. It wasn't big, but I had a bed and a kitchen, and view of the mountains out my window. The village of Whistler was like any mountain resort town, big condo and apartment buildings that housed people like me, who chased the snow, and would give up square footage for proximity to what I loved most.

Neither of them flinched when I slammed the beer bottle down on the counter. "You need to go."

"Not until I talk to you." My brother lifted his chin, and I felt a begrudging pang of admiration that he was willing to drive up here and face me.

And I hated, hated that I heard Claire's voice in my head, urging me to give him a chance. Hear what he had to say. Finn had no choice in who our parents were either. And if I ignored the fact that I still wanted to plant my fist in his face for having years with Claire right in front of him for years, I had to admit that Finn had never treated me with the reserve that his mother did.

I spread my arms out. "Then say it. Let's get this over with."

Finn sighed. "Can we sit?"

"Yes," Scotty agreed. "Let's sit."

"You think you get to be a part of this conversation?" I asked him incredulously.

"Hell yeah, I do." He patted Finn on the back and led him toward the family room. "You owe me, kid. If it weren't for Agnes, you never would've gotten stuck with her in the first place."

The string of expletives that I hurled at him made his booming laughter fill every corner of the room.

"What'd you do to your leg?" Finn asked when I yanked a stool from the kitchen counter and sat on it.

"Mountain biking," I told him. "What do you want?"

He exhaled a laugh. "Geez. You're in as bad a mood as Claire is this week."