Beautiful Burn (The Maddox Brothers, #4)(76)

Tyler lit his own, reaching behind the dresser and pulling out a small red bowl with cutouts on the rim.

“Secret ashtray?” I teased.

“Yeah. He never found it. We were pretty proud of that.”

“Rebels.”

Tyler took a drag and blew it out the window, looking down at his old neighborhood. “I beat the shit out of Paul Fitzgerald on that corner. And Levi … damn … I can’t remember his last name. Weird. I thought I’d remember those kids forever. Do you remember all of your childhood friends?”

“They’re mostly all still around. Some of them OD’d. Some of them committed suicide. The rest are around. I see them at charity galas now and then. Well … I used to … when I went to charity galas.”

“What is a charity gala, exactly?” Tyler asked.

We both laughed, and I shook my head, taking one last drag before mashing the end of my cigarette into Tyler’s secret ashtray. “An * magnet.”

“Well, it’s for a good cause, right?”

I snorted, and then stood, putting my pack on the lower bunk and opening the zipper. “Dibs,” I said, setting my things on the bed. When Tyler didn’t answer, I turned to catch him staring at me. “What?”

He shrugged. “It’s just cool … you being here.”

“Thanks for inviting me. I’m sorry for being a cranky bitch.” I swallowed, and my throat felt dry and tight. Jim seemed like a beer guy, and I hoped he would have a six-pack or two in the fridge downstairs. It was all I could do not to run down and yank open the door to find out.

I ran my fingers across the spines of the few books that stood next to his trophies.

“James and the Giant Peach?” I asked.

“Hey. That’s a damn good book.”

“Calling you a peach seems fitting now.”

“Shut it,” Tyler said, holding the ashtray out the window and turning it upside down to empty its contents. He pushed the windowsill down, latching it closed.

“So … what’s with Abby the cop?”

I sat on the bed, and Tyler sat next to me, taking my hand and sliding his fingers between mine. “We never bring anyone home, so she’s hypersensitive about it. She’s our sister … overprotective.”

“It’s fine. I like her.”

He stared at the carpet, breathing out a laugh. “Me, too. She really saved this family … saved Travis … in more ways than one.”

“They really love each other. It’s kind of gross.”

He chuckled. “Yeah. They used to fight all the time. Broke each other’s hearts. When they broke up, I thought Trav was gonna lose it. Now look at them. They are crazy happy.”

“They make it look easy—like anyone could make it work.”

“It is easy, Ellie.”

“I’m not Abby.”

“She’s had a lot happen, too. If you heard her story, you might feel a little differently about things.”

“I doubt that. I thought we weren’t going to talk about this.”

“Talk about what?”

I glared at him, and he smiled at me, his dimple appearing and making it impossible for me to stay mad.

“I wanna be gross with you,” he said.

“Well … when you put it that way…”

He leaned in, grazing his lips across mine. My body instantly reacted, craving nothing else but him. I reached under his shirt, running my fingertips up his back.

“No,” he whispered. “I don’t mean that.” He pulled away, fishing my hands from his shirt. He sighed. “It’ll be a year ago tomorrow night that I saw my baby brother in more pain than I’d ever seen him in before.”

“Looks like it all worked out, though.”

“That’s what I keep telling myself. I look at them and remember what it took to get there, how confused and stubborn Abby was and how Trav never gave up.”

“Tyler…”

“Don’t say it. We’ve got a whole weekend left.”

He kissed the corner of my mouth and then stood, pulling me up with him. We walked downstairs, hand in hand. Abby eyed us until Tyler let me go to join his brothers in the next room.

“Still just friends?” Abby asked.

“You get right to the point, don’t you?”

She shrugged. “No sense in beating around the bush. These boys have been through a lot. For some reason they’re also gluttons for punishment.”

“I guess you’d know,” I said, pushing up on the counter to sit and grabbing an apple out of the fruit bowl. I rubbed it on my jeans and took a bite. “Who interrogated you for Travis?”

Abby arched an eyebrow. “Touché.”

“Easy, girls. We’re all on the same side, here,” Camille said while I crunched.

Abby smirked. “Are we?”

“Tyler is a friend,” I said.

Camille and Abby traded knowing glances, and then Abby leaned on the counter next to me. “That’s what we all say. So … are you going to bring that camera to my wedding?”

I looked at the two of them gazing back at me expectantly. Finally, I nodded twice, slow and emphatic. “I’d be honored.”