Chapter 12 Dallas
CHAPTER TWELVE
Dallas
I’d fucked off for another couple hours before finally making myself get in my truck to drive over to my brother’s house.
By the time I pulled into Austin’s driveway, I wasn't surprised to see a pitcher of tea sweating on a wicker glass table with him seated in one of the worn rocking chairs he'd nabbed from our parents house years ago.
The thing about my brother was that while the two of us had our moments, at the end of the day, he was one of my best friends.
And god, I needed a friend right now.
“Morning,” he drawled as I hopped out.
“It's too late in the day to be saying morning,” I said as I went up the porch steps. “It’s noon. That’s not morning.”
“Oh, someone is grumpy.”
Not grumpy. Just wondering what the hell I was doing.
Austin studied me closely. “Now I'm so curious. What did the pretty artist do to you?”
I plopped down on the chair on the other side of the table and poured myself a glass of tea. “You know, when you do this, it makes me feel like an old woman.” I gestured to the pitcher.
Austin narrowed his eyes on me. “Are you complaining?”
I sighed and leaned back, focusing my attention on his yard. It was like the hotel, unique and well taken care of.
That was the thing about Austin. He always was good at taking care of anything but himself. Me included.
“I’m not complaining,” I finally said. “Have you heard from Mom recently?”
“Oh, I see,” he chuckled. “We have to warm up to the actual topic. Got it. Yes, she’s doing fine. She sent pictures from Lisbon a couple days ago.”
Our mother had informed the three of us last month that she was taking a cruise from Lisbon to Galveston with three of the new friends she’d met in a Facebook group for widows.
After Austin and I spent two hours looking into every single one of them, and verifying the cruise was actually legit, we’d been happy for her.
Apparently it had been Avery’s idea, which she’d forgotten to mention.
Whatever got our mom out of Whynot and living her life, I wanted for her.
“If you checked our family chat, you would have seen it,” Austin poked at me.
“Yeah, well . . .” I didn’t have an excuse. I was bad at checking that chat. “I went on a lunch date with Madi yesterday.”
“I’m sure you will not find it shocking to know I already knew this.” He took a slow sip of his tea, his eyes pinned on me. “Word travels fast, you know. I’m pretty sure everyone in Whynot was watching the two of you like hawks.”
God. I’d known it, but I shook my head at the confirmation. That’s just part of being in a small town. I’ve grown to accept it’s how things were here, even if I didn’t like it a lot of the time.
“We have a date on Friday. Yesterday we talked about BDSM.”
“What?” Austin's mouth dropped and he leaned forward. “You’ve known her for like three fucking days, Dallas.”
I bristled. “She’s been here for a week already, actually. More than. And so what? I like her. A lot.” I met his gaze until he raised a brow.
He was giving me that look. It was annoying, the one where he didn't outright disagree with something I was doing, but was definitely questioning me about it.
I scoffed. “Don't tell me you've suddenly taken up the priesthood and are now a prude.”
“No, it's not that. It's just . . . Well, what about June?”
“June?” Suddenly every muscle in my body was stiff. “No. I mean, she's a friend. I’ve known her forever.”
“Yeah.” Austin set his glass down and balanced his elbows on his knees, scrutinizing me. “And? You've had a crush on her for a bit.”
“I have not,” I snarled. “What the fuck are you even going on about?”
“Oh, I don't know. The way you look at her when you think our sister isn't paying attention. The way things have been weird since earlier this year but you haven’t mentioned why at all.”
How in the fuck did he pick up on that but completely missed our sister falling in love last year? “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Whatever. I know I’m right. There’s something up with the two of you.”
I glowered at him, but didn’t disagree with him. Because he was right, things had changed since that night.
June and I had been standing on the porch outside Evie’s house at our annual New Year’s Eve party. Everyone else had been inside but us. The air was still and cold, frost clinging to the ground and cacti that scattered the yard.
“What’d you get for Christmas?” I asked.
June snorted and took a sip of her soda. “Avery and Evie bought me some new gloves for work, and we all booked ourselves a massage.”
“Mmm.” Every time I was around her, I felt nervous. I stole a glance at her from the corner of my eye. “Wasn’t it your birthday recently?”
“My god, Dallas. Like two months ago, yeah.” June shook her head at me with a snort.
Fuck, I was an idiot. I’d known her my whole life, so there really wasn’t an excuse for not knowing the exact day. I’d fix that. “What’d you get for your birthday?”
She cut me a sharp look. “Evie and Avery got me something.”
“What about your brother or—”
“Don’t even bring up my mother right now. I’m trying to enjoy my night.”
Silence settled over us. I’d dug myself a grave and wasn’t really sure how to get out of it. “Sorry,” I murmured.
“No, don’t be. I’m on edge. Holidays are always tough.”
Cheers burst from inside the house and our heads lifted as our friends' voices blended together, starting the count down. I glanced at my watch. “It’s almost midnight.” My eyes slid over to hear, drinking in the warmth in her cheeks and the bright color of her hair.
Always a flower, even in the middle of winter.
She sucked in a breath, her sweet brown eyes meeting mine. “I wish I had someone to kiss right now.”
“Earth to Dallas? Hello?”
Austin snapped me out of it. I swallowed hard, trying not to linger on that night. It was hard not to, though. I thought about it daily. “Don’t tell me you’re going to treat me how you treated Avery when it comes to my love life.”
“You know I’ve learned my lesson. You’re an adult. You can take care of yourself, but I still worry about you.”
I couldn't look my brother in the eye now. I was annoyed. I didn't come over here to get grilled about June, of all fucking people. Why did it suddenly feel like she was plaguing me?
“I’m here to talk about Madi.” I cleared my throat. “Not June.”
Austin rolled his eyes. “All right. Fine. Well, I like Madi. Met her yesterday. She seems like a cool person.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Yeah . . . Did they kiss?”
“Who?”
I felt like a goddamn idiot. “June and Madi. Madi said something earlier . . . I just . . .” I trailed off. “I’m not asking this in a perverted way.”
“Sure. Definitely not a perverted way, because otherwise I’d be obligated to punch you.”
“You’re fucking killing me.”
He had that stupid older brother smirk I wanted to knock off his face.
Austin leaned back, rocking in the chair like some sort of weathered cowboy.
“I didn't see them kiss. I was working on installing some new lights in the lobby and Laura ran up, told me I needed to clean up spilled water before an old person busted their ass, and when I got there they were standing apart and blushing. I think Madi caught June before she fell. Maybe they did kiss.”
“Oh,” I whispered. “Right. That makes sense.”
Austin paused his rocking in the chair. “I feel like we're being visited by three ghosts, except the ghosts are polyamory, romance, and broken hearts.”
“I haven’t broken anyone's heart,” I chuffed.
“I was talking about you. You've never been in a single casual relationship that didn't turn you into a pining emo boy after it was over. Do you remember that woman a few years ago? What was her name? Helen?”
“What’s your point?”
“One night stand. You talked about her for two months.”
“Well, I’ve grown a lot since then.”
Austin scoffed. “Sure. I’m just politely pointing out that Madi is leaving in a few weeks.”
“Hey. Levi was supposed to leave and he—”
“He did leave,” Austin said firmly. “He came back. Thank god, because Mateo and Avery's misery was killing all of us and I truly fucked everything up. But he did leave.”
He was right about that. It'd only been a few weeks, but the fight between Austin and the three of them had shaken us all up. Austin had done a lot of groveling and put in the work to heal those cracks in the foundation of his relationships with them.
One thing that I'd always been able to appreciate about him was that while he was stubborn and jumped to conclusions and sometimes acted like an idiot, he would own up to his mistakes. He also learned from them.
Austin blew out a breath. “I don't know. I don't know Madi very well yet, but I did some Googling.”
“You Googled her?” I growled.
He held up his hands. “Listen. Avery didn't even do a deep dive on her before she picked her for the residency. She saw the fancy word animator and got excited. I just wanted to make sure whoever was coming to Whynot was a safe person.”
I couldn't be too mad about that, even though I didn't like it. “Nosy fucker.”
“Born and raised. Anyway, she's from LA. She's an animator. She grew up in—”
“I don't want you to tell me all of this,” I interrupted. “I want to hear it from her. What are you even getting at?”
“Fine. Her ex is a piece of shit. That's what I'm getting at. There's some stuff online, some posts he's made about her. About being left in LA. About his fiancée abandoning him.”
“What? They were never engaged. Unless Madi skipped that part.”
I thought back to our conversation, combing through everything she’d shared with me. She would have told me that. Together for eight years, but not engaged.
Basically the guy was a fucking loser.
“I don’t think they were ever engaged.”
He shrugged. “I don’t either. I just want you to know because maybe a casual relationship involving BDSM would be a bad idea for her too if her ex is that toxic.”
My shoulders deflated. “You have a real long-winded way of getting to the fucking point sometimes, Austin.”
“But am I wrong?”
He probably wasn't. But the thing was, Madi and I were adults. We could make decisions for ourselves, even if those decisions weren't the best ones.
“I know we don’t really talk about our sex lives, but I know you well enough to know you’d never intentionally hurt someone. But BDSM is built on trust. Doing those sorts of things with anyone creates a bond,” Austin added.
“You don’t think I know that?” I asked. “Why are you lecturing me?”
“Because it’s been a long time since I’ve seen you with that look in your eye.” Another slow sip of tea. God, I hated him.
“Yeah, it’s been a long time,” I admitted. That sugar suddenly tasted bitter on my tongue. “Before Dad.”
Austin's expression tightened, but he nodded. “Yeah. We haven't really had time to think about anything else.”
Truly, it had been one thing after the other.
“I know that all of us have been giving you a hard time,” I started.
“But you really need to slow down, Austin.
It's unhealthy. You're only thirty-five, but the amount of work that you're putting in every day is going to hurt your body. Taking time off this weekend has been hard in a way because I’m so used to working, but I needed it. I really needed to take a moment and slow down. You need that too.”
“I know,” he said. “I do. It's just that I can't let everyone down. I'll take a break at some point.”
“Will you? you've been saying that for a while.”
His brows pinched together. “I thought we were here to talk about Madi,” he countered. “The gorgeous LA animator who's also apparently into the same shit you are.”
“If we have a fist fight right now, you're not going to win.”
He gave a hearty laugh and started rocking in his chair. “Whatever, man. Where do you think you learned how to throw a punch? Drink your fucking tea.”
I smiled to myself and took a long sip. He did have the art of southern iced tea down to a science. We’d all learned how to make the best pitcher from our dad, but Austin’s was the closest to how his used to taste.
Austin’s voice was gentle, yet firm. “I think you're fucking up by not talking to June. That's the last thing about this I'll say.”
“Avery—”
“Would be thrilled. She's not like us.”
“She's not like you,” I chastised.
He laughed. “I wouldn’t underestimate her. I mean, she would murder you if you ever broke June's heart.”
“Maybe that's why I've never done anything,” I muttered.
“Right.” Austin let out a soft hum. “I guess it would be a good time to mention that June is home today.”
I leaned forward. “What? Why?”
“Laura cut herself at the shop yesterday and they had to go to the hospital.”
I stood up fast enough from the rocking chair, it shot back a foot. “What? Why the fuck wasn’t this in the group chat?”
“June has been busy being a mom to her niece.”
I planted my hands on my hips. “Well, why do you know about this and not me? Why didn’t Avery text me?”
He held up his hands. “I’m just the messenger. Mateo texted me about it this morning since Avery spent the night there last night. Thought I’d mention it in case you want to stop by.”
“Of course I fucking do.”
“Because you’re just friends with June.”
I stared at Austin for a moment and seriously contemplated punching him. If I punched him hard enough, it would maybe put him out for a couple days, which would be a perk. But also, I needed my hands in good working condition.
“We all care about Laura,” I said.
“We do. I’m sure June wouldn’t mind having some lunch dropped off.”
I immediately pulled out my phone, shaking my head as I sent her a text. I was pissed no one had told me about this. June was always doing too much. Especially the last few months.
Me
Just heard about Laura. I’ll come by with lunch. Any requests?
Junebug
Oh god, you don’t have to. She’s okay, we’ve been binge watching a show together
Me
What do you want to eat?
It was like pulling teeth to get her to let me help sometimes. I wasn’t going to back down, though. I’d be damned if I wasn’t going to help out.
Junebug
Laura is requesting some peach cobbler.
Me
I’ll pick up BBQ then. Be over soon
“So are you going to tell me what’s up with you and June?”
“No. It’s none of your business,” I said icily.
Austin chuckled and sipped his tea like he’d just won an argument. “Okay. If you say so.”