Alex turned his head and saw one of the bedroom doors closed. Not the one Shelby had been in, their parents’ old room. That would’ve made sense in case she was dressing. “Wait. They’re not out there.”
“No?”
“Third bedroom door is shut,” he said, knowing Justin would realize that never happened up here.
His little brother smiled and sprinted to the door. So like him, Justin didn’t knock but swung it open. “Nice to see you two enjoying yourselves.”
Brandon was pulling on his jeans. “Yes we did,” he answered with a grin.
Shelby was still in the bed with crumpled sheets, which she had pulled up to her bare shoulders.
“How are you doing, sweetheart?” Alex asked her, seeing the flush of pink on her pretty cheeks. Yes, I can go Wilde. For her, I can go anywhere, do anything.
“I’m okay,” she answered meekly.
“You look a lot more than okay to me, Shelby,” Justin said, handing her the roses. “You look sexy as hell, baby. These are for you.”
“They’re beautiful, Justin. My favorite color, too.”
Red. I need to remember that. “You can’t eat roses, Shelby.” Alex handed her his gift. “But you can eat these. I hope you like chocolate.”
“Addicted as can be to anything chocolate. Thank you, Alex.”
“I see you two are up to your old ways,” Brandon smirked. “Three can play at that.” He left the room.
“What does he mean by ‘old ways’?” Shelby ate one of the chocolates.
“We’re brothers, baby,” Justin said. “Competition is in our blood.”
“I don’t want to come between you guys.”
“Honey, you won’t.” Alex touched her cheek. “We want to share you. Our competition will actually benefit you. It’s a family thing with us. Pop started it by telling each of us that we were his favorite. We all knew about it, but kept up the ruse for fun. But I know,” he said with a grin, “I’m your favorite, right?”
She shook her head and smiled.
Brandon returned with a bottle of c
hampagne and a glass. “See. I have a few tricks up my sleeves.” He popped the cork and poured the sparkling wine for her.
“You old dog,” Justin said. “When did you get that?”
“On the way up here. I stopped at the liquor store down in Wilde. I bet you like bubbles, sweetheart, don’t you?” He handed her the glass of champagne.
She nodded and took a sip. “You said you were buying beer.”
“I was. But I also bought this for you.”
She turned to Alex. “I guess I’m already benefitting from the brotherly competition.”
“Did you bring us any good news?” Brandon asked Justin and him.
“Nothing so far,” Justin answered. “But we won’t give up. We’ll find the real creep.”
Alex saw Shelby’s face tighten with worry. He sat down on the bed next to her. “Justin is right, sweetheart. It’s only a matter of time.”
“Time? I don’t have much time. My court date is set for a month from now.”
Brandon sat down next to her on the opposite side of the bed. “I’ll get that moved to later this year. It’s quite normal in murder cases.”