Off Limits (Secrets Kept 1)

My spine stiffened when I saw Isaac stumble and almost fall. If it wasn’t for one of the guys he was dancing with, he would have.

“Shit,” I cursed. Something was definitely wrong.

Ryder must have seen it too because he pulled away, and we went to him.

“I need another drink!” Isaac shouted.

“I think you’re cut off, buddy.” I wrapped an arm around him. Ryder did the same from the other side.

“Threesome? I’d normally be interested, but I can’t…not even because Hutch is in love with you either.” He winked at me. “Shh. I won’t tell.”

“You just did, dumbass.” I hadn’t meant to say it, and I didn’t connect what my words meant until Ryder was the one stumbling this time.

“Hutch?”

I shrugged because what was I supposed to say? Did he really think I would risk losing my family for just anyone?

“I feel like I’m interrupting a moment,” Isaac said, then groaned. “I don’t feel so well.”

“Fuck.”

“Let’s get him outside,” Ryder said.

We did, and hardly made it around the side of the building before Isaac vomited all over the sidewalk. Worry for my friend ate away at my insides. I’d never seen him like this before.

“You’re coming home with us,” I said, once he’d emptied his stomach. Isaac and his brother shared a condo, and I knew Lane was laced up a little tighter than Isaac.

“Thanks, Hutch.”

“Car is two minutes out,” Ryder added.

The driver showed up a couple of minutes later. We were quiet on the way home and as we walked to the elevator. I had my arm around Isaac, but Ryder lingered behind us some. “What’s up?”

“I didn’t know if I should come.”

“Coming is always the way to go.” Isaac started laughing at himself. “Let’s go. At least one of us should be getting some tonight…or wait…I guess that’s two of us since you’re not getting some on your own. Looks like I’m the only one who’s not getting any.”

I patted his chest. “I’m not sure you could get it up.”

“I can always get it up.” Isaac waggled his eyebrows, then almost fell again. Ryder reached out and helped catch him.

“Come with us,” I told Ryder, and he nodded.

When we got to my unit, Ryder reached into my pocket and pulled the keys out. Once inside, I said, “I’m gonna get him ready for bed.”

“I’ll get water and aspirin.”

Isaac stumbled along with me to my spare room. I dropped him to the bed, where he fell on his back. Bending down, I took off his shoes, then tugged his jeans off. “Get your ass up, drunky.” He tried, but I held on to him as he sat up and pulled his shirt off.

“My mouth tastes like shit. I need to brush my teeth.”

“That’s because you puked up the whole bar tonight. That’s not like you.”

He looked away.

With a sigh, I helped him to the bathroom, gave him a new toothbrush, then stood close while he brushed his teeth. “I need to take a piss,” Isaac said afterward. “I can handle it on my own.”

“Good, because I don’t know where that dick has been.” He flinched. “Hey, that was a joke. Hell, it’s not like I’m a choir boy.”

He tried to cover his emotions with a joke. “Choir boys are way more fun than you. Now get out.”

I shook my head, then did as he said.

When we made it back to the room, there was a glass of water and two pills on the nightstand. Isaac fell onto the bed, and I managed to get the blankets out from under him and cover him up.

“Your boyfriend’s nice,” he said softly.

“He’s Maddy’s ex-husband,” I admitted. Isaac and Maddy didn’t know each other, but he did know how much she meant to me.

I waited for the reaction, for Isaac to tell me I was a dick, how wrong I was, for him to ask me how I could do that to my sister, but he didn’t. I sat beside him on the bed, and he reached over, put his hand on my thigh.

“The keyword being ex.”

“That means it’s okay?”

“Is it ideal? No. But it’s not the end of the world.”

“I’ll break my sister’s heart. Even if she doesn’t love him like that anymore, it’ll kill her to see me with the man she’d planned to spend her life with. My dad will never forgive me.”

“No offense, but your dad is a dick and your sister is spoiled.” A laugh jumped out of my mouth. “Sorry. I wouldn’t have said that if I wasn’t drunk, but it’s true. Maddy will get over it. She loves you and wants you happy. Your dad…well, I don’t know, especially with the business stuff, but…you deserve to be happy. Love doesn’t happen every day, and not everyone’s lucky enough to have those feelings returned.”

There was a brokenness to Isaac’s voice I’d never heard before, a deep-seated sadness that hurt to hear. “Hey…what’s going on with you?”