The Better Brother

“Dude. The beer’s back at my place.”

“Then shit, why the fuck didn’t you say so?”

I watched him throw back the rest of his beer, finishing it in two massive gulps before he slammed his bottle down. I took it from him and tossed the bottles into the recycling bin before we clung to the shadows of the walls. Then, we dumped out into the parking lot and headed for my truck.

“You gonna get yourself a new ride?” Paxton asked.

“Why the fuck would I do that?” I asked.

“Because your truck’s a fucking rust bucket. You’re already turning into some damn mountain man. I see the muscle you’ve been stacking on in the gym. I see that beard. I see your hair growing longer. Soon, you’ll be wearing flannel and replacing the parts of that rusted old shit tank with things you find in a dumpster or some shit.”

“And what’s wrong with any of that?” I asked.

I watched him as he started up his motorcycle, and he grinned as I opened the door of my truck.

“Chicks dig bikes, Canter. It’s just a fact of life.”

I laughed at him as he rode off, turning toward my apartment to get his beer. I hopped into my truck and started it up, listening to how it was slow to crank.

Shit, I’d have to get a new battery for it soon enough. But keeping this truck running was a way for me hang on to something better. Something normal. Something good before all the bullshit that brought Paxton and me together in the first place.

This truck had been here before all that shit, and now, it was here after all that shit.

I heard Paxton’s motorcycle make its way around before coming back into the parking lot. He pulled up to my door, and I rolled down my window, watching that sly grin of his spread across his face.

“You comin’ old man?” he asked.

“Who the hell you callin’ old?” I asked.

“Hey, I’m still in my twenties. You breached thirty, two years ago.”

“That shit don’t make me old,” I said. “That just means I’m wise. Chicks might like bikes, but do you know what they also like?”

“What? Grey hair and a dick that can’t stay up?”

“Nope, the rasp of a nice thick beard between their thighs,” I said, grinning.

“Oh shit, Canter,” he said. “You’re gonna slay all the pussy while you’re out.”

“None of your damn business.”

We both laughed out load. I pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road, with Paxton in the lane beside me. He kept taunting me with his bike, trying to get me to race him after every traffic light turned green. But my mind wasn’t on fucking around, nor was it on slaying pussy or whatever the hell guys called it these days.

When I said I wanted silence, that was what I meant. No people to bug me, no woman nagging in my ear about bullshit, and no sticky fluids I had to clean up after. All I wanted was to pack up my shit, get the rest of my papers signed, and settle down in the cabin I’d bought for myself. It was tucked back into a forest of trees that cried out with innocent life, and all I wanted to do was make myself a part of it.

All I wanted to do was try to get back a part of myself that had been stripped from me.

And I wanted to do it in silence.

Chapter 2

Whitney

“You look tired.”

“Thanks, Gwen.”

“I’m just saying, if you come sit in my chair one day, I could give you a new haircut, a new hair color, a nice massage and deep condition. You’ll feel good as new,” said Gwen.