Breaking The Bro Code (Hawthorne Brothers 3)

Now, think. What do I do? What should I do?

Claire walks up to me and touches my arm. “Hey. It’s fine.”

I put a finger to my lips.

She whispers in my ear. “I’ll go hide in your room. In your closet. You make him leave.”

I look at her with furrowed eyebrows. “Make him leave?”

Does she understand what she’s asking me to do? I can’t let him know I’m here and open the door just to ask him to leave. He’s in trouble. He needs me.

“Or leave with him,” Claire says. “Yeah. That’s better. Get him away from here and then send me a message when you’re in the car so I can leave.”

Just then, her phone beeps. We both look at it.

Claire sighs. “I can’t stay here. Natalie needs me.”

And Joel needs me.

“Ryker?”

I frown. Has it been a minute already?

“One second!” I shout.

Then I turn to Claire.

“Go.”

I don’t know if her plan is the best, but right now, I can’t think of another one.

She grabs her clothes and her purse and her phone. I grab her shoes and hand them to her.

“Go.”

She runs off into my bedroom. The door closes.

Phase One complete. On to Phase Two.

“Ryker?” Joel shouts again.

“I’ll be right there!”

After I put a sweater on to hide my crinkled shirt, which I tuck into my pants, which I check to make sure aren’t stained, I look around.

No panties. No…

I see the torn condom packet on the floor. I pick it up and quickly throw it in the trash can—only to remember what else I threw in there.

I can’t risk Joel seeing that. I grab the whole can and hide it in the broom closet.

“Ryker?”

I look around just one more time to make sure I haven’t missed anything, which is when I notice the empty glass at the end of the kitchen counter with a lipstick stain on the rim.

My eyebrows furrow. That was there the whole time? Well, Claire did say she was waiting for a while. I’m surprised it didn’t fall off earlier.

I ditch it in the kitchen sink before rushing to the door. I open it.

“Joel.” I force a smile. “I’m sorry. I… just came home from work and I had stuff to do.”

He nods. “It’s okay.”

Without me inviting him, he steps in just as he usually does. My shoulders go stiff.

“I haven’t been here in a while,” he says as he looks around. “It hasn’t changed much.”

I draw a deep breath and try to relax.

Just act normal, Ryker. And hope he doesn’t go into the bedroom.

“Why would I change it?”

He shrugs. “Yeah. I guess if it works for you, there’s no point in changing it. It’s your apartment, after all.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “So what’s up? Is everything okay?”

“No.” He sits on the couch.

Thank goodness Claire and I didn’t have sex on that.

He lets out a sigh as he stares at the ceiling. “Natalie and I had a fight.”

“A fight?” I stand over him. “I can’t imagine you and Natalie being in a fight.”

“Well, we are.” He folds his arms behind his head. “We haven’t really fought before. We disagree sometimes, you know, but then we talk things through and someone gives in and we forget about it. But now we are. Fighting. A real fight. Natalie just started shouting—I didn’t know she could shout like that—and then she started crying, like big tears streaking down her cheeks. And I tried to explain myself and make her feel better, but no matter what I said, it didn’t seem to reach her. And so I left. And now I feel terrible and I don’t know what to do and—”

Suddenly, a phone rings. And I know it isn’t mine.

“That must be yours,” Joel tells me. “Because I turned my phone off.”

I realize the ringing is coming from the bedroom. Fuck.

“Yeah,” I lie.

What’s another small lie now?

“You have another phone?”

What?

I turn around to see where he’s looking and notice that I’ve left my phone on the dining table. It’s right next to my wallet.

Fuck.

“Yeah, I do,” I say as I touch the nape of my neck.

Why couldn’t I have told Claire to turn her phone off?

“No, you don’t,” Joel says.

I freeze.

He grins. “That ringtone. It sounded like Taylor Swift. I know because Claire plays her songs all the time.”

I really am fucked.

Joel glances at the bedroom door. “You have a woman in there, don’t you? That’s why it took you so long to let me in.”

“I don’t,” I tell him. “I…”

He gives me this look that lets me know he knows I’m lying.

I straighten my shoulders. “There was one, but she just left.”

Still a lie, but hopefully a more convincing one.

Joel narrows his eyes at me. “Really?”

I nod. “The reason I took so long to get the door was because I was putting my clothes back on.”

“She left you in a hurry?”