Hard to Handle (Love in the Balance 2)

“The prosciutto bruschetta looks delicious,” Sadie said.

“It is,” Aiden said. “I’ve had about fourteen of them.”

She laughed, but Aiden didn’t join her. His smile dropped, shoulders tightened. She followed his eyeline to the man approaching. He was dressed in black pants and a white shirt, and his sleeves were pushed over forearms decorated with tattoos. This had to be Aiden’s other brother. His facial features were a mix of Aiden and Landon, but his hair was several shades darker. The bump on his nose was his own and hinted that this Downey brother had lived a rougher life than the other two. A shock of dark hair dropped over his forehead when he nodded at Aiden, his mouth set in a hard line.

“Sadie,” Aiden said, his tone careful. “My brother Evan.”

Evan gave her a curt nod but kept his hands in his pockets. She retracted the hand she held out for him and clutched her purse under her arm instead.

“Lyon is a great kid,” she said. To her surprise, Evan’s face broke into a small smile.

He shrugged one shoulder. “He’s his mother.”

She cast a sideways glance at Aiden. A muscle in his jaw ticked and Sadie inched closer to him, brushing his arm with hers. Aiden wrapped an arm around her waist and took a breath, calming some now that she’d reminded him she was here.

Tension strung between these two in a practically visible cord. Sadie remembered what Aiden told her in her kitchen, about how his brothers held Aiden responsible for having taken their mother to Oregon. Half of her wanted to lecture Evan and defend Aiden. The other half of her knew exactly how Evan felt. She’d been betrayed back then, too. No matter how righteous Aiden’s reasoning, Sadie had been hurt. And recovering would take time, because hurt…well…it hurt. There wasn’t much anyone could do besides wait it out.

Evan took his hand from his pocket and ran a hand through his hair. A tattoo of a bird decorated the inside of his forearm. She grasped his wrist, startling him, but he let her look. Not just a bird, then, she thought as she turned his arm to get a better look. A sparrow. Holding a string of hearts in its beak. One heart had snapped from the rest and was broken in two.

“Lyon’s mom?” she guessed.

Evan’s mouth turned down as he studied the artwork on his arm like he hadn’t looked at it in a while. “Yeah.”

She kept her hand on him, letting her palm warm his skin. When he met her eye, she said, “I’m sorry.”

His eyebrows met over his nose in a brief flinch. “Thank you,” he said with a nod.

Sadie released his arm. She knew Lyon’s mother had passed away, but Sadie wasn’t sure if she and Evan were a couple when she died. It was clear from the anguish darkening Evan’s blue eyes that they were. And it made Sadie’s chest ache to see how much the loss still hurt him.

As badly as she and Aiden’s breakup had been, at least he was here next to her. She could touch him, look into his eyes, talk to him.

A bit of ink peeked out of Evan’s sleeve and a design tracked up his other arm. “I like your tats,” Sadie said, hoping to steer the conversation onto smoother terrain. “Aiden’s is really good. Did you do it?”

Evan’s mouth turned down and he cast an angry look at his brother. “You have a tattoo?”

Oops.

“When?” Evan demanded.

“After Mom…” Aiden didn’t finish, his posture going rigid.

Sadie tipped her head in Landon’s direction, hoping the mention of their oldest brother would end this conversation. “What about him? Does he have any?”

“If he did, I’d have done them,” Evan grumbled.

“Ev.” Aiden’s tone was a warning.

Sadie looked over at Landon again. A glaringly beautiful woman approached, her long honey-colored curls dripping down her lithe, lean frame. She turned and Sadie nearly swallowed her tongue. Lissa Francine? Lissa, a lingerie model and runway queen, was here in the enviable flesh. Sadie would trade her entire shoe collection to have a body like hers. Lissa leaned in and said something to Landon. Sadie didn’t think it was possible for him to look less comfortable until his face twisted into a grimace. He followed her woodenly across the room in measured, reluctant steps.

Sadie was about to point out the celebrity in their midst when Evan muttered, “Nice to meet you,” and brushed by them, wandering toward the food.

“He’s cheery,” Sadie said.

”You should have seen him after Rae died,” Aiden told her. “I actually think this is him being cheery.”