Ryan (Mallick Brothers 2)

He was tall and somewhat thin with his blond hair cut somewhat fashionably with a sharp undercut and brushed back on the top. He had green eyes like mine, but a little darker. Always the casual sort, he was in jeans and a white tee.

"Jesus Christ!" he exploded as soon as his eyes landed on me. There wasn't even a hesitation before he reached out and dragged me against his body, wrapping me up tight. It was the kind of affection he didn't often offer me and was therefore evidence of how worried he had been. "Your apartment was destroyed," he said into my hair.

"I was robbed a couple days ago," I admitted, feeling guilt well up strong. While he had been all I had in the world for a long time, it also went to follow that I was all he really had either. At least when it came to close relationships.

"You're out," he said, as if realizing the significance of that for the first time, pulling backward, looking me over. His face went hard and I realized I still had scratches and bruising and a bit of swelling. "Your face."

"I was obviously home when they broke in," I supplied, hating myself for not giving the whole truth but understanding there would be a time and place for that and that this was not it. "They weren't shy in the hitting women department. Luckily for me, Ryan stepped in," I said, pulling back and gesturing toward him, making my uncle's eyes go there for the first time. "Ryan, this is my uncle, Danny. Uncle Danny, Ryan."

They shook hands and did that manly assessing each other thing for a minute. "I owe you one," my uncle said, giving him a nod.

"Think I owe you more," Ryan said, making both mine and my uncle's brows draw together in confusion. But then Ryan's arm moved out and went around my lower back, pulling me to his side.

"I see," Uncle Danny said, giving him a nod. "Well, come on in. I need to hear where the hell you were when I stopped by."

He invited us in and I almost laughed when I realized the similarities between Ryan and Danny's places. They both said 'bachelor' with their dark tones and resistance to all things knick-knack.

"Any chance you'd be the Ryan who lives across the hall from Dusty?" he asked, moving across the floor and going into the fridge, grabbing three beers and passing them out.

"That'd be me."

"I'd apologize for all the 'Sorry We Missed You' slips, but you never clear out your fucking mailbox."

"Fair enough," Ryan agreed, chuckling slightly when he took the beer from my hands that I couldn't twist the cap off of and did it himself.

"This new?" Uncle Danny asked, waving between us as he sat back in his chair.

One thing I had always appreciated about my uncle as I aged up and started dating was... he never went all 'dad' on me or my boyfriends. In fact, when I was about sixteen, he had tossed a box of condoms on my bed and informed me, "I know you're gonna date. Do yourself and your old uncle a favor and make sure it's always safe."

That was it.

He never tried to scare away boys who came to pick me up or even question them. He just went with it, understanding it was just a part of life. I wasn't a little girl anymore and I would do what I wanted regardless of his opinions. So he kept them to himself.

"Yeah," I admitted, nodding.

"Since Christmas," Ryan added with a nod.

Danny nodded, taking a pull from his bottle. "Alright, how long have you been leaving your apartment without me knowing and why haven't you told me?"

I felt myself smile at the abrupt change in conversation. The 'getting to know the boyfriend' phase was over.

"I guess since the day before New Years Eve," I supplied, figuring it was as close to the truth as possible. "But then it was just... across the hall because my apartment was, well, trashed."

Danny nodded, accepting that. "What about today?"

Ryan looked to me, one brow raised the slightest bit like he was wondering what I was going to come up with that wouldn't worry him. "I was meeting Ryan's sisters-in law and then he and Bry and I went out for a... drive. Then I remembered I never called you and we stopped here. I'm so sorry I made you worry."

"Ace, whatever worry I went through was fucking worth it to see you standing at my door."

I felt my heart squeeze hard in my chest at that and, not able to stop myself, I flew at him, landing in his lap like the little girl I used to be always did. And his arms went around me like they always had- a bit tentative at first but then tight and reassuring.