Happy Ending (Fisher Brothers 4)

“Matson didn’t wake up?” I asked.

“Not a peep,” Grant said, then placed his hand on the small of Mariana’s back and ushered her outside.

“Thanks again.” I closed the door and turned to find Sofia watching me. “You good?”

She nodded and waited for me to reach her, then took my hand and walked me down the hall toward our bedroom. Just the feel of her hand in mine filled my heart with so much love, I thought it might burst. I never knew that love could feel like this—so complete, secure, and safe.

I was the luckiest damn man on the planet, and I knew it.

Land Mines

Ryan

The bar was fairly empty the next day as I filled my brothers in on the scare with Sofia. I’d told them both over an hour ago, and their concerned expressions still hadn’t faded.

“You’re scaring the customers,” I said, referring to Frank’s scowl, then added, “More than usual.”

He glared at me, and even Nick refused to crack a smile at my joke.

“Like you wouldn’t be the same way,” Frank said with a grimace, “if the situation were reversed.”

My stomach twisted. If anything happened to Claudia or Jess, I’d definitely be as freaked out as my brothers. But before I could tell Frank as much, he pointed a finger at me.

“You have no idea what it felt like when we learned that Derek almost shot you.”

I hadn’t expected those words. Taken aback, I cocked my head to the side and met his hard gaze.

“It’s almost like we have some kind of PTSD or something,” Nick said.

“He’s right.” Frank nodded in agreement. “Just hearing you talk about Sofia and the hospital . . . it all came rushing back. The feelings of that night.”

Derek was the last thing I expected either of them to be thinking about. I had no idea that what happened with him still haunted my brothers, but of course that made sense. At first, we talked about it until we were all blue in the face, but not so much anymore. It hadn’t been brought up in a while.

“You could have died, Ryan,” Nick said. “I think about that all the time.”

“You do?” I asked almost incredulously.

“Hell yes I do,” he said, sounding both hurt and annoyed. “So many things could have gone wrong. What if the cops hadn’t gotten there in time. If Frank hadn’t had the foresight to call them. If Derek hadn’t just taken one shot. We would have never recovered from losing you. And I had no idea any of it was even going on.”

I tried to keep up with Nick’s rambling thought process and logic, but I was confused by his last statement. “What do you mean, you had no idea?”

Nick swallowed hard, getting a little emotional. “There wasn’t a single part of me that tingled with awareness that something was off. I’d been home with Jess, probably happy as hell doing whatever we were doing. But the point is that I didn’t know. I didn’t sense anything. And you could have been shot and killed!”

“How could you have known?” Frank’s tone was all business, but his expression had gentled in sensitivity to Nick’s feelings.

Our baby brother flung his hands wide. “Don’t you think we should know when something’s wrong with one of us? Like some kind of sixth sense, a tingling in your gut?”

I shrugged. I’d never really thought about it. “I don’t know, Nick. It’s not like we’re not triplets.”

“But we’re brothers,” Nick insisted. “And we’re close. I just assumed that if a life-or-death situation was going on with one of us, we’d all know it somehow. I’m mad that I didn’t know. I feel like I failed you.”

Frank frowned. “How long have you been keeping this in?”

“It’s not like that,” Nick said as rolled his eyes. “I have a lot of thoughts about what happened.” He shrugged. “They just sort of live in my head now.”

I reached for his shoulder and gave it a squeeze, trying to reassure him. “You couldn’t possibly have known, and you didn’t fail me. What if the situation were reversed and it happened to you instead of me?”

Nick’s eyebrows drew together as he considered my question. “Okay, what if it had?”