Reservations

Logan left him sitting there, freeing Levi. Maybe as much as a minute later, he was undressed, climbing into bed as Logan reappeared in the doorway. The bed felt so good. He grabbed a stack of pillows, pushing them behind his head, and prayed he didn’t fall asleep before Logan got the nerve to say whatever he’d planned to say. Again, as much as a minute passed with Logan still just standing there.

Levi flat out said, “Just tell me. I’m tired.”

“You said to tell you things, so I have a girlfriend I haven’t talked about.” Logan’s shoulder hit the doorframe under the weight of his confession, making Levi’s grin grow.

“You do?” Levi asked, surprised. For some reason, that eased his heart where this brother was concerned. If Logan had someone by his side, someone looking out for him, it had to make this whole thing easier on him. “Do I know her?”

“I don’t think so. I’ve been sticking close to home. She comes over and hangs out with me and Luke,” Logan said, studying the carpet on the floor. “It’s all straight-up fine. We stay in the living room. She’s not like that.”

He supposed that “not like that” meant sex. He should make sure Logan had condoms and the always cringe-worthy talk about using them, but that felt weird. He’d think about that talk tomorrow. “Good. That’s good, Logan. You need to take her out. I’ll give you the money or maybe we can all go somewhere this Friday night. Get Luke out of the house too,” Levi suggested.

“That sounds good.” Logan’s gaze lifted to his, turning serious. “Dad knew her.”

“Did he like her?” Levi asked.

“Yeah. We weren’t dating back then. She’s going to Virginia too, but she’ll start next fall,” Logan added. His nervousness seemed to fade, and he was back to staring Levi in the eyes.

“Thanks for telling me,” he said, hoping his brothers were both done keeping secrets. “I feel like knowing things is better than not knowing.”

Logan nodded his agreement, taking his phone out of his pocket as he pushed away from the doorframe.

“Does this mean you’ll finally start picking up your nasty socks?”

“Probably not,” Logan said, dropping his jeans right where he stood, kicking them up with his foot. “She’s already seen them lying around and didn’t say anything. I took that to mean she’s okay with it.” He left the doorway.

Levi could hear him chuckling all the way down the small hall. Levi shook his head as the hall light turned off, and he pulled some of the pillows from under his head before reaching for the lamp. That bit of news had cheered him up. All of it had, and maybe, when he closed his eyes, he’d be too tired to think about Thane. He wasn’t, but luckily, he did fall asleep quickly.

~~~

Thane reread Levi’s message and then went back to his own profile, staring at all his information on the page. His full name was clearly stated at the top. Nathaniel “Thane” Walker. How did Levi not know who he was? Was the guy messing with him? Levi’s message hadn’t sounded like a sarcastic joke. Levi seemed genuinely unsure of Thane’s identity, and Thane had no idea what was going on. Yes, Nathaniel was his full first name, but his nickname and last names were clearly displayed at the top of his profile. How had Levi not put two and two together?

Knowing he was borderline inappropriate, Thane still decided to call Tristan Wilder. Downing an entire bottle of wine in the last couple of hours played a part in his bold move, but resources were resources, and surely the owner of the site would know the answer to his question.

“Hello,” Tristan answered on the fourth ring.

“Hey, are you busy?” he asked, bouncing his leg as he stared at the laptop on the coffee table that still displayed Levi’s messages.

“I’m trying to be. What’s up?” Tristan asked, somewhat harried. And yes, technically he got Tristan’s meaning, but the guy had still asked “what’s up,” so Thane went that direction instead of hanging up the phone like a good friend might have.

“I’m having a problem with your social media site—”

“Are you seriously calling me to answer a question about Secret?” Tristan asked, and Thane got the impression he better ask fast because Tristan would be hanging up soon.

“And the guy on the other end called me Nathaniel…” Thane continued.

“Who’s Nathaniel?”

Thane ignored Tristan’s question and persevered. “Is he seeing my whole name or just part of it?” Thane finally got to the reason for the call.

Tristan didn’t respond to him. Instead, he started talking to someone else. It was muffled, and Thane stuck a finger in his ear to better hear. He heard a rustling then Dylan’s voice almost took out his eardrum when he spoke directly into the phone.