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“I love you, brother, and I want the best for you. And this is not it.”
“I know.” Gus struggled to get up onto the sofa. “Does the family know?”
Sebastian opened his phone to the tabloid photos and showed Gus the screen.
His face screwed up. “Not my best look.”
“If they don’t know by now, they will. PR’s probably going nuts with this today.”
Gus’s shoulders drooped and his head was down, and Sebastian could see how regretful he was over it all.
“What was it Milton said?” Sebastian asked.
Gus pressed his lips together, and his nostrils flared before he gritted out the nasty, crass things Milton had said about Sky.
Sebastian could picture Milton saying it, and if he’d been there with Gus, he might have decked him for it.
“We don’t tell Skylar about this,” Sebastian said. “She’s had enough trouble from that guy to last a lifetime.”
“Agreed.”
A text came across Sebastian’s phone then, and a smile spread across his face at Genevieve’s name and the simple message asking if he was okay.
“It’s from her, isn’t it?” Gus asked.
Sebastian looked over to find his brother wearing an amused grin. “Maybe.”
“You dog.” Gus’s face suddenly fell. “Oh man, this is going to mess up everything for you, isn’t it? She’s gonna find out who I really am when she sees those pictures.”
“Probably. Don’t worry about it.”
“Gah. The first girl you like in years and I mess it up. I really am good for nothing.”
“Hey.” Sebastian gave Gus a pointed look. “Don’t you believe that for a second. You have so much to give in life, in our family, and in the company. You are important to us. To me. More important than this ridiculous predicament I’ve gotten myself into.”
Gus’s mouth tilted to one side in contemplation, as if he didn’t quite believe it.
“You hear me?” Sebastian stared at him, trying to will Gus to see how serious he was.
Gus nodded. “I hear you.”
He held up his phone. “She just asked if I was okay, because I was with her yesterday when I got the call, but I didn’t tell her what it was about.”
“I’m sorry, Bash.”
Sebastian wasn’t sure, but it looked like tears in his brother’s eyes. It could have been from sleepiness and the hangover, though.
“I know you are.” He watched Gus rub at his eyes. “What were you doing at the bar, Gus?”
“Does there have to be a reason?”
“With you, I think there’s always a reason.”
“I’m a born loser, incapable of change. Just like him.”
Sebastian’s brow furrowed. “Like who?”
“It was something Genevieve said.”