Page 14 of A Matter of Fact

“No,” Jace said again.“You’ve never apologized. Not to me, and definitely not to Callahan.”

Rhys frowned.

That couldn’t be right. He must have. At some point.

“Come on, Rhys.” Jace sounded like he was so angry he could spit. He’d clearly restrained himself in Mallardsville when Callahan was there. Now on his own, he was putting himself on full display.“I can’t imagine you’ve offered enough apologies in your life that you could lose count of them.”

Jace turned to Sebastian and Remington, his expression helpless.“I’ll talk to you later this week. Are we still on for Friday?”

“Yes. Of course,” Remington answered.

And like that, Jace was gone.

Rhys called his brother, who answered as quickly as Rhys normally did.

“Did that bottle of champagne catch up to you already?” Sebastian teased.

“I’m eating.”

“Are you all right?”

“Hardly,” he admitted. “Have I really never apologized to Callahan?”

“I don’t know.” Sebastian chuckled. “You’d have to ask him.”

Rhys put his phone on speaker and dropped it on the countertop beside his plate. He picked at the crust of his sandwich and listened to his brother breathe.

“Are you okay?” Sebastian finally asked again.

“I honestly don’t know.”

“Do you want some company?”

“I honestly don’t know,” he repeated.

“Alright.” He could picture his brother nodding sagely. “I’ll be there in twenty.”

“You don’t have to do that,” he said, but his heart wasn’t in it. He didn’t deserve Sebastian’s company, but he didn’t want to be alone.

“I know,” Sebastian said. “I’ll see you soon.”

Rhys continued to pick at the edges of his sandwich until his brother showed up with a two liter of ginger ale and a box of saltine crackers.

“I don’t need your dollar store hangover cures,” he muttered when Sebastian closed the door behind him.

“Who said it’s for you?” Sebastian toed off his shoes beside the kitchen island and brushed past him into the living room. “Let’s watch a movie.”

“You are not eating crackers on my couch,” Rhys groaned, picking up his plate and following Sebastian into the living room.

“Fine.” Sebastian slid off the couch and onto the floor, stretching his legs out in front of him beneath the coffee table. He tore open a sleeve of crackers and shoved two into his mouth, chomping at them rather messily.

“Do you have a glass?”

Rhys set down his plate with a sigh and went back into the kitchen. He filled one of his glasses up with ice and returned, pouring ginger ale almost to the top and handing it back to Sebastian. The gesture was almost familiar, and he paused when their fingers brushed.

“You used to do this,” Sebastian said, swallowing down the dry crackers with some of the soda.

“Hmn?” Rhys sat down beside his brother on the floor, leaning against the couch and taking a bite of his sandwich.