Page 191 of Broken Brothers

“No buts, boys. Give Mom twenty and she’ll be back.”

Without another word, Mom left, saying she would text us when she was on the way back. She also said something about texting her what toppings we wanted, but I was so surprised by this new side of Mom that I didn’t know what to think. I was used to this quiet, meek woman who mostly just stayed in the background as almost an ornament to Edwin. And now here she was, taking charge, being aggressive, and taking control of the place.

It made me proud, honestly. It made me quite happy to see Mom being like this, not having to rely on Edwin for anything. It would probably be odd to see her fall in love with someone else—if such a thing happened—but it was going to be a happily weird thing, not a disturbing odd thing.

“Mom’s enjoying her freedom, huh?” I said with a chuckle.

“Chance, you have no idea,” Morgan said. “I’m kind of afraid to take her out to dinner. She hits on all the waiters and compliments them.”

“Oh, my,” I said. “Think we have to worry about her coming back with an Italian from the pizza shop?”

“More than I care to admit,” Morgan said with a laugh.

Man, things really are great. Almost makes me wonder if we should have done more earlier to get rid of Edwin sooner. Better late than never.

“But enough about what craziness Mom is getting into,” Morgan said as he poured both of us rum on the rock drinks. “What’s the deal with Layla? Last I talked to you about her, you said you were leaving but willing to give it a shot.”

I think the fact that I smiled and felt warm inside when Morgan asked that was more than enough of an answer for any questions I may have had for myself.

“Feeling it out right now, but we’re going to give it a shot,” I said.

“And what the hell does that mean?”

I shrugged.

“See if we can be a couple.”

Morgan blinked rapidly at me, a little thrown by my statement. Though Layla had ultimately helped with overthrowing Edwin, Morgan mostly knew her as the woman who had lied to me about her uncle’s business and humiliated me in a public fashion. I was obviously willing to forgive her, but Morgan needed a little bit more proof.

“You really feel that strong about her, huh?”

“Strong enough to try,” I said. “But I put a couple of rules on it.”

“Oh?” Morgan said. “Do tell.”

I smirked. He was going to mock me for my rules, and I couldn’t wait to hear it.

“It’s two things, really. No drinking, no sex.”

Morgan made a show of spitting out his rum and laughing at me. It was about how I expected him to react.

“Are you dating, or going into a monastery together?” he said, his words interrupted by laughter. “What the hell is the point of you two even going out?”

“Pretty simple to me, really,” I said, though I was definitely overplaying the part of calm, rational man. It’s not like following these rules was making me any happier. If I had it my way, we’d have already had sex about five times this week.

But the overthrow of Edwin hadn’t been the only positive development in my life. I had learned the value of taking things slow, of not making impulsively irrational decisions, and of letting things organically develop. I wished that it hadn’t taken me sending nudes to a fake Sarah Hill account that Edwin had set up as blackmail—which, seriously, did he want to see pictures of my junk?—but it was better that than something that would actually leak at some point.

“If I fuck her, I won’t be able to think straight. I mean, at some point, I’m not going to be able to think straight, but I want to do so when I know it’s safe to think that way.”

“Huh,” Morgan said, looking genuinely surprised by my thought process. “So how long do you think you’ll last on these rules? Two weeks?”

“I’d be happy with two days,” I joked. “But seriously, we don’t have a time on it. We’re just going to let things happen, and when it feels right, it’ll feel right. But I’ll make sure it feels right for a period of time, not just something that feels right in the moment.”

Morgan leaned back into the couch, taking a sip of his drink, looking like he was trying to think through his words very carefully.

“Buddy, I used to think of you as something of a sex fiend who couldn’t keep his dick in his pants,” he said. “And I don’t have much doubt that you could still be that man if you wantedto be. Us Hunts have a way of being able to get around if we want to.”

“Well that’s a thought,” I said with a chuckle.