Page 31 of Burden of Proof

I’m so confused, and my fish died so just ignore me.

He was crazy if he thought I would really not respond to any of that, but before I could get a message from my brain to my fingers, Smith was at my left with an arm around my shoulder.

“Fancy seeing you here,” he said.

I scoffed and pulled open the door. “You’re in a better mood.”

“Than when?”

“I don’t know. The past few weeks,” I said. “Since Andrew.”

“Well, no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t wish him away.”

He laughed like he was teasing, but I wasn’t sure he was. We moved into a single file line to get from the front of the restaurant to our booth in the back. Marshall and Finn were already there, deep in conversation about something. They both looked up when we took our seats beside them, Marshall raising his hand to flag down a waiter.

“You look distracted,” Finn said on sight.

I bit the inside of my cheek and weighed my options, cell phone still clutched in hand.

“Winters wants to make me a partner,” I said, setting my phone on the table facedown.

The waiter arrived with drinks for me and Smith, and I took a sip of mine, avoiding the penetrating stare of my oldest brother.

“You sound like you hate that,” he said.

“It’s just…I’ve waited a long time for it. And now that it’s here…”

“You’ll say yes,” Finn said to my left, nudging me in the ribs.

“Of course I’ll say yes?—”

My brothers interrupted the rest of my statement, raising their glasses and cheering. With a groan, I clinked the edge of mine against theirs and took another drink, waiting for them to settle down so I could finish my thought. “Of course I’ll say yes, but it feels anticlimactic is all.”

Marshall cocked his head to the side. “Why?”

“Because if I get it?—”

“When,” Finn interrupted, and I looked at him, my mouth pulled into a tight line. My half-brother, mytwin, my biggest advocate in all things for as long as we’d been in each other’s lives. He’d never given up on me, never stopped fighting for me. Even on the days I felt like I didn’t deserve it, Finn had fought.

“When I get it,” I corrected myself, and his mouth twitched into a smile. “It’s just like...what’s next?”

“You don’t enjoy the victory,” Smith said.

I shook my head.

“Maybe you’re due for a vacation,” Marshall suggested, and I shot him a scathing look across the table.

“When have I ever taken a vacation?”

“Exactly.”

“Youtake a vacation,” I shot back.

He rolled his eyes at me like I was a teenager again. “Stop trying to act like Finn.”

“Fuck off, Marsh,” Finn said, giving his drink a shake to jostle the ice before having a swallow.

“A vacation sounds nice,” Smith said, the hint of longing clear in his voice.