Page 30 of Mending Fate

Despite the three-and-a-half-hour drive, I didn’t have much time to think about any of this since Eoin was sleeping in the back, and Brody was driving. When Brody drove, he liked to either talk…or sing. My brother had a lot of talents, but music wasn’t one of them. Not only was he completely tone deaf, but he had no rhythm, not when it came to music anyway. And he never knew the lyrics.

None of that, however, stopped him from torturing people whenever the need struck him. Such as when he was in the car, and his passengers didn’t want to talk.

“…could we dial forty cents, we were merely freshmen…” He grinned at me.

“I’m fairly certain that is not the lyric.” I sighed. “But you’re going to continue singing them wrong until I agree to talk about what happened last night between Lumen and myself, aren’t you?”

“Well, I do have an entire song list just waiting to be massacred.”

I hated that grin. It meant he was up to something. In this case, at least, I knew what he was up to. He wanted me to talk, and he knew how to make that happen.

“You’re a right bastard, you know that.” I shifted positions in the seat. “What do you want to know?”

“She looked pretty pissed at you earlier, but you’d been there all night.”

“That’s not a question.”

“Don’t be a smartass.”

“I went there last night, pissed enough to think it was a grand idea. I kissed her and then threw up on her rug.”

“And she slept with you?” He shook his head. “Damn. How do you not have more women falling all over you?”

“It wasn’t like that.” I explained what happened without going into graphic detail. What Lumen and I had done together was personal, intimate. It wasn’t the sort of thing that I wanted to share, no matter how confusing my feelings about her were at the moment.

When I was done, he gave me a concerned look. “Does that mean it’s over between the two of you?”

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “I can’t be with someone who isn’t willing to make Evanne a priority.”

When Brody didn’t respond after a minute or so, I looked over at him. He seemed focused on the road, but he wasn’t singing or talking, which told me that something was on his mind. Most people thought Brody was a goof-off, the type of person who didn’t have much going on in his head, but I knew him better than that. He saw far more than anyone realized.

“Tell me what you’re thinking,” I said finally. “Be honest.”

He took another minute before replying, “I think you fucked up.”

Well, thatwashonest.

“I’m not saying that Evanne shouldn’t be your first priority, but you tend to think that everyone else has to revolve around the things in your life too.” He shot me a glance. “It’s not as if Lumen blew you off for something silly or pointless.”

I glared at him. “If I’d known you would take her side, I would have told you to keep singing.”

“Sometimes you need to hear the truth, even if you don’t like it, big brother.”

Fortunately for me, it was only a few minutes later when we pulled into a gas station, and Eoin woke up. With only forty-five minutes or so left to go, Brody dropped the subject and struck up a conversation with Eoin. What he’d said, however, stuck with me until we reached the hotel. Only then was I able to shift my focus to what I was going to do now.

As Brody parked the car, Eoin and I scanned the parking lot and the exterior of the hotel. It was nice, but not a five-star place, meaning it’d probably have some security, but not something so tight we had no hope of getting information. I didn’t see any police cars around, and the lot only had a dozen cars or so.

“That’s the rental car,” Eoin said as we walked up to the doors. He cut behind Brody and me to walk next to the car. Without slowing, he slid his hand across the hood and then joined us again, not missing a single step. “Hood’s cold.”

The lobby was empty, and only one person stood behind the front desk. The tall, dark-haired young man stared at his phone until we were right across from him. Only then did he put it down with a weary sigh.

“Welcome to the–”

“We’re not here to rent a room,” Eoin said.

The guy’s gaze shifted from me to Eoin, and his eyes widened when he saw the scar. “Um…we don’t keep cash on hand.”

Brody rolled his eyes. “Relax, kid. We’re not here to rob you or cause you any trouble.” He leaned on the counter, fixing on his most charming smile. “Here’s the thing. My brother here has this ex giving him problems. I’m sure you know what it’s like. You break up with a girl, and she decides she wants to get back at you.”