Page 115 of Necessary Time

“Miles has told me,” he said.

“How does Miles know?”

“I’ll never understand the intricacies of his relationship with Grayson, but they’re incredibly close and I don’t imagine there’s much about Grayson that Miles doesn’t know.”

“This isn’t about Grayson,” I said.

“But from my understanding, it’s been happening in Grayson’s home.”

I clenched my jaw. “I live there too. It’smyhome.”

This was absolutely enough of this conversation. I didn’t know where my brother was going, but I hated the implication that I’d been spied on. Even though there was a shouting voice in the back of my head that knew better. A voice reminding me that Grayson had kept our secret and our confidence. There was no way he would have been ratting us out to Miles behind our backs the whole time, but whatever my brother was trying to say was landing wrong and I didn’t want any more of it.

“I’m saying this all wrong,” Hendrix said, scrubbing a hand down his face. “I have to be honest with you, Wes. Miles and Grayson both absolutely tore me apart over the whole Colin thing.”

My eyes widened. “They what?”

“Miles especially.” His cheeks darkened. “After your party. He…let’s just say any assumptions I’d had were promptly corrected.”

“Miles didn’t know,” I said. “Miles still doesn’t. He doesn’t know anything about my relationship with Colin.”

“Miles is terribly perceptive, Wes. It’s one of the things I like the most and the least about him.”

I rolled my lips between my teeth, waiting for my brother to get to the point.

“No one has told me anything about you and Colin. Miles informed me that if I would have opened my eyes for one second that I would have caught on to what was happening. He said I basically forced it on you anyway by asking Colin to show you around town.”

I couldn’t stop myself from huffing out a laugh at that. “I mean…”

“Either way,” he said, catching my stare. “It…I don’t know. The age gap makes me uncomfortable, but I have been made to understand that your relationship doesn’t care about my comfort.”

“Okay,” I whispered, looking down at the fancy foam decoration on the top of my coffee.

“Nothing you do should hinge on my comfort, Wes. And I need to stop pushing my own agenda on you,” Henny said.

“What do you mean?”

“I want to start being a brother to you.”

I snorted, rolling my eyes. “It feels late for that.”

“I hope not.” The earnestness in his voice was like a knife in my side.

“And you’re saying that you’re going to stay out of my business? No more surprise best friend visits? No more tax advice? No more—”

He cut me off again. “Just brothers. Brothers who are learning how to be friends.”

I swallowed, blinking slowly. It was a conversation I’d never expected to have with my brother and I wasn’t sure how to respond. The dynamic between us had always been different than most because of the gap in our ages, and I had no clue what it would be like to have Hendrix as a friend, too. Even when we’d both been back in Brixton, we’d never lived under the same roof or moved in the same circles.

The way things were now, with Grayson and Miles between us, and now Colin…the whole dynamic of my relationship with Henny was going to change. And I found myself excited for that. Hopeful, even.

“Brothers learning to be friends,” I repeated, giving him an honest smile. “I think I’d like that, Henny. Thank you.”

He took a drink of his coffee, relaxing back in his seat with a long exhale. “I think I’m going to like it too.”

CHAPTERTHIRTY-TWO

Colin