Page 116 of Necessary Time

I’d managedto avoid Hendrix for the whole week. Which, admittedly, wasn’t a brave plan, but I wasn’t sure how he was going to engage me about my relationship with his brother. Wesley had assured me that they’d spoken on Monday and that things had gone well, that they’d been settled, but I wasn’t convinced. Even if it was my own nerves, my own lingering worries over how things had gone with my parents, I found it hard to believe we’d get off scot-free.

But it was Friday, and it was 11:45 and there he was, forearm resting along the top of my cubicle as he nervously stared down at me. There was an email up on my screen from the clinic down the street, and I gave a quick scan to the short row of negative, negative, negative, with my test results before minimizing the window.

I leaned back, smoothing my hand down the front of my shirt, hoping he hadn’t seen the content of the message.

“Hendrix.”

He cleared his throat. “Did you want to get lunch?”

I managed a weak smile. “Well, itisFriday.”

Hendrix straightened up, shoving his hands into his pockets and stepping to the side so I could get up from my desk.

We rode the elevator down in an awkward silence and remained quiet until we were seated in our usual Friday afternoon booth. Hendrix drummed his fingers against the tabletop and I watched, trying to count each one out in my head before he moved on to the next, but it was a practiced move, most likely a nervous habit.

“Can we just get it over with?” I finally asked, when it became clear that Hendrix wasn’t going to bring up the elephant in the room.

“Get what over with?” he asked, scratching a spot on the back of his neck behind his ear. The lines around his mouth were pulled tight, almost a frown.

“Whatever you have to say about me dating your little brother.”

Hendrix swallowed, the pace of his finger drumming slowing to a crawl. “I don’t have anything to say about it,” he said.

“That feels like a lie.”

“Colin.” He cleared his throat, leveling an expectant look at me across the table. “I love my brother.”

“I love your brother too,” I said.

He dragged his tongue across the front of his teeth. “So he says. And if that’s the case…”

“This is killing you,” I said, shaking my head. “I can see the tightness in the side of your neck, Hendrix.”

“Someone my own age would have never been my first choice for him,” Hendrix wavered on his initial approval. “But he’s happy and I’m…I’m not his dad.”

“No, you’re not.”

“It’s his life,” Hendrix said, another thick swallow testing the muscles in his throat. “I can’t live it for him.”

“No,” I agreed. “You can’t.”

“So what other choice do I have?”

“I guess you don’t.”

“That’s why I told you I don’t have anything to say about it.” He shrugged. “But I’ll give you the same warning I would give someone closer to his age. If you hurt him…’

I flicked my hand, cutting him off. “You’ll do nothing.”

He arched a brow, the threat clear in his expression.

“You’ll do nothing,” I repeated. “Not because I won’t hurt him, but because it’s not yours to punish if I do.”

Hendrix licked his lips, smacking his hands down on the tabletop. He didn’t like that answer, but I could tell by the tightness around his eyes that he knew I was right. He’d parented Wesley for long enough. Now he had Miles, and Wesley had me, and it was time for Hendrix to let his brother live a little.

“Fine,” he conceded.

“Fine.”