Page 1 of Perfect Storm (Toronto Thunder #1)

May

“You’re sulking.”

Aidan Flynn looked up at his brother-in-law’s words.

Okay, Levi wasn’t his brother-in-law, not technically. Not yet, anyway. Aidan’s younger brother, Riley, and Levi’s oldest brother, Landry, weren’t even engaged, in fact, but the truth was they were the most married couple Aidan knew, ring or no ring.

Also, brother-in-law was easier and shorter to say than younger brother of his best friend. But yes, thank you, Levi, he was indeed sulking, and if he had the opportunity to use three less words while in this atrocious mood, he was going to do it.

“No, I’m not.”

Levi flopped down on the couch next to him and smacked Aidan on the shoulder. “You sure fucking are, bro.”

Funny, Aidan had kind of thought he’d done a decent job of hiding his bad mood.

Not that he was sulking. Men did not admit to sulking. They experienced protracted periods of sadness-induced frustration.

“You’re annoying.” Levi was annoying. Persistent, in that way he apparently believed was charming but was actually just plain annoying.

When all four Banks kids were together, they were a lot to handle, but they also absorbed much of their own energy.

Landry’s twin, Lyla’s, deadpan sarcasm negated much of Levi’s manic cheerfulness, and Logan’s chill energy meshed well with Landry’s way-too-responsible-adult, team-leader vibes.

But Lyla was in Atlanta, where she’d moved last year, and Logan and his boyfriend, Dylan, were spending the summer training in Miami, where they both played for the Piranhas.

So Aidan was stuck with only two out of the four, and since Landry was distracted by Riley—as he usually was now—it was up to Aidan to entertain Levi.

Or in this case, be harassed by Levi, who was apparently more observant than Aidan had given him credit for.

“Annoying but right.” Levi smacked him again. “What’s wrong?”

“I don’t want to talk about it,” Aidan said stiffly.

The last person he wanted to discuss his sulk with was Levi Banks.

He’d actually hoped he might talk to Landry about it.

Landry had been his best friend first, before he’d become Riley’s boyfriend, and even though he’d finally come around, happy that his brother and his best friend were so blissful, there was a part of him—a very tiny part, undeniably adding to his sulk—that wished it was still just him and Landry.

He could at least get a minute of his time to say, dude, I’m kind of going through it right now.

“We’ve got nothing but time.” Levi spread his arms. “You might as well tell me.”

Aidan really did not want to go into it. Thus why he had spent the last twenty-four hours, since Riley, Landry, and Levi had descended onto his Michigan summer house for a week on the lake, pretending like nothing was wrong.

“Why are you like this?”

Levi grinned, not even remotely offended. “Benefit of being the youngest.”

“Riley isn’t like this.”

“Which is shocking, actually, considering how much you tried to spoil him.”

And yes, at one time, Aidan had been in serious contention for the Overprotective Brother of the Year award.

He was being better. He was better. Ever since Riley had become the starting QB for the Condors and began dating Landry three years ago, Aidan had taken a step back.

Riley was an adult now. He could make his own choices and his own decisions.

Even though Aidan’s first and last and every instinct in between was to take care of him, to shield him, the way he’d shielded him their whole childhood, he wasn’t doing that anymore.

Of course, Levi was going to bring that up now, though.

“Anyway”—Levi was clearly not giving up without a fight—“I know you’re trying to hide it. Pasting on a very content smile and shit, but it’s clear you’re not okay.”

Great.

Aidan made a face. “If I said again that I don’t want to talk about it, would you leave it alone?”

Levi scoffed. “As if. You’re my bro.” He slung a huge arm around Aidan, like they might actually be brothers, which they were certainly not.

Aidan was best friends with Levi’s brother and their brothers were dating, or married, or exchanging blood soul pacts or whatever it was that they did these days. Not the same thing at all.

Aidan attempted again to change the subject. He shucked Levi’s arm off. And that was not as easy as it seemed, either. “How are you the biggest of all of you?”

He gave Levi an up-and-down look. He really was huge, and all muscle. Landry and Logan were big and broad, but somehow Levi was even bigger. Not many people managed to make Aidan’s six foot three feel small, but Levi managed it.

“Luck?” Levi laughed, like this was delightful.

Aidan was not delighted.

Vaguely, he considered getting up from the couch and going to look for Riley and Landry, who he’d left in the kitchen to do the dishes after dinner, but then he remembered that if they were taking half an hour to do the dishes, they were probably not just doing the dishes.

Aidan clamped his lips together, trying not to think about his younger brother and his best friend currently defiling a public space.

“Bro, you keep changing the subject.”

“And you keep calling me bro,” Aidan retorted.

Levi just shrugged, clearly feeling zero shame about this. “Listen, dude, it’s always better to have it out than to keep it in.”

Aidan disagreed with this assessment. He’d been keeping shit in his whole life, and he’d turned out just fine. Thirty-four and one of the most acclaimed quarterbacks in the NFL? Yeah, he was doing just fucking fine.

“I’m fine, it’s totally fine,” Aidan said. Maybe if he thought it and said it enough times, it would be true.

He ignored the pulse of pain he felt every time he thought about football. It wasn’t fair that Mo could ruin football for him too.

It had been bad enough when he’d lost him on the field. Then he’d finally fucking manned up, told him how he felt, and how had that gone? Pretty much as bad as it could go.

“Bro, you are not fine,” Levi said softly, his voice losing that smug charisma for the first time all evening, “I can see it. And maybe Landry can’t, because he’s . . .I don’t know . . .dickmatized for the first time in his life, but I can.”

“Can someone still be dickmatized after three years of getting dick?” Aidan wondered. Then considered scrubbing his brain with bleach because that was his brother’s dick he was referring to.

“If the dick’s that good,” Levi said, waggling his eyebrows.

Aidan regretted a lot of things. He definitely regretted bringing up his brother’s dick to Levi.

But there was no question what the top of the list was: telling Riley he’d be spending the next month in Michigan.

With only a text announcement that he was arriving, Riley had shown up less than two days later with not only Landry in tow, but Levi as well, with only the explanation that Levi needed a distraction from his contract negotiations with Seattle.

Aidan had intended to lick his wounds in peace, but instead he was going to be heckled and harassed by his best friend’s younger brother.

“Whose dick is that good?” Landry appeared in the doorway from the kitchen, hair mussed and face flushed, making it painfully obvious whose dick was good.

But before Aidan could let him have it for fucking in public spaces, which Riley knew perfectly well was off-limits, Levi squawked loudly. “God, dude, no,” he announced, tossing a throw pillow in Landry’s direction with deadly accuracy. “Keep it in your pants, God.”

“Can I second that?” Aidan said.

Landry just rolled his eyes. “We were doing the dishes!”

“Fucking liar,” Levi muttered. “If Lyla was here—”

“She’s not here,” Landry said self-righteously.

“Yeah, well, if she hears about this—”

“She’s not gonna,” Riley said, sauntering in, sounding very sure of himself. “You wanna make s’mores? I got the firepit going outside.”

Aidan did not want to make s’mores. He wanted to sit here and keep drinking the whiskey he’d started with dinner and pretend that he was 1) alone and 2) that Mo hadn’t looked so fucking sorry when he’d let Aidan down as kindly as anyone had in the history of being let down.

He’d be seeing that bluntly sympathetic look in Mo’s eyes in his sleep. But not in his dreams, more like his nightmares.

“Moving is overrated,” Aidan said. He lifted his glass. “Unless someone wants to move and get me more whiskey.”

Levi shot him a pointed look, but actually stood up and grabbed the bottle and another glass. “If I have to deal with these two,” he said, pouring a few fingers for himself and then heading back to the couch, giving Aidan a generous pour of his own, “I gotta be at least a little drunk.”

“Unfair,” Riley said.

“You two just fucked in the kitchen,” Levi said. “Some of us are mourning the lack of available options out in the middle of backwoods nowhere.”

Aidan considered telling Levi that if he didn’t like the options here, he could leave. And he could take Landry and Riley with him.

But he was afraid if he said it, Levi would announce, loudly and with zero subtlety, that Aidan was drowning his sorrows.

As much as Aidan had attempted and thankfully failed to fuck up his relationship with his brother, Riley wouldn’t take that sitting down. He’d demand to know what was going on, and he wouldn’t be easily distracted like Levi had been.

And Aidan still didn’t want to talk about it.

“You could always fuck Aidan,” Riley said to Levi, grinning.

Landry squawked in outrage, like hearing about his best friend fucking was somehow different than Aidan having to know what he’d just done in his kitchen, with his brother.

“Aidan’s straight as a fucking arrow,” Landry said.