Page 80 of Resonance

“Personal business.”

He cocked his head. “So youarefucking my brother. I’ll be damned.” There were moments when they sounded so alike it was disorienting.

I mussed a hand through my hair and stepped out of the room, pulling the door shut behind me. “I’m not sure how you draw that conclusion.”

“Obvious context clues. I actually did well on that portion of those reading tests in school.”

“Congratulations.” I infused as much flatness into my voice as I could to try to dampen his interest. “Did you need something?”

“Was about to cook up some eggs and bacon, thought I’d see if you wanted some.” His eyes shaded salaciously. “Sounds like you might be more in the mood for some sausage, though.”

“Not yours.”

“No, definitely not mine,” he agreed. “I don’t do sloppy seconds.”

I rolled my eyes but followed him into the kitchen and whisked eggs as he buttered toast and put the bacon in the pan to fry. Afterward we sat at the table eating our breakfast dinner. It was early still, 4:30, twilight only just dimming the sky into a paler yellow orange that cocooned the kitchen in a warm glow until I flipped on some lights.

“Why’re we eating so early?”

“This is my lunch.”

“Okay, why are you eating lunch so late?”

“I was out.”

“Obviously.”

“Looking for jobs, a new place.” Aiden lowered his head and swiped his lips with a napkin, something about the action striking me as self-conscious. And because I hadn’t seen his demeanor shift that way before, I studied him closely, like the scars on the backs of his knuckles would tell the rest of the story.

“You said you were evicted, right? From your last place?”

“Yeah.” His weary expression transformed into one with more defiance and fire behind it. “I missed rent a couple of times because I lost my job.”

“Did you lose it or get fired?”

“Goddamn, you’re as bad as Dan. No wonder he likes you.” When I didn’t respond, Aiden huffed out a breath. “I got fired for borrowing some money from the till and not telling management about it. I was a bartender.”

“So you stole it?”

He gazed at me for a long stretch, mouth working like he was considering a denial, and then he shrugged. “Yeah, I stole the goddamn money.”

“So just say that. What’d you do before? Ru said you used to be a session musician.”

“Ru?” And then it dawned on him, and he chuckled. “Ru’s an idiot.”

I set down my fork and pushed my plate away. “If you talk about him that way, Iwillkick your ass out of here.”

Aiden’s eyes shot up to meet mine, I guess to see if I meant it, and whatever he’d been on the cusp of saying died on a slow exhale. “All right, easy. Jesus.” He nodded toward my plate. “Go ahead. You should finish that. Look like you need about four more plates.” I lifted my middle finger at him but dragged my plate closer and dug in again, because I was starving. “I was a session musician. Got burned out on it, I guess. Kept trying to make something happen, but genetics only goes so far.”

“Dan didn’t help you?”

“Sure, he tried, but shit, that might’ve been worse. It’s hard to shine from someone else’s shadow.” He pointed his fork at me. “That’s not the issue between Dan and me, though, not really, so don’t get that in your head. I might be a fuckup, but I’m not completely ungrateful.”

After dinner,I pulled on my jacket and tucked a flashlight in the pocket. Aiden leaned against the doorway from the kitchen, a towel over his shoulder he wiped his hands on. “Where do you get off to?”

“I dunno. I just walk. It’s nice out here. I walk in the woods or a ways down the road, then back. Or I go sit out by the barn. Dan used to walk with me, too. Not that that’s an invitation for you.” I strode toward the door.

Aiden chuckled. “I wasn’t presuming that whatsoever, believe me.”