Page 127 of Rival Hearts

“Okay,” he agreed. “What do you want?”

“I want you in my life. I know you’re not happy about what’s going on. I know you tried to protect me and you feel like you failed, but you didn’t. I didn’t need you to be a parent to me. I just need you to be a brother. I’m having this baby, and I want his or her uncle Gabe to be around. I love you, and I don’t want this thing to come between us so that my child grows up not knowing their family. After everything…” My voice caught in my throat. “We’re all we have, Gabe.”

He was silent for a long time, and I thought he was just going to hang up on me.

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah,” he said softly. “I was a total dick. I was pissed—”

“Rightfully so,” I said.

“But we can figure it out. You’re right, it’s just you and me.”

“I know it’s been tough with you trying to fill the shoes that Mom and Dad never did, but I just need you to be around. Just to two of us. Brother and sister, figuring shit out together.”

“Yeah,” Gabe said. “That sounds… like something we could do.”

“Do you want to come over for supper later? Just to talk?”

“Yeah. That would be cool.”

Relief washed over me that my brother was happy to be in my life again. It made me happy to know that at least I had him in my corner. The next while was going to be tough, and I would have to do a lot of it alone when I wished it didn’t have to be that way.

But at least I would have Gabe.

36

ALEX

The doorman called up and told me I had a visitor. When I heard it was Gabe, I hesitated.

The last time we’d talked it hadn’t gone down well. But I wanted us to be friends. I missed him—he’d always been like a brother to me, and if I’d learned anything in my life, it was that good people who genuinely cared were hard to find. Once you found them, you had to hold on to them with everything you had.

“Send him up,” I finally agreed. “I’ll see him.”

It didn’t take long before Gabe was at my front door.

“Hey,” I said, opening the door. “I didn’t think I’d see you here anytime soon.”

He shrugged. “I guess we should talk.”

I nodded. “That would be cool.”

I stepped aside for him to come into the apartment and shut the door behind him.

“A drink?” I asked, walking to the wet bar.

“Sure.”

I poured us each a tumbler of whiskey. God knows I needed a drink to calm my nerves. I’d been the one to fuck up between us,and I was lucky that Gabe had decided he wanted to see me again at all. What I’d done…

“How are things?” Gabe sat on a bar stool when I handed his glass to him.

“They’re okay,” I said. “Could be better, I guess. Shit hit the fan at work—we lost two investors, so I’ve just been trying to put out fires.”

“What happened?”