Page 92 of The Other Brother

I look at her. It must be Frank’s sister who lives in Australia. Cody’s mentioned she’s visiting, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen her before.

“Lovely to see you, Melanie.” She gives Mel a quick kiss on the check before turning her attention to me. “And who’s this?” Anticipation is layered through her voice. It’s obvious that she thinks I’m Mel’s boyfriend or something.

I’m fairly sure the freaked-out look on Mel’s face is matched by my own.

“This is Ryan, my other half-brother.”

“Oh.” She blinks. “You’re Julia’s son?” Her voice is flat.

“Yeah, I am.”

She raises her eyebrow and looks around. “Is Julia here? I thought Frank and Julia still couldn’t stand each other.”

“They can’t. I’m… um… friends with Cody.”

Her eyebrows retreat even further into her hairline. “I can’t imagine your friendship is encouraged by either of your parents.”

“Yeah, well, not really. But it’s not that big of a deal. I mean, they split before we were even born.” I can hear the defensiveness in my voice.

She just gives me a long look. “There are some things you can never recover from,” she says finally.

I furrow my brow at that. She glances over at Mel, who’s also looking confused.

“Anyway, it was nice to meet you. Give Julia my best.”

“Okay.”

She leaves in a swirl of perfume.

“You’re such a shit liar,” Mel says after Jill is out of earshot.

“Actually, last time I did a tally, you’d fallen for my lies approximately eighty-nine percent of the time.”

Mel narrows her eyes at me. “What lies?”

“Like the time I told you that outfit suited you.”

“You’re such an ass.”

Waiters are going past with platters of cake, so I scoop a piece off a tray and stuff half of it in my mouth. Yum. Chocolate. Good choice.

Mel’s looking at me evaluatively. “Have you and Cody actually thought this through?”

My pulse races as I finish chewing the cake and swallow. “Thought what through?”

“Where this… thing between you is leading?”

“Yeah, we’ve thought about it. We’ve already written the words for our fiftieth wedding anniversary speech. Is that what you mean?”

Mel rolls her eyes. “I mean, it can’t exactly end well, can it?”

Her words cause the cake to turn cartwheels in my stomach. It’s not actually what she’s saying, but the matter-of-fact way she says the words. Like even a dumbass would have figured it out.

Cody and I will not end well.

I haven’t given much thought about where my relationship with Cody is heading. I’ve been too caught up in the moment, too happy to bask in the sunshine of being with Cody, to think much about the storm clouds that lurk overhead.

Unease settles inside me.