Page 94 of The Other Brother

“You want to head off soon?” Harvey asks me in an undertone.

“Actually, I don’t need a ride home. Someone’s picking me up.”

Harvey raises his eyebrows. “Who?”

“Cody.”

“Oh. Right.”

I glance at my watch. He should be here any minute. I grab a club sandwich and a slice of pie. The club sandwiches are egg and ham, which is almost as epic a combination as baloney and cheese.

Oz finishes talking to whatever long-lost relative and joins me in sampling the food.

“Your stepbrother is here to pick you up,” Harvey says. He’s looking out the big bay window to where Cody’s car is idling in the parking lot. Right on cue, my phone vibrates in my pocket.

“He’s not my stepbrother,” I say. My voice comes out as a growl.

Harvey’s eyes widen. “Right, okay then. That’s me told.”

Oz is standing next to Harvey, looking at me with an identical level of skepticism.

Shit. They’re my friends. I probably should be straight with them.

I take a deep breath then plunge on. “I’m fairly sure Cody and I do stuff together that most stepbrothers don’t,” I say. “But it’s okay, because we are not and have never been stepbrothers.”

Harvey jerks his head back. “It’s like that then, is it?”

“Yeah, it’s like that. But it’s on the down low, okay? Because things are weird between our parents.”

“Yeah, okay,” Oz says.

I flick a glance at Harvey. He’s staring out the window at where Cody is parked.

“I hope you know what you’re doing,” he says finally.

Chapter25

The next Sunday, it’s Kate’s baby shower.

Before we leave, I send Mum into gales of hysterical laughter when I ask if I need to take my bathing suit.

“So, there’s no water involved at all?” I try to clarify between her fits of hysterics.

“No.” Mum’s wheezing so hard from her laughter that Dad offers her a glass of water. He’s grinning too. Yay. I love providing accidental amusement to my parents.

“Why is it called a baby shower then?” I ask.

“I guess it’s because we’re showering Kate in love and gifts.”

“Why not call it a baby bath? We could bathe Kate in love and gifts. Full immersion rather than just dripping water.”

Mum tousles my hair as she goes past to put her glass in the dishwasher. “Never change, Ryan. Promise me you’ll never change.”

“I’m fairly sure that theme goes against nearly all of your other parenting messages,” I comment.

Mum’s good mood fades in the car. She’s sitting in the front seat while Dad’s driving. Kate’s present is in her lap, and she’s tearing the end of the ribbon into little fraying strips.

I’m anxious too. It was hard enough at Cody’s birthday party to pretend nothing is going on between us. Now we’ve just scaled down the size of the event, and upped the number of parental units who might figure things out.