Stay With Me by S.E.Harmon

knew that look too. Steady and determined. I sighed and then smiled a little. He was a bonehead, but he was still my brother. Still cared about me, even when I’d told him I was gay. “Accepted me” would be a mild term for it. Hell, he set me up on a date, my objections aside. I didn’t know whether it was the Guinness or the earlier nostalgia from reminiscing about Grandma, but I was all out of fight. I took it from his fingertips and slid it into my hip pocket.
    He smiled. “Ready?”
    “You sure you’re green-lighted to drive, Chief?”
    And that’s as long as our truce lasted.
    He held out a finger. “A, stop calling me Chief. You always do that when you’re buzzed.” Another finger shot up to join the first. “B, I had one beer. And three, put that damned thing out before you burn your fingers.”
    “It’s C. Not three,” I murmured, sliding into the car. I tossed what was basically smoldering ash by this point onto the pavement, and the wind blew it apart gently.
    “What?”
    “Nothing.” I slammed the car door.
    “You know that stuff is pure poison,” he said, tuning the radio to something low and country. Someone murmuring something about a dirt country road, with smoke blowing out the windows and cold beer in the console. Memory lane up in the headlights….
    I closed my eyes a little and then a lot, molding my body into the leather.
    “I don’t know why you do hurtful things to yourself.” I felt his hands buckle my seat belt with a click .
    Losing Nicholas. Loving Trevor for all that wasted time. Letting myself fall in like with Jordan. Setting myself up for heartbreak.
    “Who knows why we do the things we do,” I murmured. I was no longer talking about just the smoking.
    My brother isn’t always the lunkhead I make him out to be. He left it alone.

Chapter 9
     
    “G O AROUND !” I shouted at the impatient car behind me, and as if that was the signal the idiot driver was waiting for, he zoomed around my truck. I don’t know how much more of a sign he needed—the flat tire and me standing outside with my hair on end really ought to have done it.
    “Hello, this is Lorna with AAA. How can I help you?”
    You can stop being so damn perky. “Yeah, I need a tow.”
    “I’d be happy to help you with that, sir. Are you in a safe place?”
    I snorted. “Not really.”
    “Would you like me to send the police to your location?”
    My luck, it’d be Robert. “No!” I practically shouted and then added a saner “No, thank you.”
    I heard the cheerful clatter of the keyboard as she keyed in something. “And how are you doing this fine day?”
    I pulled the phone out from my damp neck and looked at it. “Seriously? I’m stuck in an intersection in the middle of buttcrack and who knows where, and the only good thing is that I’ll probably be killed from the idiot drivers waiting two seconds before they’re about to smash into my bumper before swerving over. There! Another just did it!” I shook my fist at the offender even as I heard silence in my ear.
    Then clickety-clickety-clack typing began again. Customer has a bad attitude. Like a junkyard dog , I imagined her typing. To her credit, Lorna was just as pleasant, if hesitant, as she got the rest of my required information. I was as polite as possible to make up for my outburst, but it was too late. I’d let up the window shade to my crazy for just a second, and once you see the crazy, you can’t go back. She promised me a ninety-minute window that had me grinding my teeth, and we disconnected, each equally relieved to be done with the other.
    I checked my phone battery before dialing another number quickly. It took me three tries, but I finally got through to Drew.
    “How long do you think you’ll be?”
    “Couple hours, maybe? I don’t have a spare. Probably have her towed.”
    “You need a ride?” I heard the bing, bing, bing of his car as he stuck the key in the ignition and slammed the door.
    “No, I’m not too far.