Page 18 of The Romance Adventure
“The only thing I don’t understand is why you’re trying to convince a perfect stranger who’s who. We just had a long ride and are looking for refreshments. We’ll take iced coffee. Mine, black.”
“Please,” Ryan adds, confirming he’s right about being the nice one.
On the upside, at least we’re not fighting or standing here in uncomfortable silence—we’ve done a lot of that in recent years. Perhaps Chip’s birthday invitation lightened the mood.
We get our coffees and sit down at a nearby table.
“Good to see you, bro,” I say, contradicting Ryan’s claim of my mean brother status.
“Considering all the time you spend in the office, I imagined you wouldn’t come out in the light of day.”
“Are you calling me a vampire?”
“You’re known for sucking the blood out of your clients.”
“I’m good at what I do.”
“Too good,” a deep, commanding voice says from the doorway.
Magnus walks in and removes his aviator sunglasses.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask as if he’d been part of the conversation all along.
“Too good to call or visit your brothers.”
“I talked to you yesterday.”
“I called you,” Magnus corrects.
“I saw Ryan at the playoffs.”
Ryan points at me and then at himself. “You were in the box. I was on the field.”
“We made eye contact. And I visited you at Walter Reed, Mag.”
“I was in a medically induced coma.”
Not going to lie, that had me on edge, but as soon as the doctor said he’d be fine, I went back to work.
Ryan practically pouts. “You missed my birthday. All of them since we turned eighteen.”
“I sent you a card.”
“Angela sends me a card.”
“How do you know about Angela?” I ask.
Ryan rolls his eyes.
“I didn’t know it was so special to you.”
“We’re twins. It’s our birthday. Why wouldn’t it be?”
I shrug, trying to remember where I was and what I was doing when we turned thirty-two. “I didn’t realize this demand that I meet with you was because it’s official dump on me day.”
“When was the last time you saw Emmie?” Ryan asks with a gotcha face.
“Last Thursday.”
