Page 49 of Fall for Him
“They are so adorable. Although, Christ, her house must be loud.” Felicity shook her head.
Derek swiped like he was going to find another photo, but he frowned as if disappointed by what he found on the screen.
Felicity snuggled closer to Gus. “Oh… so Michelle’s the one who bought the place downstairs.”
Derek’s eyebrows scrunched together. “Yeah.”
“Well, from what Dylan has told me, you were pretty nice buying this money pit from her, so I’ll excuse the fact you treated my brother like a pariah when he first moved here. For what it’s worth, Dylan is the most functional human I know. He makes better money than any of us as some kind of specialized programmer computer engineer for hire. Owns his own business. Seriously, it’s borderline offensive how much money he makes given how many hours he has to work. You know he’s fixing up this apartment for our uncle because my other brothers all have big families and my dad’s busy with the business, right?”
“Lissy.”
Derek’s mouth fell open.
Dylan couldn’t decide if he was more outraged or embarrassed. “Lissy, you really need to learn to shut up sometimes.”
“Oh Dylan, you shut up, or I’ll feast on your flesh too.”
Dylan threw back the pillow that she’d thrown at him. “Mr. Wiggles is toast next time I come to the house.”
She clutched it to her chest and glared. “You lay a hand on that bear’s fur—”
“You’re just doing this for free?” Derek stiffened beside him. “All that work in the bathroom. The bedroom.”
“Dude, get this, he’s even paying Uncle Sean rent, and he leased his—”
“Felicity, cut it out. I didn’t tell him, and it was reasonable for Derek to assume there was a different situation.” Dylan stood and went over to the sous vide tank because he needed something to do.
Derek stared at Dylan. “I shouldn’t have assum—”
“Forget it.”
“Have you showed him photos of your—”
“Eat this, Derek.” Dylan set a plate in front of Derek. “And I’ll warm something up for the Rider of Rohan.”
Eyes lighting at the plate of steak, Derek dug in.
Luckily, Felicity seemed to have gotten the message that Dylan didn’t want to go into all that.
She gave Dylan an oddly understanding look when she took a plate from him. “So, Derek, how’d you like meeting the Three—”
“Icemen of the Apocalypse?” Derek finished between bites. “Actually, I didn’t realize I had already met them years ago. My friend played goalie on their team. Small world, right?” Derek speared a piece of steak with his fork and held it up to admire it. “This is amazing, Gallagher.”
“Oh… thanks…” Dylan mussed his too-long hair absently.
“The goalie on their—oh…” Felicity’s attention snapped to Dylan.
Dylan shook his head.
While Dylan assembled a plate for Felicity, Derek explained about meeting the three older Gallaghers at a New Year’s Eve party.
Felicity blinked at Dylan as if to say He doesn’t know? Felicity was the only other person who knew most of the story about Jake because she’d been with him when Jake called to ask him out again.
Dylan shrugged and sat back down next to Derek.
As Felicity bent to scratch behind Gus’s ears, Derek winked at him, giving his thigh a small squeeze before picking up his fork again. As if nothing passed between them, Derek continued the story, describing an epic push-up battle between Jake and the older Gallaghers that Derek had ended up winning at the party.
Dylan couldn’t focus on the story. His entire body was buzzing. Those wild seconds of almost were flooding through him, but the mention of Jake Murphy reminded Dylan of all the reasons this was a bad idea.
