Page 133 of The Other Side of Green

He shrugged. “Anyway, we shall see what we shall see.”

I slipped onto one of the bar stools and pulled the jug of coffee toward me. “And you meant what you said last night about a new club?”

He waggled his eyebrows. “You in?”

I pulled a face. “I can assure you; I’ll have little else to do.”

“Oh I don’t know, that little firecracker of yours left here looking like she was on a mission.”

“Don’t.” I groaned. “She was talking about accepting the Collins’ offer.”

“And you let her walk out of here?” He put down the spoon.

“She won’t. She’ll want to protect me, but she won’t. Her heart is too good to tell a lie.”

Evan mulled on this for a moment while he plated his eggs. “What a mess. Seriously, only you get yourself into a mess this deep.”

I scrubbed at my hair, feeling the distinct need for a shower. “I know. But…”

“What?”

“What if all this is too much? Everything about Lyra and I is pure drama, one nightmare hurdle after another. What if, and it’s a big if, we get through it all, what then?”

“You speak the biggest pile of shit known to man. You were miserable before she arrived. I mean I like you and all that, but you are much nicer now to have around. Less fisty.”

I glared with a narrowed gaze. “That can change.”

A knock landed at the door and we both stared at one another with blank expressions before Evan burst out a laugh. “It’s like being on Death Con One high alert.”

I smiled, but I couldn’t remember a time in my life when I hadn’t felt that level of intensity. First with Dad, or ‘not dad’ as he now was. Then with Miriam and Jenson. Who knew what could happen at any moment? “I’m just grateful I haven’t had a heart attack yet.”

“Don’t speak too soon.” Rhian swung out of Evan’s room, already dressed in her kick-ass finest with a full face of makeup on. “Shall I get it, considering you are both just chatting away in your boxers?”

Evan and I glanced down at one another and then grinned. “Probably best,” he flashed her a winning smile.

“Oh God,” we heard her mutter and then she called back, “I’m outta here. I’m worried this one will strip down to his boxers too.”

I glanced at Evan in confusion before Luca walked in. “Hey,” he said like no time at all had passed and he hadn’t fucked me and my life over. “Lyra gave me the address. I called her first, but she said she was in an emergency summit meeting.” He lounged at the other side of the kitchen counter while Evan swiftly picked up his eggs and scarpered back to his room. “Is it me, or is she much more dramatic when you’re around?” His lips flickered a smile.

“More dramatic than running away from me, and getting a bus all the way back to New Orleans by herself, all because you decided to tell her I was her brother?”

He held his hands up. “I’ve admitted I was wrong. But you have to see it from my perspective too.”

“Believe me, I’ve been trying to.” Automatically, I reached for a mug off the dish drainer and poured him a coffee, then slid him along the creamer so he could doctor it as he wanted.

“Jack, I was a kid. And I found out that the baby sister I’d so longed for because she would actually be a proper family for me, turned out to not be my sister after all.”

“You’re a douche, do you know that? She’s still your sister, regardless of who her dad is.”

“Well I realize that now, but I was only small.”

“But you still carried on being friends with me.”

“Well, yeah, because you were like my brother.”

“And you were like mine.” I shook my head. “When did you realize?”

“Realize what?”