Page 44 of Home for the Holidays

I clear my throat. “I think we should talk to Josh first.”

“He’s going to be pissed,” Jake says.

“I know.”

“He pretty much hates me,” he continues.

“He’s your brother. He doesn’t⁠—”

He shakes his head. “We don’t get along. He’s going to insinuate that this is me trying to get back at him for some perceived slight.”

“It’s not, though.” I know it in my bones. He cares about me. This isn’t a game.

With some of my exes, yeah, I might have second guessed things.

With him? I know where we stand.

“It’s not,” Jake agrees. “My feelings for you are entirely separate from him. But given how much of a dick he is on a normal day…”

“We can’t be afraid of him,” I tell him. “It doesn’t have to go over well. It probably won’t. He still deserves to know.”

He sighs. “We’ll tell him.”

I grab my phone, opening up my contacts.

“Wait, now?” he asks, staring at my phone like it’s a poisonous spider.

“Let’s get it over with.”

But as I scroll through my contacts, I don’t find Josh Lewis in there. I’ve had the same phone number since I was thirteen, all of my contacts are backed up to the cloud… and he’s not there.

“Huh.”

“What?” Jake presses a kiss to my temple.

“I must have deleted him from my phonebook.”

He chuckles. “Is that because he’s a worthless dickbag?”

Or maybe I just don’t care about him anymore.

Elbowing him, I reach for Jake’s phone, holding it up to his face to unlock the screen. He chuckles as I scroll through his phonebook.

There are three other Joshes in his address book, all with last names, and then there’s an all-lowercase josh entry. I click on it and, sure enough, it’s our old area code.

I click on a video call and the line rings. Once, twice, three times. Finally, on the fourth ring, it connects.

Josh’s face comes into view from below. He’s gotten older. Then again, we both have. He has a beard now and lines on his face.

“What do you want, asshole?” Josh snaps.

Jake takes the phone from me. “I wanted to talk to you.”

“Bullshit,” Josh says. “Pull the other one.”

“I did. I wanted to ask you a question.”

He rolls his eyes. “So ask it, already. I have to get back to work.”