Page 76 of Embracing the Beat
WEST
WEST: Need you to call me.
SAWYER: Give me 5.
My phone rings in three.
“You don’t usually text me shit like that.” Sawyer doesn’t even bother to say hello when I answer.
“It’s about Michaela.”
“Mikey? Is she okay?” Worry colors his tone. He’s the traditional big brother. Happy to pick on her himself, but willing to kill anyone else who dares to mess with her.
“So, two things.” I blow out a breath, my stomach tightening with this first part. But I need to tell him about us first in order to explain the second part.
I need the skills he’s honed by opening his own company.
“West, fucking Christ, man, I’m thinking all kinds of shit over here, so do you mind getting to the point already?”
“Your sister and I—” I don’t think he needs the reminder of the familial relationship. “Michaela and I are kind of seeing each other.”
“What do you mean ‘kind of’?”
I sigh.
“We’re seeing each other. No kind of about it. I’m dating your sister,” I say in a rush, tensing for the reaction to come through the phone.
He grunts. “And that warranted your text?”
“You’re not mad?” How is he not mad?
“Why would I be? Dude, I’ve known you almost all my life. You’re a good guy. Better than the jokers she’s dated in the past.”
My teeth grind together at the mention of other men. They may have happened before she and I started up, but the knowledge doesn’t make me any happier about it.
“Mom and Dad know?” Sawyer interrupts my thoughts.
“Yeah.” I don’t tell him about how much they almost knew. What they know, what Kelly is aware of, is more than enough for me.
“They cool with it?” He crunches something into the phone, and I wince at the loud static sound.
“They seem to be,” I admit.
Although Dan still eyed me warily all through dinner last night.
“Mikey happy?”
Up until today? I would have said yes. But now I’m not so sure. Is she only here because she has nowhere else to go?
“Uhh…” I reach up, squeezing at the tension in the back of my neck.
“That was a yes or no question, man.”
“It’s complicated.”
“Why the fuck is it complicated?” The tone of his voice is what I expected all along. “Did you screw something up?”
“What? No—”
