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"Little brother," he said "You’ve got that look on your face"

Chase casually shrugged his brother’s arm off but took the beer he offered with his other hand "What look?"

"The same look you had before you knocked the crap out of Rick Su too friendly with Maddie in the car that one night"

Chase didn’t like where this conversation was going

"It’s the sae and souy in your econ class said he wanted to tap that ass"

The muscle in Chase’s jaw started to tick Only Chad knew about that He’d witnessed it Recalling the little punk and the horseshit he’d been saying pissed hiain

"And it’s the sa with that guy," Chad went on He smiled when Chase sent hih dinner like someone kicked your puppy into traffic, burned down all three of your bars, then pissed in your face and shoved a fat one up--"

Chase laughed dryly "I get what you’re saying"

"You didn’t even s my toast"

He rolled his eyes

"And man," Chad said after a moment "What did you do to Maddie? Because she had the same look on her face the entire ti to do with Maddie" He downed half his beer "And I don’t want to talk about it"

Chad shook his head and ignored Chase’s words "It’s always her"

He went stock still, staring at the bottle of beer "Is it that obvious?" he asked on a choked breath He expected Chad to joke with him, but he remained dead silent

"Yeah, it’s that obvious," Chad said finally "Always has been"

"Great"

Chad smiled then "So what happened?"

He took another long draft of his beer and then told Chad a brief, not-so-explicit version of what happened As expected, his brother stared at hiest kind of idiot

"I can’t believe you hed "What did you expect? For her to ju back, Chase wasn’t sure what the hell he’d expected So her in the bathtub, so absurdly sexy surrounded by bubbles, it had been the best thing he could coh his hair "I don’t knohat I was thinking"

"That’s the proble too much"

Chase scowled "That et it You’re overthinking this whole thing when you should be doing what your heart is telling you"

Chase busted into laughter "Wow, been watching a lot of Oprah reruns?"

"Shut up," Chad said, stretching his arms over his head Chase could tell he was uncomfortable as hell in the dress clothes While Chase favored the nicer stuff, Chad was comfortable only in jeans

His brother flashed a wild grin "Okay, how about starting to think hat’s between your legs? Either way, the Mitch thing is bullshit You knoouldn’t have a proble serious about Maddie Unless you’re only interested in hitting it, and hey, I can understand that; she’s a fine piece of--"

"Finish that sentence and I’ll shove this bottle up your ass," Chase warned

Chad tipped his head back and laughed "Yeah, so like I expected, it’s not a one-night thing, so I doubt Mitch would have a problem with it"

"Let me ask you a question If we had a sister, hoould you feel if one of our friends was snooping around her skirt?"

"That’s a bad exa on one of the pretty bridesmaids "Our friends suck"

Chase snorted

His brother fell silent again, another oddity for Chad Several seconds passed "Bro, all of us are a little fucked up"

"No shit"

Chad let out a dry laugh "Whatour dad do to our mother was messed up Father was a dick, dead or alive But you knohat thehim screw up our lives for us, and he’s not even around"

Part of Chase wanted to deny it, but he couldn’t lie to his brothers Of all people, they knew "I’ like him," Chad said heatedly "But you make yourself like him I don’t even knohy It’s like so prophecy"

"There’s that Oprah shit again"