My brother double blinked and then sat back in his seat with enough force to move it on its wheels slightly. “Well, when you put it like that…”
“Yeah. I’m not a dumb asshole, man, and I do take things into account before I do something.”
Looking around the room, Canon sighed. “Okay. I guess we’ve both come a long way since we opened this place.”
From the way his mouth was set, I knew he had a particular problem on his mind. I knew my brother well enough to know when shit was eating at him, and he’d mentioned this certain woman on enough occasions.
“How are things going with Jacinda?”
Squeezing his eyes shut, Canon pinched the bridge of his nose. “She’s complicated.”
“I’m not asking for your Facebook relationship status, dude. Explain it to me.” I sat on the corner of my desk and waited for him.
Finally, he gave in. “I think she’s been hurt. No, I know she’s been hurt physically by someone. Every time I try to talk to her, she gives me one-word answers or does this little avoidance thing that drives me insane. Like, I can be standing there, and she’ll walk around me, leaving about twenty inches between us.”
“How does that mean she’s been hurt?”
“She flinches,” he whispered. “You know when someone has this air of aloofness and an exaggerated life-loving personality, and you just know they’re hiding something dark inside? Well, when she flinches when someone moves their arm around her and she isn’t expecting it, she drops her shields at the same time. You can see for a brief second how scared and fragile she truly is.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah,” he sighed and nodded. “Katy said she spoke to her at the Townsends barbecue about me and that Jacinda shut down about it.” He repeated what Katy’d told him, making me laugh initially and then wince at the end.
“So, you know how you were just telling me to make sure I didn’t hurt Heidi and Nemi, and I told you how I was taking it slowly and earning their trust?”
When Canon nodded, I raised my eyebrow and waved my hand at him. “Ever think that’s the same type of approach you’ll need to use with Jacinda? If she’s been hurt, her trust levels will be down the drain, so you need to prove you’re trustworthy, won’t hurt her, and that she’s safe with you.”
“You know,” he mused, “you could be right. I’ve been taking it slowly and gently every time I see her, but if I can find a way to prove she’s safe with me and that I’m not a dick who uses his fists on women, she might open up more to me.”
“And are you doing this for a fling or a long-term thing?”
He scowled at me. “What do you think?”
My phone beeped next to me with a message from Heidi, and when I saw who was at their house, I grinned. “Think this place will miss both of us for a couple of hours?”
“Why?”
Showing him my phone screen, I started laughing when he immediately stood up and locked his computer. And there was my answer.
“Who’s the most handsome of handsome boys in the world?” a voice cooed as we walked past Heidi into the house.
Rolling her eyes at us, she gestured toward the stairs. “Everyone’s in the living room having coffee.”
Canon fairly legged it up them while I held back to speak to Heidi. “How’s my little friend today?”
“She’s not feeling too good. She keeps saying her tummy hurts, and she feels like her Cheerios are stuck in her throat.”
That was enough to have me following behind my brother at a faster pace than he’d taken the steps. I skidded to a halt when I entered the living room, though, because Nemi was lying on the couch with her head on Mom’s lap, looking pale and sick.
Dropping down to my knees next to her, I said gently, “You not feeling good, button?”
“My Cheerios don’t feel good.”
Glancing up at Mom, I waited for her to translate that for me.
“She had them for breakfast. I think because she feels sick, she assumes it’s them that don’t feel good.”
Just as she finished saying the last word, Nemi sat up and made a gagging noise. Faster than I’d moved on the stairs, I picked her up and ran toward the bathroom, only just making it to the toilet in time for Nemi to puke.
Here’s where I had a problem: I was shit with sick people. I’d been to enough parties and had three brothers, so I knew well that once someone else threw up, I’d follow. The problem I had now was that my stomach began cramping with the smell and noise, proving my standard reaction was now inevitable.
That wasn’t my only problem. No, I was supporting Nemi while she emptied the contents of her stomach, so if I let go, she might hit her head or end up head down in the toilet bowl. Added onto that, if I barfed now, it’d likely go all over the back of the poor kid’s head.