He was shaking his head slowly. He sought out Lily’s eyes. “I have a brother. All this time, I’ve had a brother. And he’s been right here…for how long?”
“He got paroled a year ago,” Willow said. “And that’s around the time he first started showing up at Manny’s, as far as I can tell. Maria agrees.”
“Well, what the hell was he doin’ here? Watchin’ the place? Or watchin’ me? Was he still workin’ for de Lorean, or whatever’s left of his crew? And if not, then why didn’t he say anything?” He wasn’t asking anyone those questions, really, just letting them spin from his brain into his words. “Why didn’t he tell me who he was?”
“Why don’t we head to the hospital and see if he can tell us anything himself?” Lily asked. She reached up to close her hand on the back of his neck.
Her hand was cool. He liked it there. “Yeah, let’s do that. Talk to him. I don’t even…” He trailed off, distracted because she’d moved her hand away.
“You okay to drive, cuz?” Willow asked. “You look a little shell-shocked.”
“I’ll drive him,” Lily said. “I’ve been dying to drive that big truck of his anyway.”
Willow, hearing the same double entendre Ethan had, snort-laughed and tried to pretend she hadn’t by coughing and clearing her throat.
Lily shot her a quelling look and Willow gave what she probably thought was an innocent shrug. Ethan saw every bit of it but pretended he hadn’t.
To change the subject, he thought, Lily opened the cantina door, put her fingers to her lips and gave a whistle. Everyone turned, power tools went silent, safety glasses slid up onto heads.
“We’re going to be out for a bit. Anyone need anything before we go?”
As one, the team returned to work, lowering their safety goggles and letting their tools answer for them. Only Burdick gave a real reply, and it was merely a thumbs-up, before he returned to work.
“Guess they’re okay without us. Come on, Big Guy.” Lily put a hand on Ethan’s upper arm, right around his bicep. He really didn’t mean to flex, it was automatic. Her fingers moved over his arm in what felt like appreciation.
“Let’s go meet your brother. Remind me to call him Jeremiah and not Gringo Sombrero like I’ve been calling him for a year.”
“He came up that often, did he?” he asked.
“Oh he’s a hot topic among the She-Brands.” She gave him an eyebrow wiggle and walked around his truck to the driver’s side. So he got in the passenger side and looked over at her in his seat. She looked like a doll sitting in a human’s chair. “You can adjust the, uh?—”
“I know, I got it.” She’d already been running her hands along the bottom and sides of the seat in search of controls. She moved his seat upward and forward, and still looked small, but at least she could see over the steering wheel and reach the pedals.
He buckled up. She adjusted the mirror and shifted. “Find us something on the radio, will ya?”
He turned on the radio. His song was ending, as a Willie Nelson standard started up, “That was your idea, right there.”
“It was Baxter’s idea, wasn’t it? Around the bonfire?”
“The song was your idea.”
“You should probably always listen to my ideas, then.”
“I should probably at least consider it.”
“I’ll hold you to that.”
He looked over at her. She was entirely focused on driving, leaning forward in her nervousness, going slower than necessary. He said, “Hey, don’t be nervous about the truck. You can’t hurt this thing, it’s a beast.”
“Now, I know that to be false. I saw what happened to its predecessor. It got hurt plenty.”
“I guess that’s what insurance is for.”
She didn’t relax. He didn’t blame her; it was an expensive ride and everyone knew how fond of it he was. But he liked Lily a hell of a lot more.
Whoa, that notion had come right out of the blue.
“You think it’s okay, leaving the work crews alone?” she asked.
