CHAPTER 13
Anderson
“Why are you just standing around like that, man? Sit down. Make yourself at home. Stop acting weird,” Tobias said as I stood in his dining room, presumably looking like a deer caught in headlights.
I gave a wry laugh and headed for the dining room table.
“Dude, I’m not serving you dinner,” Tobias said.
“Oh… Right. Yeah,” I said, and then headed to the living room to sit on the couch instead.
“How are things going with those numbers?” Tobias called out from somewhere in the kitchen.
I opened my mouth, meaning to respond, but instead got choked and started coughing.
“Hell, forget it,” Tobias said, returning with a case of beer. “I don’t even want to think about that right now. Don’t know why I even brought it up.”
He handed me a beer and I took it, not meeting his eyes. I then found myself glancing around against my will, subconsciously waiting to see if Joanna would suddenly pop up.
Tobias flopped down on the couch across from me and popped his beer open. “I don’t know about you,” he said, “but this week has been kicking my ass.”
Again, I forced a laugh. “Yeah, it’s been busy, that’s for sure,” I said, opening the beer he’d handed to me.
“Here’s to hoping the weekend goes by slowly,” Tobias said, raising his beer in the air as if in a toast.
“Right,” I said, doing the same with mine. I took a long slow sip as a stretch of silence spread between me and Tobias.
“I don’t know…” Tobias said suddenly. “You’ve been acting weird lately, but it doesn’t seem to be stress. Has this week really been tough on you? What’s really going on?”
“Nothing,” I said too quickly. “Just um…”
“Your after-work activities?” Tobias said with his eyebrows raised.
My heart practically stopped in my chest. I gripped my beer so tightly that I was in danger of crushing the bottle.
Tobias’ gray eyes, the exact same shade as Joanna’s, narrowed at me. “How are things going in that department for you anyway, these days?” he asked.
I opened and closed my mouth for a moment, sputtering and making inarticulate noises. “W-What do you mean?” I finally said.
Tobias smirked, the sight of it looking somewhat sinister. “Yeah, there’s something going on. You’re stuttering.”
“Come on, man,” I said, trying to sound nonchalant. “What is this? An interrogation?”
“Just trying to figure out what’s going on with you lately,” Tobias said, chugging another more beer. “You seem kind of distant. Makes me think its girl-trouble, based on your reaction, it is.”
“It’s not,” I said, realizing too late how defensive I sounded.
“Yeah right.” Tobias stared at me, his gaze challenging. “You know, you might as well tell me,” he said. “I’m not getting any play in that department, trying to keep up with work and Joanna and all. Might as well let me live vicariously through you, man.”
I almost choked at the sound of Joanna’s name. I closed my eyes for a second, hoping he hadn’t noticed.
“That bad, huh?” Tobias said, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. “So what happened? You get caught by somebody’s boyfriend? Somebody’s husband?”
I waited with bated breath, thinking he was just seconds away from saying, “Somebody’s pissed-off overprotective brother.”
I rubbed the back of my neck, wishing more than anything for a change in subject. I shook my head and stared down into my lap, trying to think of what I could possibly say.
“All right, fine,” Tobias said, reaching for another beer. “Be like that.”
“Like what?”
“Secretive. You’re acting like Joanna.”
“W-What? How so?”
Tobias shrugged, a glossy look in his eyes indicating that he had likely downed a few beers before I had even arrived. “She’s just going through a lot, man. It’s hard to be the big brother and feel like you don’t know what to do. I always knew I’d have a hard time whenever she got her heart broken. Makes me want to strangle the hell out of someone.”
I swallowed another sip of beer, relaxing somewhat and starting to feel that Tobias truly didn’t know about me and Joanna yet.
“Oh,” I said. I wanted to question him further, but didn’t know what to say. So instead, I waited quietly, sensing that he would elaborate soon if I stayed patient.
He sighed again. “I thought that fool was going to be the one for her. I’d been waiting on the inevitable call when she’d tell me they were getting married or having a baby or something like that. They’d been serious with each other for a while. Hell, seemed like a really long time, to tell you the truth. Longer than anything I’d ever had. I just knew my baby sis would walk down the aisle before I did.”
My ears prickled. Despite our close friendship, I had never heard Tobias speak so in-depth about his sister and her relationship. I was surprised to learn that she had been so seriously involved with someone.
“Was this recent?” I asked, curiosity getting the best of me.
Tobias nodded. “Yep. That’s why she moved in with me. They broke up. He was abusive.”
I set down my beer, suddenly feeling lightheaded, and it wasn’t just from being surprised this time though. I was furious.
Abusive?
That mother fucker.
I clenched my teeth, the mere thought of someone hurting Joanna making me feel irrationally angry. I also wondered how it had happened in the first place. Joanna was so smart, beautiful, and independent; it just didn’t seem plausible that she would let anyone treat her that way. But then again, that had to be the reason she left to begin with…
“Yeah, looks like you want to strangle him too,” Tobias said, his words slightly slurred. “It was that Zander guy I was telling you about.”
I leaned back on the couch, my mind spinning. I began to wonder if Zander was the reason Joanna had suddenly been acting so distant. I knew she was hiding something from me.
Was this it?
“She’s ended things with him now though, right?” I asked.
Tobias nodded. “Yeah. They’re a done deal. That’s the only reason I haven’t gone after the creep myself.”
“Well, that’s good to know.”
“Sure, but…”
“But what?”
Tobias’s face screwed up. “Something still isn’t right. I think she’s already seeing someone else.”
My ears prickled again. “What makes you say that?”
“The way she’s been acting,” Tobias said, shaking his head. “I’ve always been close with my sister, but she’s always been too damned secretive for her own good. And her secrets always manage to get her in trouble. And when she’s in trouble, she comes to me. The whole cycle is getting old, to be honest. If she could just learn to be upfront for a change instead of handling everything on her own before problems get out of her control, she wouldn’t wind up in all the messes she gets herself into. Sometimes it keeps me up at night, wondering what she would do if she couldn’t always count on me to clean up after her.”
I cleared my throat. “Well, as long as she’s not with Zander anymore, it doesn’t matter right? As long as she’s happy…with whoever…”
Tobias shook his head. “I’m her big brother. I deserve to know who she’s with. She doesn’t know how to read guys the way I can. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have ended up with someone like Zander in the first place.”
“After dealing with Zander, she should know how to recognize a good man from a bad one now.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that.” Tobias huffed. “I love my sister, but her taste in men sucks. Mark my words, if she doesn’t end up with another creep like Zander, she’ll run right into the arms of a playboy. I’m going to find out what’s going on though. She’s living under my roof, so she’s not going to be able to keep it a secret for much longer.”
I swallowed down the rest of my beer in practically one swallow, avoided eye contact with my best friend. The guy who has practically just threatened me.
Of course I fell for his sister.
And now he was after me.
Thank God he didn’t know it yet.