Ryan downed his beer before he turned to pour three shots. “Enough of that. Let’s get back to Jess. What did you say to her last? What happened?”
“Yeah, little brother. I want to hear this.”
Frank took over the bar stool next to mine. Ryan passed each of us a shot, and we downed them without question.
“I might have told her I was coming up there to get her and bring her home.” I couldn’t look them in the eye when I said the words, too afraid of the judgment I’d see there.
Ryan burst out laughing. “Oh, that’s rich. Are you kidding?”
Frank leaned toward me, forcing me to meet his gaze. “You told her you were coming up there to bring her home?”
“Yeah.”
“Why would you say that exactly?” he asked as Ryan propped his elbows on the bar and rested his chin on his hand.
“Because her old roommate said she hated it. She told me that Jess was miserable up there. And I’m fucking miserable down here without her,” I said, hoping my reasoning sounded as logical as it seemed to me.
Frank glanced around us at the empty bar, then met my gaze. “So if you’re supposed to be up there bringing her home, why the hell are you here with us?” He frowned at me, apparently not too thrilled with me at the moment.
“She told me not to come, okay?”
“Wait.” Ryan squinted at me. “Did she say those words exactly . . . ‘Nick, don’t come up here?’ Or what did she say? Gimme more info.”
Frank groaned and leaned his head back in frustration. “Sometimes, Ryan, I swear to God. You’re such a fucking chick.”
Ryan gave him a shit-eating grin. “For your information, I’m romantic. The ladies love romance.”
“Then why don’t you have a lady in your life?” Frank fired back, and Ryan grabbed his heart, pretending to be wounded.
“Because I haven’t found the right woman yet, okay?”
“Lord knows you try.” Frank scoffed and exchanged a glance with me, hinting at Ryan’s serial-dater ways.
“I’d rather try and find the right one than be stuck in a relationship I can’t get out of,” Ryan shot back before sucking in a breath. “Shit, dude, I’m sorry. Too far.”
A muscle jumped in Frank’s jaw. “It’s fine.”
He had moved his live-in girlfriend, Shelby, here to LA with him when he relocated from Arizona to open the bar, rather than breaking up with her like both Ryan and I told him to do. Apparently he’d felt obligated somehow, as if he owed it to her to bring her along for this transition. We both knew that Frank felt stuck, but he hated talking about it. He was too nice a guy to break Shelby’s heart, so he stayed miserable instead. And he kept it all in.
“Let’s get back to harassing Nick. It’s much more fun,” Ryan said with a laugh. “Tell me what happened on this call.”
Grimacing, I pushed my shot glass in his direction. “I might need another shot.”
Ryan turned his back to fill our shot glasses one last time. I downed mine quickly, letting the burn course through my throat all the way to my stomach before starting.
“I called her and told her I wanted to come get her and bring her home where she belongs.”
“Did she like that caveman crap?” Frank said, interrupting.
“Obviously not, since I’m sitting here with you two idiots.”
“For fuck’s sake, Frank, stop interrupting. Go on,” Ryan said, glaring between me and my oldest brother.
“She told me not to come. Said she couldn’t leave, but she told me not to come get her.” I winced a little, as reliving the sound of her voice and her words forced the pain to slice through me.
Ryan cleared his throat. “Little brother, of course she said that. What was she supposed to do, pack up her shit and move home with you? She’s still in school.”
“Yeah,” Frank added. “What were you thinking?”
“I was thinking that she was miserable up there. I was thinking that she’d want to see me and that I could save her. I wanted to be the one to save her. To make her happy again instead of sad. I wasn’t thinking she’d tell me no.”
“She can’t possibly tell you yes.” Frank rolled his eyes, as if I was the world’s biggest idiot for thinking otherwise.
“Well, she didn’t have to say that she didn’t want me to come up there at all. She told me to stay home. She begged me to stay here.” Scowling at them, I willed them to see my side of things, but they didn’t budge.
“You’re being unrealistic. You can’t be her knight in shining armor when she doesn’t need rescuing,” Ryan said with a smug smile.
“You think this is funny?” I leaned into his space, looking for a fight. Anything that would let me get my aggression out.
“A little,” he said, baiting me.
“Keep it in your pants,” Frank growled. “Have you called her since your epic fail last night?”
“No.”
“No?” he bellowed into the empty bar.
“Did I stutter?” I was getting real sick and tired of them picking apart my every move. Maybe confiding in my brothers wasn’t the best idea.
“Oh my God, Nick. How did you get so stupid? Is this because we were gone by the time you started to grow up? You can’t be related to me and be this bad at love.” Ryan groaned as if my ineptness at romance was somehow a reflection on him.