When We Collide Read Online Free PDF Page A

“It
was so easy to piss you off. You’d come after me with fists
swinging. For some reason, I thought it was my job to toughen you
up. Figured if I kicked your ass enough, I’d make a man out of my
little brother. Guess I taught you well. Remember that time you
kicked the shit out of Troy Clemons?” Looking at the ground, he
shook his head as if he still couldn’t believe it. “Shit. You
nearly killed that guy. Nobody was going to mess with you after
that.”
    My jaw ticked involuntarily and my fists curled, an
instinctual physical reaction evoked at the mention of Troy’s
name.
    Maybe I should’ve killed him.
    God knew I wanted to.
    Blake cut his narrowed eyes my way. “Of course, it
didn’t matter much. Wasn’t long after that you disappeared.”
    I looked to the ground when Blake’s disappointment
covered me like a shroud.
    “What happened, Will?” Blake took a step back to
lean against the bedroom wall with his arms crossed over his chest.
“One minute everything was just fine and the next we never see you
again.”
    I struggled to find a valid explanation, but there
wasn’t one to give.
    Dragging a hand through my hair, I released an
ashamed breath.
    “I just...” I glanced up at my brother and wished I
could say something to erase the last six years. I’d been wrong to
take the path I had—maybe just as wrong as she had been. Finally I
said, “I’m sorry,” because I had no excuse for the choice I’d
made.
    From across the room, Blake lifted his head and
exhaled toward the ceiling. The sound hung in the air, filled with
questions and dissatisfaction and a sense of letting go. He looked
back at me and jerked his chin in my direction. “How long are you
staying?”
    I glanced around the room in discomfort, then looked
back at him. “I’m not really sure. A while...” I shrugged. “I
guess.”
    Frowning, Blake studied me, his expression one I
knew well, one of the protective big brother.
    No. Some things never changed.
    “You and Kristina having trouble?”
    I resisted the urge to laugh.
    “Something like that,” I said, scratching at the
side of my jaw to mask my unease. Having trouble didn’t
begin to describe it.
    Blake nodded as if he understood and rubbed his hand
over his chin. “Well, if you decide to stick around here for a
while, Grace and I have a little guesthouse out back. We lost our
renters a couple of months ago. It’s not much”—he gestured around
my old room—“but anything’s gotta be better than this. It’s yours
if you want it.”
    “I…uh…” I didn’t know what to say or how to respond.
Six years I’d been gone, without a word, without an explanation,
yet my brother welcomed me back as if I had never committed the
offense.
    Blake grinned. “Don’t sweat it, man. Just let me
know what you want to do.” He clapped me once on the back as he
walked by, only to pause and turn around in the doorway with his
hand on the knob. All evidence of the smile had been wiped from his
face. “Just promise me you won’t take off like that this time.”
Something passed across Blake’s face, an emotion I wished I
couldn’t read. “I mean it, Will. I won’t let you do that to Mom
again.”
    Guilt rushed up my spine and settled in the back of
my neck. I looked away and palmed the tense muscles, unable to face
Blake and what I’d done. It’d been a bitch to ignore it in
California. Here it was almost unbearable. “I won’t.”
    Blake said nothing more, just turned away and pulled
the door shut behind him.
    I released a heavy breath through my mouth and
rushed an incessant hand over the back of my head, feeling like a
bastard standing in my own room.
     
    ~
     
    Twenty minutes later, I crept out the door and into
the dim hallway, the only light emanating from downstairs.
    Mom had just taken the last step onto the
second-floor landing when I emerged from my room. She paused and
offered a guarded smile, as if the satisfaction of my arrival had
waned and worry had