Cowboy in the Making
Page 21
Dan lightly took hold of Alisha’s arm, wanting to usher her out while the young doctor who could very well be the answer to his prayers was still willing to remain in Forever and lend him a hand.
Glancing over her head, he indicated to Brett that he had a feeling that if his new recruit remained here, talking to him for a few more minutes, she might be on the first flight out of the nearby airport—headed back to New York.
“Next stop, Miss Joan’s Diner,” Dan announced.
“Hey, Lady Doc,” Brett called after her. Pausing by the door, she turned to spare him a glance. “Nice meeting you.”
“Yes,” she replied coolly. “You, too.” The door closed behind them.
“Wow, if that was any colder, we’d have to bring out the pickaxes to break up the ice around you,” Liam commented.
Brett saw no reason to dispute that assessment. However, true to his ever increasingly optimistic, positive nature, he pointed out, “That means that we can only go up from here.”
Liam shook his head. It was clear that wasn’t what he would have come away with. “You know, Brett, when I was a kid, I never thought of you as being the optimistic type.”
“When you were a kid, you never thought,” Brett reminded him with an infectious, deep laugh. Then he pretended to regard his brother for a moment before saying, “Come to think of it, you haven’t really changed all that much—”
“Yeah, yeah,” Liam said, shaking his head as he waved away his brother’s comment. Glancing toward the door, he asked Brett, “Think she’ll stay? She didn’t look too impressed with the place.”
“Neither was Dan when he first arrived,” Brett reminded his brother. “But Forever’s got a lot of positive things going for it, and besides, it’s got a way of growing on people.”
“Yeah,” Liam laughed shortly as he went back to checking out the musical instruments. “Well, so does fungus.”
“And that, little brother, is one of the reasons why no one’s ever going to come up to you and ask you to write the travel brochure for Forever,” Brett said wryly.
Liam looked at him quizzically. “Forever’s got a travel brochure?”
Brett sighed and shook his head. “Sometimes, Liam, I do despair that all that higher education you were supposed to acquire while I was here, slaving away to pay the bills, was just leaking out your ear as fast as it went in.”
Liam frowned at his brother, but his mood left as quickly as it had materialized. Ever since he was a child, it was a known fact that Liam didn’t have it in him to stay mad at anyone, least of all his brothers.
Finished with what he was doing, Liam went on to step two of his process. “I’ve got to go round up the band and make sure everything’s set for tonight.”
Brett nodded as he went back to cleaning an already gleaming counter. He wasn’t content until there were at least two coats of polish on it, buffed and dried.
“You do that, Liam,” he told his brother. “You do that—just as long as you remember to get back here by six.”
Liam stopped just short of opening the front door. “I don’t go on until nine,” he reminded Brett.
“Right,” Brett agreed, sparing his brother a glance before getting back to polishing, “but you’re tending bar at six. Tonight’s our busy night,” he added in case Liam had lost track of the days, “and I can’t manage a full house alone.”
“Get Finn,” Liam told him. “He doesn’t have anything else to do.”
Brett caught his brother’s meaning. That he felt he had found his calling and wanted to be free to put all his energy toward it.
“Don’t belittle your brother just because he hasn’t found his heart’s passion yet,” Brett chided. “It doesn’t come to everyone at the same time.”
“How about you, Brett? What’s your passion?” Liam asked.
“I like running the bar.” He made no apologies for it. His running the bar had been the family’s saving grace. Rather than feel restrained by it, he was grateful for it and enjoyed being the one in charge of the place.
But Liam looked at him in disbelief. “And that’s it? Nothing else?”
Brett took no offense at the incredulous tone. Liam was young and couldn’t understand anyone who had a different focus, or aspirations that differed from his. He’d learn, Brett thought.
Out loud he said, “I like having my brothers pitch in without having to listen to some complicated internal argument that they feel obliged to repeat for me out loud.”
Liam’s handsome baby face scrunched up for a moment, as if thinking took every shred of concentration he had at his disposal. “That’s supposed to put me in my place, isn’t it?” he asked.
Brett flashed a tolerant grin at him. “Nice to know that all my money for your higher education wasn’t completely misplaced. Okay, go,” he said, waving Liam out the door. “Get your band ready and get back here by six.”
The expression on Liam’s face testified that he’d thought this argument had been resolved in his favor. “But—”
Brett pretended he didn’t hear his brother’s protest.
“With luck, I’ll get Finn to help. He doesn’t whine,” he added for good measure.
“Oh, he whines. You just don’t hear him” were Liam’s parting words.
But Brett had already tuned him out. There were still things to see to before Murphy’s officially opened its doors for the evening.
Copyright © 2014 by Marie Rydzynski-Ferrarella
ISBN-13: 9781460339152
Cowboy in the Making
Copyright © 2014 by Julie Benson
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