Brothers, Boyfriends, and Ballads

Warm weather, cold weather, storm weather, Luke had endured it all with a smile and a laugh. But as he stepped off the plane, sunlight shimmering off the tarmac, the heat washing over him felt as if he’d walked into an industrial oven.

Sweat already adorned his pale skin as he watched Lia jump the last two steps down from the plane. She landed beside him with a grin so bright it challenged the sun.

She’d spent most of the travel time folding vibrant sheets of paper into origami dragons for the anxious kids on board.

Their delighted smiles seemed to set her alight with quiet pleasure. She had a way with children that was magic to witness.

She was stunning now, despite their early start and the journey here.

His pulse constantly jumped whenever he laid eyes on her. She was entirely too distracting in the dress she wore. Not that she wasn’t always ethereal.

The color of her dress suited her lightly bronzed skin—made possible by a weekend trip she took with Melanie the month before.

She just radiated an incandescent glow on the luminous summer day.

The frothy garment was a bit creased, but no less eye-catching as it skimmed and hugged every hollow and curve. It was a grungier shade of turquoise and the skirt swished around her knees.

The low neckline and thin shoulder straps made it hard for him to concentrate as she tilted her head to assess him.

Her azure eyes glistened as she tried and failed to hide her smirk.

“You’re going to suffer here, aren’t you?” She asked, a teasing quality in her voice.

He glanced around as they followed the other passengers toward the terminal and immediately looked away. The dazzling sunlight hit the silver metal and glass structure like a damn laser.

Even behind his sunglasses, he had to blink the glare away.

The journey here hadn’t been as horrible as he thought it would be.

Trapped in an enclosed space with too many chattering strangers. Their scents mingling and creating an unpleasant aroma of body odor, perfume, and the terrible food they were eating.

He became nose blind after a while and only felt anxious as they landed. The plane tyres kissed the ground and bounced twice.

He hated that part and hadn’t breathed again until they were coasting smoothly down the runway. Now he had to withstand the heat for a week and give a good first impression to Emilia’s brother, who was here for the summer.

He had agreed to wait in the pickup line for them.

Lia nudged him with an elbow. He hurried to answer her, but she was used to him getting lost in his head now.

“Possibly, but it’ll be worth it,” he said, smiling as they approached the entrance and he held the heavy door open for her.

She chuckled as the air-conditioned chill hit them, and he sighed happily.

“As long as you let me slather you in sunscreen, you’ll be fine.”

Luke nodded, sure she’d use his need for factor six thousand sun protection to tease him.

“Or you’ll be carrying my charred bones back for Storm to chew on.”

Lia snorted, head shaking, as she led him to collect their bags.

A process that wasn’t as bothersome as he expected, given the massive colorful tags she’d slapped on their luggage.

He remembered which one was his because she had written his name in giant letters at least eight times.

“As if I’d allow that! Only raw bones for your huge powder puff.”

He gave a low chuckle. The woman listened to everything he told her and remembered it months later to joke with him about it.

His own brother struggled to remember things about him, but she never did. Jordan had called the other day to ask what date Luke’s birthday was.

Again.

Third time that year.

Emilia remembered and had been hinting about the present she was getting him.

She nearly tipped over as she tried to lift her case off the conveyor and he took it from her in case she fell.

Her grateful, close-lipped smile as he finally replied was all the thanks he needed.

“True. I think she likes you better than me.” He helped her with her bag and his.

She could probably fit herself in the bag she brought. He thought she might’ve packed Storm in it, given its weight.

“That’s because I sneak her food and sing to her. She likes that,” she chirped as they made their way through the airport and out into the suffocating heat once more.

“If I tried to sing to her, I reckon she’d report me to the animal protection department for emotional distress.”

Emilia rolled her eyes and said, “She might wonder why you’re suddenly singing to her, but you aren’t that bad.”

Luke shrugged. He enjoyed hearing her crooning to his daft dog and had no plans to take over.

“I’ll leave the singing to you, Lia. It keeps her calm.”

She grinned as she met his eye and said, “Do you think she’d agree to me having a cat? Would she hate it?”

“I honestly haven’t got a clue. She doesn’t seem to bother with the ones that roam in the garden at home. But being in the same room as one? I don’t know how she’d react.”

She opened her mouth to respond when an unfamiliar, vociferous voice cut through the murmur of chatter as holiday goers streamed toward the taxi ranks.

“Lia! Hey! Over here! Don’t ignore me, Lia! I’ve been waiting for ages. Where have you been? I’m late for my nap.”

Luke turned his head toward the noise and found a blond man scowling at them. His sharp, carved cheekbones and squared jaw appeared to have been sculpted from stone. His black outfit seemed to suck in the light.

He looked as if he were going on an imperial march.

But the way he flailed his arms to catch Lia’s attention removed the intimidating edge he was clearly going for.

Luke had nearly forgotten their introduction would come so soon.

Luckily, Lia’s brother seemed more intent on annoying her than giving Luke some stupid brotherly warning to never hurt his sister.

“Take your time. Crawl, why don’t you? It’s not like I have plans or anything,” Oliver drawled.

“I can’t control the speed the plane flies, Oliver. We landed on time. Calm down,” Lia called and shook her head.

She turned to wink at Luke and they walked closer to the man standing with his hands planted on his hips.

He barely noticed the flashy car as Lia and Oliver immediately started bickering.

His pulse kicked up, the sun kissing his face, and unsure whether to introduce himself first to get it over with or let her brother run the show.

He was curious how Oliver would handle it, so he opted for the latter. He struggled to keep up as they chatted, though it seemed more playful than true arguing.

“Well, excuse me for being early. A thanks would be nice,” Oliver said.

“Oh, sorry, wait a moment.”

Lia patted her dress pockets that Luke knew were empty. Then she rifled through the large purse hanging on her shoulder, taking her time and huffing as Oliver’s scowl deepened.

“Ah, here it is!” she said, pulling her hand free from her bag and flashing the middle finger to her brother with a smirk.

“Ha-fucking-ha,” Oliver deadpanned, going on in a sly tone, “Every time. You really need to brush up on your banter skills, sweet sister.”

“Perhaps if you were more polite in greeting us, we’d be more likely to react in kind. And for the last time—don’t call me that!”

“I think not. You go the loveliest shade of puce when I call you that. I find it pleasing,” Oliver sniffed, chin lifting as his gaze, paler than his sisters but still striking, landed on Luke at last.

Luke’s spine stiffened, expression indifferent as he and the other man sized each other up.

Oliver’s bold, dark brows rose and Luke smirked at him despite the abrupt tension shivering between them.

“I dread to think what my sweet sister has told you, but I promise, only half the lies she tells about me are true.” Oliver’s eyes trailed from Luke’s head down to his feet and back again. “You’re—shorter than her last couple of strays,” he observed in a tone full of snark.

Now he understood why Lia found it so easy to talk to people and to him at first.

If she could wrangle her brother, she could handle anyone else. Luke rapidly shuffled through his words and didn’t care about making a good impression anymore.

Oliver would either like him or not. It was out of his control.

He felt no heart rate raising anxiety, only a sense that he was where he was supposed to be existed within him.

Unusual for him, no self berating comments swirled in his head. The ground underneath his feet was solid and unshakable.

His voice remained light and dry as he responded, “Not where it counts. And don’t worry, you’re just as dramatic as she said you’d be.”

Emilia’s brother arched a brow as he pushed off from the sleek black car and approached Luke, staying out of arm’s reach as Lia sighed.

A heartbeat of strained tension like elastic pulling too tight seemed to pause the world around them.

Luke stood to his full height, shoulders back as he and Oliver stared off like two misfit cowboys in a cheesy western movie. The blond-haired man was steel faced, unmoving.

He held his ground until Oliver’s mask cracked and a ghost of a smirk alighted on his thin mouth.

“I think we’ll get along just fine,” Oliver said after a protracted silence.

Lia pushed her way past them and tossed over her shoulder, “If you two are done, I’d like to get to the beach before my eyes are sore from rolling.”

Luke chuckled as Oliver rolled his eyes and gave a long-suffering sigh.

“I could’ve made her walk, yet she speaks to me like that!” He exclaimed and threw his hands up.

“Try sayin’ please, it usually works,” Luke replied and patted him on the shoulder as he followed Emilia into the back seat of the car.

She was smirking as he slid in and he said, “Why didn’t you sit up front?”

Her eyes glittered with mirth as she said, “You’ll see.”

Luke found himself torn between biting his nails and laughing. The mischievous twinkle in her eye didn’t bode well.

He settled somewhere in the middle as Oliver flung open the driver’s door, climbed in.

He slammed it behind him, and the car shook as they all buckled themselves in. A pleasant blend of warm leather, black cherry car freshener, and Oliver’s woody aftershave fragranced the car’s interior.

Lia seemed to fight off a laugh as her gaze bounced between Oliver, who was fiddling with his phone, and Luke, who had the sudden sensation that he hadn’t read the fine print for this vacation.

The silence hummed as Oliver scrolled through his phone and all but yelled, “Show time! Hold on tight kids, I won’t stop for anything. I accept tips. Both cash and credit.”

For her own selfish amusement, Emilia made the choice to leave this facet of Oliver’s personality out of all she had told Luke.

Her brother treated every moment of his life as though he were on a stage.

He kept the spotlight solely on him. It didn’t matter what anyone told him—he thought he was the best at everything he did.

And he had no problems proving it.

He was talented. She couldn’t deny that. However, his abrasive nature and refusal to play a quiet side character in any situation grew tiresome to most.

Loud and cocky, Oliver was all of that and more.

He had a secret savage protective side, too. He just despised showing it. She braced for Luke’s reaction.

And it didn’t disappoint.

Oliver started the car and put his phone away. The music from his latest theater production blasted through the car’s sound system, a soppy ballad with many vocal runs and ad-libs.

It played a mere second before her brother put his foot down and peeled away from the curb.

Luke instantly reached for the oh-shit handle. He hung on white knuckled as Oliver slid past an SUV and almost scraped along the side of it.

His obsidian eyes widened and cut to her. The sunshine soaked landscape outside their tinted windows passed in a streaking blur.

She whispered, “Sorry, he won’t kill us, but he might rattle a few curbs.”

In a rough undertone, Luke said, “When you said he was an obnoxious diva, I didn’t think it would start right away.”

She laughed and reached over, grabbing his other hand and prying his fisted fingers open to entwine hers with them. Emilia relaxed for what was certain to be a bumpy ride.

Then Oliver started singing and she couldn’t fight the childish giggles crawling up her throat as Luke’s expression twisted from fright to utter bewilderment.

So many questions swam in his singular eyes. What in the ever-loving fuck?! Was the most prominent.

She nodded as he met her eye and lifted a shoulder in a lazy shrug, leaning closer so he’d hear her over the racket.

“I think he’s trying to establish his dominance! You know, like birds do. You’ll learn to tune him out!”

She grimaced as Oliver missed a high note and punched his hand into the steering wheel, setting off the horn.

She waited for the honking to stop before she said, “If I’d warned you about this, you wouldn’t have got the full Oliver experience.”

Luke appeared to choke, head shaking but mouth chuckling. They both silently prayed they wouldn’t end up in a car wreck before their vacation even started.