Page 26 of Falling With You

“Really? I think out of all of us in this building, you brood the most.”

“Well…” Dillon said and then trailed off. “What?” he asked after I’d glared.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Well, all you guys pretty much brood a lot. Until you get laid. And then there’s not so much broodiness or swaggering. And that gets annoying after a while. You, however, brood a lot. Maybe you need to get laid.”

“He is my favorite Connolly brother,” Beckham said, grinning. “Seriously, favorite Connolly brother.”

“You know, I’m pretty sure we’re going to need to hire a new bartender soon,” I said dryly.

“You would think that. But you would be wrong.” Beckham just stomped out, indeed brooding on his way. If the man wasn’t razzing one of us, he was actually brooding. Dillon had it right.

“Okay, enough of this crap,” I said after a while. “Let’s get through the rest of the training, that way, more time will pass, and my hand will heal so I can get back to what I love.”

“You mean you don’t love hanging out with me and teaching me all the mundane things that you hate?” Dillon asked, his voice all too casual.

I held back a curse. Not because of exactly what the kid was saying, but because of what hewasn’tsaying.

Because I hadn’t been the best brother to Dillon. I had actually been a really shitty brother to Dillon at first. I hadn’t even known about his existence until he was eighteen years old, and I had lost so much time because I had been an asshole. Because I had blocked all communication with my brothers.

And Dillon was the one who suffered from that. Yeah, we agonized too, but Dillon was the kid here. He was the innocent one.

And now he was trying to find his place with us, even as we tried to find our footing when it came to being a Connolly brother. We were getting better, but sometimes, we missed out on the stupid things because we weren’t ready to take responsibility for our past actions.

“Hey, just because I’m going to be able to start using my hand again the way I want, doesn’t mean you can just walk away from your duties. You’re stuck back here with me, kid. I mean, yeah, you’re a Connolly brother, but that doesn’t mean you can just get away with not helping this place. You get me?”

Dillon’s eyes widened for a moment and then filled with something that neither of us wanted to name right then. He gave me a tight nod.

“Yeah, I get you. So, does that mean I get to play with the frying pan at some point?”

“Yeah, maybe in a couple years.”

“Oh, Aiden,” he whined.

“Don’t whine. Get back to chopping. If it’s not good enough, I’m going to make you do it again. And you don’t really want me to have to deal with waste, do you?”

“No, chef,” Dillon muttered and went back to his work.

I just smiled and shook my head.

He was a good kid. And I was glad I was getting to know him.

I just hated the fact that it had taken so long to get to this point.

By the time we finished the prep and were getting to filling all the orders, Dillon was still working on some of the backend stuff while I was doing most of my work one-handed. I had gotten pretty good at it, even though I wasn’t exactly ambidextrous. But you couldn’t hold me back for long. Mostly because if I were held back, I would start to glower and probably break something in my house because I was a fucking idiot.

Not that I’d ever actually admit that to my brothers. There were boundaries, after all.

I let the rest of my staff work, knowing that they could probably handle most nights without me, but I didn’t like to leave it alone. This was my place now. And I had my stamp on it. And I really loved what I did. I wanted to make sure that everything I did was worth doing, and that meant I was here, even when I was hurting.

Thankfully, my hand didn’t hurt as much as it used to, but I was still a little tired.

I took off my apron, set it on the counter off to the side, and headed out to the front of the restaurant and bar.

Brendon and Cameron pretty much ran this area, and I didn’t mind. I had my space, and they had theirs.

It was busy tonight, and for that, I was grateful. I could still remember the first month or so that I had been here, right when I was wondering if I was really going to quit my job and work here full-time. The place really hadn’t been busy on a weeknight. And it wasn’t as busy as it needed to be on the weekend either.