Page 44 of Really Truly Yours
I hear the first sheet of plywood smack the ground.
“Gray, if your brother goes in there, Donny is going to…” She cups her hands in front of her mouth. “Oh, this isn’t my secret!”
Something is off. “Tell me.” I reach for her arm, then reroute and leave mine dangling. I keep having to check myself with her.
Shockingly, she wraps both of her soft hands around my wrists, squeezing hard and causing quite the disruption in my brain. “You know how Donny keeps saying he needs to talk to you?”
“Yeah?”
“He doesn’t just want to catch up. He…” She eyes the treetops like she’s mustering courage. For what? No clue, but my stomach seizes.
“Sydnee.” Her name emerges half-growl.
Letting go, she wads her hands at her chin. “What he wanted to tell you is…Gray, if you go in there now, Donny is going to tell you and your brother that he’s Tripp’s father, too.”
Chapter 10
Grayson
“No.” I swear my head shakes under its own power. “That isn’t right.”
Sydnee sucks in her lip, concerned and so sympathetic it makes me feel like screaming.
Nope. Pity or not, I’d want to scream. This can’t be true. Tripp and I, full brothers? Can’t be.
My heart sprints. This would be good news. The best news, but…
I sneak a peak over my shoulder as another sheet of plywood hits the gravel. My full brother?
Brushing something off his hands, Tripp catches me watching. “You gonna chit chat all day, bro?”
“Hold your horses, dude.” I dismiss him with a backward flip of my hand, kind of like…like a younger brother would an obnoxious, older—one-hundred-percent, full-blooded—brother. He’s always been that in my heart. DNA never mattered.
But Tripp is going to freak out. Melt down. Spiral off. I don’t know. Recent conversations with both him and Avery have confirmed he is not ready for this information. A year-plus of counseling, I’ve been told, dealing with junk from his past, with not a hint of progress on his daddy issues.
Oh, man.
“I’m sorry, Gray.”
Our gazes hold. I grasp Sydnee’s arm and feel steadied. Squeeze. “Tripp can’t find out like this. Not now. I’ll go talk to Donny.”
She nods determinedly. “I’ll come, too.”
“Hey, where you going, bro?”
In spite of the irritation I hear, I don’t dare look back, swatting a backward wave instead. “Cool your jets, man. I gotta take care of something.”
Sydnee lets me take her hand but slides her fingers away once indoors. Donny is literally on the edge of his seat, straining the length of tubing on his oxygen for a look outside. “Who’s that out there?”
I close the door just shy of a slam. “You should have told me.”
“’Bout what?”
Like he doesn’t know. I plant myself in front of the chair. Still trying for a good look at the guy in the driveway, Donny tilts around me.
He knows.
I block his view. “Is it true? Are you really Tripp’s biological father?”