Free Don't Tell by Karen Rose Page B

David drew back in mock horror, crossing himself.
    Max frowned. „You don’t have to be so sarcastic. I’m trying very hard here.“
    „Sorry.“ David rose and got two beers from the refrigerator and a bottle opener from the drawer. „Here. Peace offering.“
    „Okay.“ Max took the bottle, still frowning.
    „So, how did you meet Miss Uptown Gir-irl?“ David gestured with his bottle, singing the last two words of the Billy Joel song.
    David was making him feel better despite himself. He’d always been able to do that. „She had a part in a local production of Richard the Third and she came to me to do some research. I don’t know, Dave. I was fascinated. She was different than any of the women I’d seen over the years.“
    „How so?“
    „She was… incredibly beautiful.“
    „You never picked out any other kind, Max.“
    „That was true before.“
    The bottle hit the table with a thud. „No way in hell am I hearing this again. You’re not going to tell me that you haven’t been able to attract a single beautiful woman in twelve friggin’ years?“
    Max’s eyes narrowed. None that stuck around long enough after seeing his scars to become anyone special. „Something like that.“
    „Dammit, Max! All that half-a-man stuff was bullshit years ago and it’s bullshit now.“
    „No, David, it’s not.“
    „You lost the wheelchair before you even went to Denver. I ought to know – I roomed with you in Boston every damn year just to kick your ass to rehab.“
    „And I’m grateful for that.“ Max was more than grateful. He was forever indebted to David for giving up four years of his twenties to bully him back to almost full mobility. He could walk on his own two feet because of David. How could he ever begin to repay that?
    David crossed his arms over his chest. „I hate it when you use that tone of voice.“
    Max raised a brow. „What tone of voice?“ he asked quietly.
    David muttered an explicit curse. „That tone of voice. The one that says ‘Don’t touch me.’ Don’t you understand anything at all? I don’t want your fucking gratitude, Max. I never did.“
    Max felt his own hackles rising. „Then what do you want?“
    David pushed back from the table and began to clean the kitchen, looking for anything on which he could vent his anger. One of Grandma Hunter’s plates shattered as he threw it against the old porcelain sink. „I want you to talk to me.“ He turned and faced his brother, anguish plain on his face. „I want my brother back.“
    The heartfelt plea struck deeper than any other words could. Max’s eyes slid shut and he felt emotion thicken in his throat. „I’m back, Dave.“
    „Your body is back, Max. I want you“ Incredibly, David’s voice broke. „I missed you.“ He swallowed hard, fighting the tears. „I love you. We all do. Come home, Max.“
    Max’s shoulders sagged as he dropped his face into his hands. How could he have hurt the people he loved the most this way? „I never told Elise.“
    David knelt on the cold linoleum and pulled Max’s hands from his face. „You never told her about the accident? About the wheelchair? Why the hell not?“
    Max’s laugh was strangled and coarse. „Because I’m a… what did you used to call me?“
    „A self-pitying sonofabitch.“
    „Yeah. That’s what I was.“
    „So you could never bring her home, because she’d hear it from one of us.“
    „Something like that.“
    „Max.“ Compassion mixed with disgust.
    „I know.“
    „No, you don’t. Ma thinks you’re ashamed of her.“
    Max looked up, his expression fierce. „I never once felt that.“
    „Then why have you stayed away so long, Max? Why did you move clear across the country? And don’t say because of the job. You could have gotten a position at any university in Chicago. And why when you came home were you always so… remote?“
    Max looked away. „Lots of questions.“
    „You come up in conversation occasionally,“ David replied