Free Seb by Cheryl Douglas Page A

popped the seal. “I’m just passing through. Can only stay a day or two, but the car’s running a little rough. I was hoping you could take a look at it for me.”
    “You still keeping your stuff over at Ryker’s?” I thought it was crazy that Brody was keeping millions of dollars’ worth of cars at our brother’s shop just because he’d sold his house and still wasn’t ready to put down new roots.
    “Yeah, for now.”
    “Still haven’t decided what you’re going to do?” I walked over to the sink to wash the grease off my hands. I’d started taking Skylar’s car apart, preparing for some of the parts I expected to arrive next week. Time was of the essence, and I didn’t want to disappoint her.
    “I went to look at a few houses earlier,” Brody said, shrugging. “I don’t know. I’ll probably buy something else here. The nomadic life gets old.”
    “You wanna tell me the real reason you haven’t been able to find another house?” I knew Brody was selective, but I had a feeling his reluctance to commit to a house had more to do with his ex-girlfriend than how many bedrooms and baths a place had.
    “I know our big-mouth brother told you Riley has a new boyfriend, so don’t even try to pretend he didn’t.”
    “Nex may have mentioned something about it.” Normally Brody and I shared everything, so the fact that he’d been tight-lipped about Riley told me she had him really messed up. Riley wasn’t the kind of girl who would sleep with two guys at the same time, so if she had a new man in her life, she definitely wasn’t still seeing my brother. “I know you two were seeing each other whenever you blew through town. When did she cut you off?”
    “A few months back,” he said bitterly. “She told me she was tired of wasting her time with me when she could be looking for a man who was ready to grow up.”
    Brody’s reckless lifestyle had always been a bone of contention in their relationship. She didn’t want a gambling man. She wanted a husband and father for the children she wanted to have, and everyone knew Brody couldn’t be either. His mind was always on the next big game.
    “I’m sorry.” I knew how much Brody loved Riley. He’d messed around with a lot of women over the years, when he and Riley were taking one of their many breaks, but she was it for him, the only girl he’d ever love. “Are things serious with her and this doctor?”
    He walked around the finished garage, looking at the framed photos of some of my favorite car restorations. “It’s killing me to think of her sleeping with someone else, man. I can’t get that goddamn image out of my head.”
    I’d never felt about a woman the way Brody did about Riley, so I couldn’t pretend to understand, but I could sympathize. “Must be rough. Have you tried talking to her?”
    “What’s the point?” He tipped back his beer. “She’s already made it clear she’s done with me. She doesn’t want any part of my lifestyle, and I can’t give that up. It’s a part of me.”
    Gambling was to Brody what drugs were to other men. It was an addiction like any other, only his had made him obscenely wealthy. I knew it was time for some tough love, to make Brody realize that it was time for him to man up or shut up. “Then you need to let her go.”
    “You don’t think I’ve tried that?” he shouted, turning on me. “I’ve downed more bottles of scotch and had more women than I care to count trying to forget about her. Nothing helps.”
    “You think this guy is the one?” I couldn’t meet his gaze when I asked the one question I knew would slay him. “She gonna marry him?”
    His breaths came in short gasps as he paced the concrete floor. He downed the rest of his beer before tossing his can in the trash. “That’s what I’m afraid of. And you tell me, how the hell am I supposed to deal with that?”
    “I don’t know.” My brother was in an impossible situation. He couldn’t give up the life he loved any