Free A Way to a Dragon’s Heart by Xakara

complained.
    “Sorry, but she fed you, Alexander? During the whole confession, concession conversation she fed you?” Andrew emphasized.
    “Well, yeah, she…” Xander stopped. “By the All, you’re right. I don’t even think she realized she did it.” Xander smiled. “This could actually work. Okay then, so how do I do this? Caleb gets in the day after tomorrow, and everything becomes about me and him. If she’s in full-out nurturing mode with me, I’ve got to move forward before the emphasis changes, right? Or do I just step back and not worry about it? Maybe let her make the next move?”
    “I should have come up there with you and looked at the cabin across the lake like we’d planned. You’re always calmer when we’re together.”
    Xander laughed a long, pure, cleansing laugh. “I love you Drew, but no, driving up here with you would not have instilled calm.”
    “Gods, I know, I’m sorry about all of that. I’ve just been a little frantic and intense to get you settled since Caitlin got pregnant. I just keep thinking about you being alone, and I get a little crazy to fix it because I feel like I broke it to begin with.”
    Xander sighed and ran his left hand through his hair. Andrew mirrored the action with his right hand, and Xander smiled. “You didn’t try to break us up, Drew. I wasn’t ready to leave with Caleb beyond those few months after graduation any more than you were ready to let me go. The deli needed us, and we were too young not to need each other.” Xander laughed softly. “I was mad at you, I came up here to get away from you, and I still called you when we arrived and twice since then, not counting today. Leaving with Caleb would have been a disaster.”
    They each sat in a chair at different tables, apart but forever together. “We’ve grown up a lot since then, Xander. It wouldn’t be a disaster any more. I’ve got Caitlin and Aaron. Everybody else is either mated or so close as to not make a difference. There are more than enough of us to hold down the fort. With two mates and the baby almost here, I’ll have enough of my own personal life to manage to stay out of yours.” Drew paused. “As much as I can anyway; I’m just saying don’t make your decisions for us anymore. Don’t make them for me.”
    “Drew,” Xander began.
    “I’ve always liked Caleb, always. It’s just been easier to be angry at him for leaving than at myself for making you stay. I’m sorry for that too,” Andrew confessed.
    Xander took a deep breath. “You do know I’m not that far away, right? Nowhere near far enough to bring on this kind of trauma revelation. What’s going on?”
    Andrew shrugged. “Nothing, or maybe Caitlin knocked some sense into me and pulled the whole we should have waited to have a baby until we finished raising you line on me the day you drove up. You know, whichever.”
    “I love Caitlin. She is officially my favorite sister-in-law.”
    “She knows. Having her own twin brother has given her some unique insights. Ones I managed to quite efficiently absorb when facing a night on the couch no less.” Andrew leaned back in his chair. “Have you talked to Caleb yet?”
    Xander looked out towards the lake. “You mean since yesterday? No. I thought about calling him, but I didn’t know what to say. It’s not the conversation I thought I’d be having with him about Kryssa.”
    “But you knew you’d be talking to him about her.”
    Xander shrugged. “Well, yeah, we talk about Kryssa a lot. He likes the idea of me being with her.”
    “Then call him. If anyone can help you navigate this, it’s Caleb. He knows how to take his happiness where he can get it and to wait on the rest,” Andrew said.
    Xander gave a sympathetic smile. “You really feel that guilty?”
    His brother shrugged. “You have to ask?”
    Kryssa had already offered to help him with Caleb. Now Caleb would help him figure this out with Kryssa; an elegant and perfect solution to both