A Gentleman in the Street by Alisha Rai

water? I can come over and take a look,” Jacob offered, ignoring their antics.
    “Nah. We can handle it.”
    “I told you two, you could move back home until the business gets off the ground.”
    “Yeah, I’m sure that’ll drive all the chicks crazy.” Connor’s smile was sardonic. “Your place or…my brother’s?”
    “And trust me, too many of those girls will choose your place, Jacob. We practically have a revolving door in our apartment for all Connor’s women.”
    “Not true…”
    Jacob raised an eyebrow. “Boys,” he said mildly, gratified when both men shut up and sat a little straighter. Ben and Connor might be as big as him, twenty-six and twenty-seven respectively, and business owners, but they’d always be his younger brothers.
    Wait a minute. Jacob directed a frown at Connor. “What women?”
    His brother returned his gaze steadily with the light blue eyes he had inherited from their mother, but Jacob caught Connor’s Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed. “I’m seeing a couple of girls. No one serious enough to bring around.”
    “They know about each other?”
    “Jesus, Jacob.” Connor ran his finger under the collar of his shirt with an annoyed jerk. The boy had always been good-looking, and Connor wallowed in the attention of females, lapping it up.
    Jacob knew his brother was a decent guy and didn’t expect him to be a virgin or even puritanical, but he didn’t think it hurt to reinforce the lessons he’d spent a lifetime teaching the kid. “I don’t care what you do or who you do it with. As long as you’re honest and careful with the girls.”
    “What do you think I am? Of course they know it’s nothing serious.”
    Ben grinned irrepressibly. “Tell me you’re going to lecture him about condoms next.”
    Connor shot their little brother an annoyed glance. “You know what, Jacob? It would be really nice, just once, if you wouldn’t play Dad.”
    You’re not my dad. Jacob stilled, his wound still too fresh. “What?”
    “You know. You’re our brother. I know you’re old, but for God’s sake. Just be our brother.”
    He was not old. He was older. There was a difference. “I am your brother.”
    Connor sighed. “Never mind. Forget it.”
    Jacob shifted, more aware of his creaky knee than ever. He didn’t want to forget it. He wanted to snarl at the ungrateful runt, flip the table, and stomp out.
    But that wasn’t what responsible, caring adults did. So he sat there and struggled to swallow another sip of his beer before putting it down. “Maybe we should call it a night.”
    “But we haven’t had a family dinner in weeks,” Ben protested.
    Which was why, no matter how out of it Jacob had felt, how eager he had been to hole up and lick the wounds Akira had inflicted and ponder her words, he’d forced himself to shower and drag himself out tonight. Family first.
    Even if they did chastise him for being old and fatherly.
    Connor selected a mozzarella stick and bit into it. “Are you going to tell us why a quarter of this family is a no-show? I mean, I’m glad we got to order junk food and beer instead of tofu and sprouts, but I wanted to see the squirt.”
    Kati had become a full-fledged health food advocate since she had started high school. It was annoying as hell for all three of them, but Jacob didn’t think his brothers had any room to complain. Ben and Connor lived together halfway across town—he was the one who had to sneak cheeseburgers and buy expensive, unfathomable staples for the pantry.
    Jacob scraped at the corner of the label on the beer bottle. “She’s a little upset with me.”
    “Uh-oh.” Ben pulled a sympathetic face. “What happened?”
    Jacob didn’t particularly want to talk about anything so closely related to Akira.
    Yet, his brothers were watching him expectantly, so he swallowed his own distaste and quickly sketched out the story about Mei and the mysterious, unopenable box she had handed over to Kati.
    Connor whistled when