Double Heat [Twin Ties: 3] by Lynn Kelling Page B

coming.”
    “Yeah,” Hailey admitted, meekly. “It doesn’t mean anything. You don’t have to see him. You’ll be busy anyway.”
    “He’s just been acting really weird. He still messages me and tries to call even though I haven’t taken his calls in months. It’s really bizarre and creepy. I don’t know what his deal is, but he’s not someone I want to talk to or be around.”
    “Should I tell him that? Tell him to back off?”
    That was a tricky question. Ignoring Tommy had always seemed to best route to take, but clearly that hadn’t been effective. It was hard to imagine being direct and telling him how to behave was going to yield better results, not when Tommy could be so pig-headed. It would only make him angry.
    But what choice was there?
    “Okay, fine. Just send him a message, don’t tell him anything, just that he needs to let it go. Or something like that. God,” He groaned again with dread.
    “It’ll be fine. He’s being a dick. He needs to realize you’re not his boyfriend anymore. It can’t be that hard to find another piece of ass.”
    “You’d think. All right, back to driving.”
    “Right. Be careful. See you soon! We’ll have fun. No worrying about whatshisface, you hear me?”
    “Yep. Later, Hailey.”

    The day-long drive had worn him out. As soon as Brennan got to Hailey’s place, after giving her a sleepy hug and thanking her again for letting him crash there, he hit the couch and fell asleep. First thing in the morning, before Hailey was even awake, he left to make his first and most important visit. Really, he just wanted more sleep, not to socialize or dodge questions about where he was living and with whom. So, naturally, the first place he drove to wasn’t to see a friend, but to the cemetery.
    Maggie’s grave was easy enough to find. He remembered the path to take from the day of her funeral. Then, there had been a procession of vehicles and a whole group of mourners gathered around her final resting place. Now, there was just him.
    As he walked from his parking spot, over the grass and through rows of tombstones decorated here and there with flower arrangements, Brennan wished Evan was with him. It would have been a strange sort of closure. The three of them would have been together again, at last. But it was too soon. Evan had a lot of emotions to sort through before he could make that trip.
    Maggie’s tombstone was modest, but just seeing her name carved in stone helped ground Brennan. Of all of the places in the world, that was the one where he felt most comfortable talking to his deceased mother. It seemed possible there was a special sort of conduit, sending his words to her spirit, connecting them.
    “I miss you,” he started out with, after setting down a bouquet of daisies which he’d picked up at a convenience store on the way. Her birthday wasn’t until the following day, but he intended to give her all the daisies and attention he could. “Evan wanted to come, but you know how it is. The whole death thing is a touchy subject with him. And I guess, being a spirit instead of a person now, maybe you know about everything that’s happened. I kind of hope you don’t. But, if you do... I’m sorry.”
    Stopping there, Brennan lifted his gaze to the clouds and the rays of sunlight breaking through near the horizon, letting the brightness of the morning burn away his tears. Clearing his throat and wiping his nose with the back of his hand, he couldn’t help but imagine her there, maybe sitting on top of the gravestone, swinging her feet and looking at him with the steady determination he sometimes saw in Evan’s eyes.
    She would have been ashamed of him. He felt it. It would have broken her heart to know her children had committed sexual acts with each other. It had never really hit him before as hard as it did then.
    Letting the shame wash over him, basking in it a little, he didn’t try to excuse his decisions, even internally. It had been scary to