Read Love Brewing (Love Brothers #3) for Free Online

had no concept of time anymore. Just of tasks,
    things he had to do. Another symptom, he knew. Another reason to get his sorry
    ass back on his medication. Things always got stretchy and confusing when he’d
    go into one of his funks as his brothers used to call it.
    He looked up when Rosie put the plate of burgers on the
    table, surprised in a detached way by how fast they’d cooked. He was slipping
    again, losing track of time passing. Not a good sign, really.
    He flopped back in his seat, deflated, picked up a fork and
    tapped it on the table. His mother sat and poured a glass of tea. “Antony, say
    grace please.”
    Dom bowed his head, but left his eyes open, the one, pretty
    silly rebellion left to him when confronted once more with his mother’s
    dinner-table traditions.
    “Dear Lord,” his brother intoned. Then Dom stopped listening.
    His mother squeezed his hand twice, the typical Love family, end-of-prayer-time
    signal, so he raised his head and noted the seat at the other end of the
    glass-topped patio table was now occupied. A terrified, heavy feeling settled
    in Dom’s chest.
    Anton Love rose, fingers tented on the table, a brown
    cardboard box in front of him. Dom met his gaze without blinking.
    This he understood. This he’d experienced plenty of times.
    Parental wrath—or more specifically, paternal wrath and maternal disappointment—he
    thought he had a handle on from years of experience. The distinct
    calm-before-the-hurricane sensation rippled through his psyche, bringing a
    tinge of red to the edges of his vision. He gripped the fork tighter and
    tighter, only letting go when Aiden eased the bent-in-half utensil out of his
    white-knuckled grip.
    His mother got to her feet and glared at her husband down
    the length of table, their family silent between them.
    “Anton.” Her voice remained calm. “Do you have something you
    wish to say?”
    Dom glanced at her then at his father. The man practically
    quivered with rage. Frankly, Dom had never seen him this worked up. He
    attempted to deflect his own extreme terror at the confrontation with a
    fake-casual stance, reared back, one leg over the other, ankle to knee.
    The tension shimmering in the air rivaled anything the
    family had experienced, and Dom silently acknowledged that implied something
    pretty significant.
    “As a matter of fact, Lindsay, I do.” Anton’s voice matched
    his wife’s—calm, cool, collected—which scared Dominic more than any ranting and
    raving. Anton opened the box and started pulling out clothing, laying them on
    the table in untidy clumps. “I found these in the abandoned apartment over the
    old brewery. I’m having the place cleaned and fumigated. Gotta find a new
    renter.”
    Dom’s clothes kept piling up in the middle of the table. By
    the time his father had emptied the box, the pile of denim, flannel and cotton
    was so high he couldn’t see Anton, Margot or Kieren anymore. A pair of boxer
    briefs fell off the pile onto the patio.
    “A new renter.” Lindsay’s voice was distorted through
    clenched teeth, still glaring down the table. “Cleaned and fumigated.”
    “Well, yeah, I mean, since your son took off and left all
    this stuff….” Anton shrugged. “Also decided not to show up to work for the last
    week. I figure…well, I figure on finding another brewer and tenant.”
    Dom blinked, trying to square the strange, surreal
    conversation with how he’d thought the confrontation might go. Aiden cleared
    his throat. Rosie rose and started clearing Dom’s laundry off the table in
    silence.
    “Don’t touch that.” Anton’s voice dropped even lower than
    its usual timbre. Aiden put his hand on top of the pile of clothes. “Don’t get
    in the middle of this, Little A. I mean it.”
    “Daddy, this is pretty silly, don’tcha think?” Aiden spoke
    slowly.
    “No, I don’t.” Anton met his wife’s gaze. “I have another
    announcement.” He bent down and picked up a box labeled Love Brewing