Seven mates for seven brothers

40- Are you stalking me?

For the rest of the afternoon and evening Dennis was restless.  After dinner he went for a run hoping that it would bring some sort of peace to him.  Instead it only made him long for her more.  Feeling frustrated he went back home and considered getting her telephone number from Cassy.  Then he looked at the time.  Heavens, it was after eleven already; much too late to go around phoning people.  He was still sulking when Brian walked in, much too happy about the state of his affairs.  But he couldn’t feel bad about it for long.  Brian has always been the one brother he felt closest to.  Apart from Derrick that is.  With him and Carter gone it was so quiet around here.  No wonder everything felt off balance.

 “Want to talk about it?”  Brian asked when he noticed how distracted Dennis was while they were having cookies and coffee.  Cassy would have to get over this morning sickness thing soon or else they were going to run out of late night snack stuff.

“If I knew how to put it into words that would be great!”  Dennis lifted his hands helplessly and closed his eyes in frustration.  “Al I know is that I want to be with her.  She doesn’t even have to talk to me if she doesn’t want to.  But I cannot do that and it is driving me out of my mind.”  A nasty grimace appeared on his face.  “There is also a certain neck I would like to break and shove it so far up his backside he will need to breathe through a hole in his stomach to survive.”

 Dennis sighed as he deflated; all his pent up energy deserting him.  “On the other side; if he hadn’t broken her heart, she would most likely not have come to visit her grandfather and I would not have found her yet.  How is it possible to be angry and grateful to the same person at the same time?”

Brian lifted his shoulders.  “That sounds crazy to me too, but I get how you feel about that idiot.  You found her, so you are glad about that; but at the same time you want to rip his head off.”  He got the same nasty grin on his face.  “How about a compromise?  You feel glad; and I will go and tear him apart for you?”

Dennis laughed at Brian suggestion, not because he thought it was funny, but because he nearly considered it!  He quickly asked Brian about how he was getting on with Sam to distract him.

“I got a breakthrough tonight.  Remember I said that her mother was so sick?  Turns out to be a genetic type of cancer.”  Brian saw and felt Dennis’s concern for him and he was quick to reassure his brother.  “She has got the gene; but only as a carrier; it won’t make her sick.”  Brian thought for a moment; he had not told anyone about the conversation they had about kids the night before; so maybe he could explain it to Dennis.

“Last night when we were talking, and she said that she did not want to be in a relationship with me; she told me her reason was because she could not have any kids.  Followed her right home and told her it did not matter to me.  I wanted her more than I wanted kids.  Then tonight she tells me all about this cancer her mother’s got and how it is passed on from generation to generation.  I had a bloody heart attack when she said that; I thought I was going to lose her.  That was the worst possible moment in my life; I never want to go through something like that again.”  He was shaking when he thought about how he thought he was going to lose her so soon after finding her.

“But she reassured me that she would only pass on the gene to her kids; and that is why she did not want to have any.  She can; she just doesn’t want to because she doesn’t want to watch them get sick and die.”

“When are you going to tell her that your kids won’t get that gene from her?”  Dennis asked; glad that his brother’s mate was not so out of reach as he had thought.

Brian shrugged.  “That is still going to take some convincing. Making her see that she wants to be with me too.  She must make that decision before I can tell her about us.  Then everything will work out; if she doesn’t freak out on me.”