Shaking his head, Zach fought down the urge to sigh. Sometimes he wondered if he had managed to be around more when Dillon was younger if maybe he could have helped his brother navigate all of this stuff sooner. “Nah, everyone tries to come off like they know what they hell they’re doing, but most times they’re just as blind to what to do as the rest of us are,” he answered honestly. Relationships or talk of feelings were things even Zach himself barely did. “Nobody says you have to figure it all out right now, you could always wait and see where things go,” he paused. “And then talk about it all when you’ve got a clearer picture.”
Zach chuckled. “Not going to say it’s fate or anything, because you know I don’t believe in that, but you understanding her better than other people might mean something,” buying into the whole destined to be or whatever wasn’t really his thing. But he couldn’t ignore the fact that his kid brother had found a girl who seemed to fit well. “But yeah, it does make sense.” He tried his damnedest not to frown at his brother’s words. “Almost everyone sucks at relationships, it’s a thing….” He paused. “Or maybe it’s just a Johnson thing.”
Yeah, he had a feeling the answer to that question wouldn’t be as clear-cut as the question itself had been. Reaching up to rub at the back of his neck, he ignored the urge to shrug as he replied. “This might not be the advice you want, but maybe don’t think about where to start or what’s going on between the two of you, just let things happen,” in his experience sometimes that was the easiest way to handle things. “Sometimes it can be that simple, the whole not needing to go through a billon different trials to get the girl you want.” Nodding, he added. “A walk is a good start, spend some time alone again,” he replied. “And who knows, maybe cloudgazing is just as romantic as stargazing.”
Did he deserve and out? Probably not. But he wasn’t going to argue it. “Alright, alright,” If Dillon didn’t want him focusing on his birthday he wouldn’t. “And you’re not a kid anymore, but birthdays are still a big ass deal in my opinion,” because it meant surviving another year. “I’ll take the out for right now, but when things settle down around here I’m taking you out for a drink, okay.” It might not be all that much, but it was something. Zach also made a mental note to get Dillon something, even if his kid brother insisted that his birthday didn’t need to be celebrated – he was fairly certain their mom would skin him alive for forgetting it.
A let a grin appear when Dillon repeated a phrase he had heard more than once from Maddie. “Not you too,” he sighed dramatically. “Okay, okay, I’ll slow down. God knows I don’t want to deal with either Maddie or Talia,” and he had a feeling that Maddie’s wrath would be worse, mostly because she was family. “Clearly, and yet for some reasons I still like the two of you.” Even a teenage him didn’t resent his siblings ratting him out more often than not – sometimes it had been for his own good.
He should have expected the look, but he still felt shitty seeing it. “Call it one of my bad habits, okay,” Zach replied with a shrug. “Laura’s not a bad cook, hell, none of them are.” He wasn’t picky when it came to food, especially not when he’d gone quite awhile without eating. This time it was his turn to give his brother a disapproving look. “Have you ever known me to be a salad person?”