Wyatt had always enjoyed Stephanie’s brother. He remembered when he’d first Sam, then a high school senior who was every bit the precocious younger brother. Stephanie had brought Wyatt finally made his first venture to Eureka, a year after they’d started dating, to have Thanksgiving with the Byrne clan. Stephanie’s mother had loved the idea of having an architect as a son-in-law, even if all thoughts of marriage were banished until they finished undergrad, and marriage had seemed like a reasonable way to stay together through med-school and residency. While Patrick Byrne hadn’t been very enthusiastic about Wyatt (and never really warmed up), he’d loved Sam from the moment he met him.
Moving to Eureka and building he and Stephanie a home had meant plenty of time around her younger brother, Sunday family dinners where Wyatt might have otherwise had to sit awkwardly sandwiched between only Stephanie’s mother and father, Sam had been a breath of fresh air. They’d bonded over plenty of things — but most importantly, they had shared a lot of similar values. Wyatt remembered when he’d first ran for City Council, and how Sam had very proudly touted that his brother was going to be a Councilman.
He had never meant to let Sam down, the last year of his marriage collapsing as Stephanie had run off to Jordan. His affair with Sara had been low-key until the birth of Bennett, a baby that bore his surname. Wyatt couldn’t and wouldn’t be ashamed of his son, nor Sara. But it had meant scorning the Byrne family, shaming them further after the recall to just truly making a cuckold of their daughter. So it didn’t really right to be overly friendly with his brother-in-law, to call him Sammy as he’d felt tempted to. Because, he knew the man had to despise Wyatt, because Wyatt had made it a point to never express any misgiving about Stephanie or her own numerous infidelities in their marriage. “Sara has him tonight. I was getting some late night stuff out of the way, project proposal before the planning board next week. Work is crazy right now.” Which was a blessing, as it’d been fairly abysmal since the recall. “It’s really good to see you. I feel like we haven’t talked in forever.”
It was strange, being caught up in this situation and having nothing to do with it, really. The choices and decisions that Steph and Wyatt made, both separately and together, were none of his business. Sure, Sam would argue that for the safety and wellbeing of his sister, everything was his business, but that wasn’t true. He had no more right to the intimacies of her life than she did his (and again, she would likely argue the same). But as he stood on the sidewalk and stared Wyatt straight in the eye, he’d almost felt like he’d been cornered. Like someone had just laid a fresh sucker punch against his stomach. Sam couldn’t care less about politics; unlike the rest of his family, Wyatt’s wife included, he never strayed from his side. A couple of terrible business deals in the grand scheme of things was not going to diminish the love he had for his brother.
Samuel was simple at heart.
“We haven’t.”
And that was mostly because Sam, up until this point, had refused to acknowledge Wyatt whenever he’d seen him out and about. It’s not that he was feeling particularly forgiving on this day, but rather, he simply didn’t have the energy to waste on being petty. We’ll call this character growth.
“You can probably tell I’ve been avoiding you. I haven’t been very sly about it.” Champ’s ears perked slightly as Samuel went on. “It’s kind of hard to know what to say.” The man paused briefly, listening for the sound of footsteps around him. He wasn’t necessarily keen on spilling his business all over Eureka’s streets. “We don’t really have a lot to chit chat about until we have a real conversation, huh?”
That strange feeling pools in his stomach, like little bits of anxiety grating against his nerve.
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