"Brother." Sandy muttered as an echo of Ryan's statement. Now all eyes were focused on Ryan, Seth's gaze occasionally flicking toward this Alex character trying to gauge his reaction.
"Yeah...um...yeah... brother." Ryan stuttered hardly able to believe the words leaving his mouth.
"Hey baby bro good to see you. It's been a while huh? You're a hard man to track down." Alex had enveloped Ryan in a crushing hug before the situation became any worse. What surprised the watching Cohen's was Ryan's reaction, immediately returning the hug and even going so far as to bury his head into his brothers shoulder.
Not wanting to intrude on this private moment Sandy waited until the bond was broken before voicing one of the many questions racing through his head, "Brother wow I mean that's great but I mean... brother?"
Sensing the tension in the air, both through the puzzled faces of the people standing before him and the inability of this man to form coherent sentences, Alex decided to speak up.
"Um OK so I know how to make an entrance," Alex extended his hand to Sandy, "Alexander Atwood."
Shaken into action by the extended hand Sandy replied with the standard automatic response, "Sandy Cohen nice to meet you. This is my wife Kirsten and son Seth."
Neither Kirsten or Seth moved from their spot too perplexed by the situation before them. A brother who was at least seven years older than Ryan who he had never mentioned although they appeared to be extremely close.
As the silence grew between the assembly Ryan felt he had to do something. It had been so long since he had seen his brother he really wanted to know what had been happening in his life but he deserved a private sitting. Not to have to explain his life in front of the Cohen's or a restaurant full of people.
"So do you want to go somewhere. Talk maybe?" Ryan refused to meet Sandy's gaze he could explain this to him later but he could not risk losing Alex again.
"Yeah that would be good. If you know you don't have a problem with it?" The question was directed at Sandy but Kirsten sprung into action as if suddenly awoken from her daze.
"Why don't you come back to our house. You could be alone...talk whatever but we could still..." Kirsten faltered she wanted to say 'keep an eye on you' but stopped short unsure of where to go with the idea.
"...keep an eye on us?" Alex also had Ryan's ability to read people, "Yeah thanks that would be good we could talk, catch up."
With that Ryan turned silently, leading Alex toward the Range Rover, Alex keep a hand securely around Ryan's shoulders as if he would disappear if they lost contact.
Seth spoke up for the first time, "Well I think we can safely assume that the next few days are going to
be interesting, very interesting."
All three Cohen's watched as the two brothers walked away.