We got back to California with a couple of weeks still left in our winter break. Melissa left for home again instead of staying alone in her apartment. She’d told me on more than one occasion that she actually liked her parents, and she enjoyed spending time with them. That was something I’d never be able to relate to.

When we first got back, I figured it would only be a matter of time before Chrystle would sign the papers for Jack and he could get the show on the road, but the days turned into weeks, and there was still no word.

Melissa had called him one night, apparently fresh off a phone call with Cassie, screaming and yelling at him. I couldn’t hear what she said, but I could hear her shouting over the phone from where I sat on the other side of the room.

Jack tried to calm her down, but she wasn’t having any of it. When he hung up, he looked at me, shaking his head.

“What the hell was that?” I asked.

“She’s pissed. Oh Lord, is she ever pissed at me.”

“I gathered that much. Why?”

He sat down next to me and slumped back into the couch cushions. “She said that I need to tell Cassie what’s going on. She said that for all she knows, Chrystle won’t ever sign the papers, and I’m making Cassie suffer for it.” He cringed when he said the last part.

“Why don’t you just tell Cassie you’re on your way? You’re working on getting to her, to just hang tight or something. Anything is better than the nothing she’s had. It’s been months, Jack,” I reminded him, as if he needed the reminder.

“I can’t do that, little brother. I can’t tell her that when I have no idea how long this is going to take. Then what? She’s just supposed to be in limbo, waiting for me while I sit here and do exactly what I’m trying to do right now? I feel so powerless, and it frustrates the hell out of me and pisses me off. I don’t want Cassie to feel like that, and if I go to her right now, that’s all she’ll end up feeling. And it will be my fault.”

I didn’t know what else to say. Jack was stubborn. His mind was made up, and there was no changing it. Lord knew I’d been down that path before.

“What else did Melissa say?”

“That I had until I left for spring training to talk to Cassie, or she was going to tell her everything.”

“She’s brutal,” I said.

“Then she told me all about this guy who keeps asking Cassie out. And she said that she was going to encourage her to go out with him and forget all about me,” he said, his tone bitter and pained.

“Do you really think she’d do that?”

I wasn’t entirely sure that Melissa had it in her to do something like that, knowing everything that she knew. But then again, when it came down to it, her loyalty lay with Cassie the same way that mine lay with Jack.

Jack gave me a grim look. “Yeah. I do.”

• • •

The semester started, and I was slammed already with classes that were more challenging and required more of my time. Because of the heavy class load, my hours at Marc and Ryan’s agency had dwindled.

“I have to report for spring training in a week,” Jack said as he poked his head into my bedroom.

I frowned at him. “I know that.”

“So let’s go get dinner. Just me and you.” He smiled, and I couldn’t get dressed fast enough.

We drove to our favorite restaurant where we used to eat all the time as kids with Gran and Gramps. It was basically a diner that hadn’t been updated for as long as I could remember. The red vinyl booths were still red, and still torn in small sections that pinched your skin if you sat down wrong.

I think Gran brought us because of the menu diversity—the four of us could be craving something different for dinner and we could get it here. There was no arguing when we came to the diner.

Jack and I placed our orders, and when I asked for a double serving of their famous mashed potatoes, he started laughing.

“Remember that month when you refused to eat anything except these mashed potatoes? And Gran would get them for you and you’d eat them until you got sick?”

I nodded. “Of course I remember.” They were my favorite, and I would gorge myself on them and then have a stomachache later that night every single time. “And you begged for a chocolate shake with extra whipped cream every time we came here. Gran always gave in.”

He grinned. “I knew she would. That’s why I begged.”

When the waitress placed a chocolate shake in front of him, Jack dipped his straw into the whipped cream and balanced a giant dollop on it before shoving it in his mouth. I always wondered how he managed to do that without dropping it, but he never did.

He took another jab at the white stuff with his straw before putting it in his mouth again. “Seriously. Best whipped cream ever. Nothing ever tastes like this.”

The waitress came back with my mashed potatoes, and my mouth watered as I inhaled the steam rising from them, buttery-smelling and delicious.

“The rest of your food will be up shortly,” she said with a curt nod.

Jack watched her walk away. “She hates us.”

“Probably just you,” I said with a grin before sticking my fork into the potato mountain. Blowing on the forkful for a few seconds, I moved it to my mouth and moaned. “So good.”

Once I’d worked the mountain down by half, I asked, “Are you excited for baseball to start?”

“Definitely. I need to get my mind in order. All this time off is too much time to think. I like being busy.”

“What are you going to do about Cassie?” I asked, not wanting to ignore the elephant in the room any longer. “And you know, what Melissa said?”

“Chrystle still hasn’t signed the papers. Marc mentioned the other day that we should think about withdrawing the annulment papers and filing for divorce instead.”

“So will you tell Cassie that?”

He shook his head as he sipped on his straw. “No. Chrystle could still avoid signing those too.”

“Melissa’s going to tell her.” I eyed him over the table, knowing that Melissa wasn’t kidding about her drop-dead date for him. When she made a promise, she stuck to it, and this one was no different.

“I know.”

“Maybe that will end up working in your favor,” I said, and he shot me a glare. “I’m just saying. It might not be the worst thing in the world if Cassie knows what the hell’s been going on for the last four months.”

Jack looked away and shrugged. “I guess we’ll see.”

• • •

“She signed them! Holy shit, brother, she signed the papers!”

I held the phone away from my ear as Jack shouted his news. His voice was excited, making me realize just how long it had been since I’d heard him sound genuinely happy.

“That’s awesome! Why? Why now?” Wondering what could have changed to make that chick finally give in, I asked with a shudder, “Did you have to give her all your money?”

He laughed. “No. Her best friends called me. Said they had some serious dirt on her, and that they’d testify against her if necessary. She caught wind of that and signed, hoping to save face.”

I was stunned. “Well, who cares how it happened, I’m just so glad it finally did!” I jumped up, dancing around in my room in celebration. After all, nobody could see me. “So you’re calling Cassie as soon as we hang up?”

He groaned. “Not quite yet. I need a little more time.”

My dance moves halted. “What the hell for now? Jack—why?”

“You don’t know everything, little brother. I just need a little more time.”

“I don’t understand you at all. Do you even want to be with her anymore?” I pushed the one button that I hoped would get a reaction out of him.

“Shut up, Dean. You know my whole world is about that girl. Don’t ever question how I feel about her.”

I glanced at his schedule, noting that he had a game in New York coming up. Maybe he was planning on waiting until he could see her in person.

“You’ll be in New York soon, you know.”

“Trust me. I’m aware. It’s not like she’ll be at my game.”

“Well, she would be if you told her to come see you.”

“I gotta go. I just wanted you to know she signed the papers.”

• • •

The next time I had lunch with Melissa, she looked agitated, like she was holding something back from me. We hadn’t been seeing each other as much as usual lately. She’d had to switch a class around, which meant our schedules didn’t sync up during lunch every day like they used to.

“What is it?” I asked, watching her fidget across the table.

“You know I gave your stupid brother the deadline, right? I’m sure he told you.” She eyed me, stabbing her fruit with her fork.

“Yeah, I knew about it.”

“Well, you also know that he still hasn’t talked to her. And so I was going to tell her, you know?” She glared at me as I swallowed a bite of my sandwich. “I wanted to tell her what was going on so that she’d stop being so sad all the time. But when I talked to her—”

She paused, waiting for me to look up at her. “She sounded . . . happy. She sounded really happy, Dean. Like she was finally settling in there and moving on with her life without your brother. And I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t tell her because I knew it would devastate her.”

I froze with my sandwich midway between my tray and my mouth, processing the conflicting emotions her news stirred up. Half of me was thrilled for Cassie, happy that she wasn’t miserable anymore. But the other half was devastated, knowing what this could mean for Jack.

“So you didn’t tell her anything at all?”

“I couldn’t. And the worst part was—” She took a bite of her own sandwich, chewing and swallowing quickly before she said, “I sort of understood what Jack has been saying this whole time. How he was waiting to get it all in order before he went to her. It finally made sense to me.”

“Chrystle signed the papers,” I said quickly, holding my breath as I waited for Melissa’s reaction.

She slammed her fist on top of the table. “She what? When? How long ago?”

“It just happened.” I shushed her, trying to calm her down when I noticed the number of people staring in our direction.

Her breathing quickened as her fury mounted. Before I knew it, her eyes were shooting daggers at me.

“And he didn’t call her the second it happened? The second he knew he was free? Okay, I take back everything nice I just said about your stupid brother. I don’t understand him at all, and I hate him again,” she practically growled.

Melissa shot to her feet and snatched up her tray. “I’m calling him later, I hope you know, and giving him a piece of my mind!”

• • •

I sent Jack a text to warn him that Melissa was going to call him, and she wasn’t happy. I also demanded he call me right after and tell me everything. He did.

“That was fun,” he said instead of hello, and I laughed nervously.

“I bet. She was a real peach today after I told her that Chrystle had signed the papers.”

“Yeah, she asked me what I was waiting for, and I tried to tell her that I needed to see if a few things would fall into place first. But she wouldn’t listen and flipped out.” He sucked in a deep breath. “She ended the call by telling me to leave Cassie the hell alone and to stay out of her life forever.”

I chuckled. “For such a little thing, she sure is vicious.”

“Good thing I’m not afraid of her,” he said with a laugh.

“So you aren’t going to leave her alone and stay away from her forever?” I asked, mimicking Melissa’s voice.

He laughed loudly. “I could never do that. Ever. I need her too bad. You know it. I know it. Hell, the whole world knows it.”

Annoyed, I said, “You sure as shit have a funny way of showing it.”

“Patience, little brother. And faith. Can you have both of those in me right now, please?”

Honestly, I wasn’t sure I had it in me. I wanted to believe Jack, but his track record in the last year had sucked.