Gage smelled his brother approaching a mile away, and stepped outside to meet him. With the early morning chill in the air and summer losing out to fall, Reid was underdressed in his white collared shirt, his movements stiff and his breath visible in front of him.

All Gage wanted to know was what Reid and Addison had discussed, but he was fairly certain Reid wasn’t going to tell him even if he asked. Still, since this was the first time Reid had sought him out in private, Gage’s curiosity was piqued.

“I wanted to let you know we’ll be leaving soon,” Reid said. “We’ve overstayed our welcome by now anyway.”

Gage raised a brow at the way Reid spoke for both himself and Addison. He also knew better than to take his brother's words for gospel.

“Is that what you and Addison were talking about?” he asked.

“There was nothing to talk about really,” Reid shrugged. “The heat seems to have died down so we’re going home.”

It wasn’t as if Gage hadn’t seen this day coming. But he had thought he would be talking about it directly with Addison. Not that he had any idea what the hell he would even say to her. This ranch was his life, Black Oak was his home, and Addison also had a life and home back in Chicago.

What was he going to do, ask her to abandon all that and move here? That hardly seemed fair. Yet he also knew he couldn’t let her go. She was his soul mate, and now that he had had a chance to have her in his life, he couldn’t settle for anything less.

“Okay,” Gage said simply. “You do what you gotta do.”

Reid studied him for a moment, crossing his arms in front of him.

“Don’t you think you’ve taken this far enough?” he asked. “Clearly she cares about you. Now let her get back to her real life.”

Bristling, Gage stared his brother down, holding back the growl building in his throat. What exactly was Reid implying? Did he really think this was some sort of game to Gage?

“You might treat life like a competition, but I don’t,” Gage replied. “I care about Addison.”

Care was a weak word for the feeling that had been exploding inside him from the first moment he laid eyes on Addison, but he wasn’t about to admit that to Reid. Who knew how his brother would take advantage of that knowledge?

“Please,” Reid scoffed. “And the fact she’s my most trusted colleague has nothing to do with it? If this is about mom and dad…” he started, but Gage cut him off.

“Oh, so now you bring them up,” he said, letting out a harsh laugh.

Gage had meant to bring up that particular topic ever since he had told Addison the reason he and Reid weren’t exactly on brotherly terms, but no moment had seemed right. How did one casually bring up their parents’ deaths and subsequent abandonment by his older brother? Over a cup of coffee? While pummeling him into the ground?

Reid tensed, his features tight. Gage could sense his brother’s bear floating closer to the surface. He could see Reid choosing his words while he grew more impatient by the second. But he wanted to hear what the man had to say, so he waited, his hands curling into fists at his sides.

“I know you think I failed you,” Reid said. “But I would have been no good to you. You know I’m bad at those types of situations.”

“And what kind of situations are those?” Gage asked, an edge to his tone.

Shuffling on his feet, Reid puffed out a breath as he avoided looking at Gage.

“I wouldn’t have known how to support you. Emotionally,” he admitted.

“Just being there would have been enough,” Gage replied.

Something inside him was winding up tight as they were finally talking about the thing he had wanted answers to for years. Finally having Reid in front of him, having a candid conversation was a culmination of everything he had bottled up inside.

“You know all I ever wanted was to succeed,” Reid said, finally meeting his gaze. “Coming back… It felt like I would be backsliding. It felt like Black Oak would sink its claws into me again and this time, it wouldn’t let go.”

There was something honest and vulnerable to the way Reid spoke, but his excuses were doing little to actually give Gage closure. Did Reid still think he was in the right? Gage tried to see it from his brother’s perspective, but it was proving difficult.

“You could have at least come for the funeral,” he said. “If not to say goodbye to them, then at least for me. We grew up together, in this very house. I thought we were close. And then you left me to fend for myself without so much as a phone call to see how I was doing. You can’t expect me to just forget that.”

Reid shook his head, his eyes fixing on something in the distance. For a moment, his eyes looked shiny, but he pulled on his mask of not caring about anything before Gage could really read his expression.

“I don’t expect that,” Reid replied. “But what’s going on now isn’t fair to Addison. She’s already packing up her things so we can leave in the morning. Don’t be so cruel as to try and stop her.”

Stunned by the sudden change of subject, and the fact Addison was getting ready to leave as they spoke, Gage just stared at his brother, more confused than ever. The apology he had wanted to hear hadn’t come, and would probably never come. And the fact that Reid had somehow convinced himself that Gage’s relationship with Addison revolved around him was almost too egocentric to comprehend.

Yet as Reid turned and left, what he had said got in Gage’s head.

Maybe asking Addison to stay really is cruel.