Jack spent his last few days split between Cassie’s apartment and our house. As excited as he was to begin this chapter of his life, I sensed that a part of him hated leaving. Not only Cassie, but Gran and Gramps too. This house was all we’d known, and we’d never left. Neither of us even considered moving out when we got accepted at Fullton State, so for Jack, this would be his first time living away from home.

I sat on his bed while he packed a duffel bag full of clothes. “You all right?”

“It’s weird to be leaving.”

“I was just thinking that,” I admitted.

He stopped folding a shirt to glance up at me. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. I mean, we’ve never lived away from home before.”

He sighed. “I know. You’ve gotta look out for Gran and Gramps, okay? They’re getting older, and I worry about them.”

I waved my hand. “Stop it. They’re not ninety. They’re fine, but I’m not going anywhere.”

“Except up north with me.”

“What?”

“I want you to drive up with me. I mean, if you want. The house looks awesome, and I want you with me when I move in and meet the guys.”

“You don’t want Cassie to take you?” I asked, assuming that he and Cassie had already planned to go up together. Even though Jack got drafted for the Arizona Diamondbacks, he was heading to their Single-A baseball team up in Northern California first. Before you got to the major leagues, you had to work your way through the farm system.

“No. I mean, of course I’d like her to take me, but she has her internship. Besides, I really think we need a brothers’ road trip before I leave.”

“You taking the Bronco?” Internally I shuddered at the thought of what a nightmare that vehicle would be for long distances.

“Yep.” When I groaned, he said, “Oh, come on. I want a car while I’m there. And how else am I going to take all my shit with me?”

Shaking my head with a chuckle, I said, “When do we leave?” and Jack grinned back. He knew I’d never turn down the opportunity to spend more time with him.

“Tomorrow morning. Go pack.” He waved a hand to shoo me off, but I hesitated.

“How am I getting back home?”

“I’ll buy you a plane ticket. Hell, I’ll buy you a plane. Just go pack.”

I practically ran into my room, excited at the prospect of spending some one-on-one time with my brother. I had no idea when I’d see him again after he left, so I would take any time he wanted to give me.

No matter how big of a jerk Jack could be to girls, to me he was a really great brother. Which was why I hated hearing people talk shit about him. They didn’t know the real him, the great guy underneath the cocky attitude and big-shot bravado.

I tore my room apart, searching for my own duffel bag in my closet and under my bed, but it was nowhere to be found. Frustrated, I walked back into Jack’s room.

“I can’t find my—” I stopped short at the sight of my duffel bag on his bed, already halfway filled with shoes. “Bro, you have my bag.”

Jack gave me a grin and a shrug. “Sorry. I’m bringing most of my shit. Ask Gramps to borrow his. I’m sure he has one.”

Without another word, I found Gramps in the living room and asked him for a bag. Gran told him to stay in his chair and she’d bring it to me.

Gran was the best, always taking care of her three guys. What would she do when there were only two left?

• • •

Jack woke me up at seven, insisting we both shower, eat, and get on the road by eight at the latest. I heard him on the phone and assumed he was talking to Cassie.

Gran and Gramps were both in the kitchen, wearing matching robes. Gramps sipped at his first cup of coffee of the day and read the newspaper while Gran fussed over the stove.

“New robes?” I looked at them, unsure what to think.

Gramps grinned at me. “Ma bought ’em. Said they were cute.”

“They are cute.” Gran twirled, and the blue-and-white checked pattern spun with her, nearly making me dizzy.

“Can’t argue. Plus it’s better to just do what she asks.” Gramps smiled as he went back to his newspaper.

Jack entered the kitchen and put his cell phone in his pocket before looking at me. “You ready to hit the road?”

“I haven’t even eaten yet. You said I had to eat.”

“Well, now you can eat on the road,” he started to say, but Gran clucked her tongue at him.

“I’m making eggs and toast. You can spend ten minutes with us before you go.”

Jack looked at me, his eyes begging for help, but I sat down at the table instead. I knew who was boss here.

He scowled before looking curiously at Gramps, and then to Gran, and then back at Gramps. “What the—”

Gran held her spatula in the air. “Don’t even say it, Jack!”

“I was just going to say what great robes you two are wearing. Did you buy some for me and Dean?”

I shot him a warning look and wished I had something to toss at his head.

“No. But there’s always Christmas,” she teased.

Five minutes later, Gran had breakfast ready. The four of us sat around the table in the kitchen, eating in silence. The mood was somber, as if this was our last meal together, and no one seemed to want to address the simple fact that nothing would ever be the same.

I refused to be sad about it because I was too damn happy for Jack. But still, it sucked to know he’d be gone until September.

Jack rushed through his food, shoveling it into his mouth like he was desperate to escape. I had only finished half my plate when he rose to his feet and told me that we needed to beat the morning commute.

Gran’s eyes started to tear a little as she hugged him. “I’m so proud of you. Go show ’em what you’re made of, honey.”

“Thanks, Gran.”

Jack’s eyes got misty, and I realized that if my big brother cried right now, I was going to lose it too.

When it was Gramps’s turn, he reached out like he was only going to shake Jack’s hand rather than hug him. Jack’s eyebrows shot up.

“It’s been an honor,” Gramps said before laughing. “Just kidding. Get over here, son.” He grabbed Jack and hugged him hard. “We couldn’t be more proud of everything you’ve accomplished. You deserve it. Now, go pitch your heart out, and we’ll take care of your girl.”

“Drive safe,” Gran said before giving me a quick hug and a shove.

“Jeez. You don’t have to push me out of the house, Gran,” I grumbled as I grabbed my borrowed duffel bag and slung it over my shoulder.

Once outside, Jack loaded up his truck, which thankfully had the hard top on. It must have killed him to put it on, but I didn’t even want to imagine what a long road trip would have been like without it.

“Why were you in such a rush to leave?” I asked as he took my bag from me.

“I just—” He shook his head. “I didn’t want to cry, okay?” When I just stood there for a moment, not knowing what to say, he growled, “Get in the damn truck,” and then hopped in.

“Thanks for putting the top on,” I said as I pulled the door closed.

Jack turned the key in the ignition and the radio almost blasted me out of my seat. He reached for the volume and turned it down.

“Shit, sorry,” he said with a sheepish glance my way.

We both looked toward the house where Gran and Gramps stood on the front porch in their matching robes, waving at us. Gramps held on to Gran as she wiped away the tears on her cheeks. Jack and I leaned out the windows to wave back at them.

Jack shot me a glance before he put the truck in gear. “Besides, I figured that seven hours was too long of a drive to attempt without the shell. We’d both be sunburnt and blown to hell by the time we got there.”

“Not to mention the fact that our throats would have been sore,” I said, and we both laughed at the memory.

We’d driven to San Diego once in high school for a concert, and Jack had left the top off. For the whole drive, we couldn’t hear each other speak, and we had to shout over the sound of the wind ripping through the car. By the time we got back home, we barely had voices and our throats were killing us.

Jack pulled onto the freeway and I settled back in my seat, intent on getting comfortable for the long ride. “You already have a place, right?”

“Yeah. Marc and Ryan helped hook me up with a player who was already renting a house and had two extra rooms. I guess the other guys living there got moved up.”

“Nice. How’s Cassie?”

He inhaled a quick breath. “Good. She cried on the phone this morning, but that’s only because she didn’t know when we were going to see each other again. But fuck if it didn’t kill me to hear her crying like that.”

“I bet. So what’d you tell her?”

“I told her I’d fly her up as soon as I got settled. Hell, I’d ask the girl to move in with me and live with me forever, but she never would.”

I smiled. “You mean that, don’t you?”

He looked at me for only a second before looking back at the road. “When I think about the future, all I see is her and baseball. And when there’s no more baseball, I still see her. You know? I’ve never felt this way about anyone. Never knew I could.”

“That’s huge coming from you.” Actually, his revelation blew my mind. Jack had never given his heart to anyone before he’d met Cassie, not even a small piece of it.

“Well, we can’t all be like you, Dean.”

Frowning at him, I asked, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

He glanced at me and reached out to punch my arm. “You know. Perfect.” Refocusing on the road, he said, “Nah, I just mean that you’re willing to take a chance on love. You find a girl and you get attached.” He coughed and said under his breath, “Funsize.”

“I’m not attached. There’s nothing to be attached to.”

I looked out the window as the city flashed by, but was lost in my thoughts, not really seeing anything.

“You like her,” Jack said. “She likes you too. I see the way she looks at you.”

Frustrated, I waved my hand and said, “I don’t want to talk about it.”

When it came to girls, he and I couldn’t have been more different. Everything about the opposite sex came so easily to Jack, but I always had to make sure any girl I was interested in genuinely liked me for myself, and wasn’t just using me.

Back in high school, I had my heart handed to me when I fell for a girl who was only using me to get close to my brother. When the truth came out, I felt like such an idiot for thinking that someone like her could be interested in me, but I didn’t know any better.

Despite all that, I was still far too trusting, especially considering how fucked up both Jack and I were over our mom abandoning us. I tended to believe the things girls said to me, and for that, Jack would call me a sucker. I probably was.

“Fine,” Jack said. “But you’re hung up on her is my point. You refuse to date anyone else because there’s a possibility that Melissa might like you back, and you don’t want to miss out on that.”

I stared at my brother in shock, wondering when he’d gotten so damn good at reading people.

“Am I wrong?” he asked.

I shook my head reluctantly. “You’re not wrong.”

“Then I think you should date someone else. See if it pisses her off. Try to get a rise out of the girl.”

“Seriously? Make her jealous? That’s your big plan?”

“Maybe it’ll knock some sense into her for once,” he said with a laugh.

I stared out the window and couldn’t believe I was actually considering it. Maybe it would work. If Melissa had expressed even an iota of jealousy, then I would know for sure that she was interested, no matter what she tried to say.

“It might backfire,” I said, my attention focused on the mountain range in the distance.

“Backfire how?”

“Maybe she’d date someone else then too. And I’d be pissed.”

“Well, maybe that’s what you both need.”

I shook my head, not wanting to hear any more.

“I have a question that actually matters,” I said, changing the subject and trying to pretend that I couldn’t care less about Melissa. We both knew that wasn’t true, but Jack humored me.

“Shoot.”

“I was thinking about asking Marc and Ryan if I could intern for them, but only if you’re okay with it. What do you think?”

I really hoped Jack wouldn’t think me being around his agents was weird, but I wasn’t sure. We were family, but sometimes people didn’t want to mix family with business, and this was definitely Jack’s business. If he told me no, I’d have to respect that.

Jack glanced at me, his eyebrows raised underneath his cap. “You think you want to be a sports agent?”

“I don’t know for sure, but I’d like to find out.”

Hell, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life when I finally grew up, but I figured it couldn’t hurt to try new things. Maybe it would be nothing like I thought and I’d end up hating it, but I’d never know if I didn’t try.

After thinking it over for a few seconds, Jack nodded. “I think it’s a good idea. You care about people, and that’s important. I wouldn’t have signed with Marc and Ryan if I didn’t think they cared about me and my future, you know? If I was just another paycheck to them. I didn’t want people like that in my corner. I could find assholes like that on the street.”

He reached for the glove box to pull out a pack of cinnamon gum and put a piece in his mouth before offering me one.

I took it begrudgingly. Who loved cinnamon-flavored gum besides my brother? I didn’t hate it, but the flavor lasted all of ten seconds before disappearing and leaving you with that weird metallic aftertaste. But for him, I chewed the damn thing anyway.

“Do you want me to call them and put in a good word?” Jack offered as he snapped his gum.

“No, I got it. Thanks, though.”

Reaching out to them was something I needed to do. If I wanted to work for them, I had to be man enough to ask.

We drove along the deserted freeway, the sound of the music from the radio and the wind the only sound for a while. That was how it was with Jack and me; we never needed to fill the silence. If it was quiet, we were content with it being so.

We could also talk to each other about anything, and there wasn’t any big decision I’d made in my life that I didn’t discuss with him, not that there had been many yet. He wasn’t just my brother; he was my best friend.

Jack reached for the volume button on the radio and turned it down a notch. “You gotta watch out for Cassie while I’m gone, okay?”

Déjà vu hit me, making me ask, “Watch out for her how?”

“Just make sure she’s okay and stuff. Check in with her. Don’t fucking let her walk anywhere alone at night,” he added, his voice turning bitter.

“Jack, I’m not her bodyguard.”

He shot me a murderous glare. “I know. She keeps telling me I’m crazy, but I’ll never fucking forget what that guy did to her. Or to you. I can’t stomach something like that happening again.”

“It won’t,” I said, trying to reassure him, but that particular topic was a lost cause.

“It can’t.”

“Don’t worry. Just because you’re gone doesn’t mean that I’m never going to talk to Cassie again. Hell, she’s the only person I do want to talk to.”

“The only person?” Jack’s anger bled out as quickly as it had come, and amusement glinted in his eyes when he cut them at me.

“Well, her and Melissa, okay? We hung out with them all semester. Why would that change?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I’m just saying don’t go crazy or anything, but make sure you make time for Cassie. She loves you. And I’d feel much better if I knew you were around.”

I scoffed. “Of course I’ll be around. I’ll be so around they’ll think I moved in,” I said, hoping to get a rise out of him.

“Watch it, little brother. I’ll still find someone to kick your ass if I can’t do it myself,” he shot back, but I didn’t believe him.

Not one bit.