“It’s not your fault.” He stood still for a moment, and then sighed and hugged her back. “We’re not big on sharing our feelings. There’s no way you could’ve known.”

And the dagger just slid in deeper, because Cam was right. She didn’t listen enough. “Gavin.” He pulled back, seeming tense again. Braced for a fight, she realized. “You’re my brother,” she said quietly. “And your life choices are yours to make, and I’ll support you no matter what.”

He looked at her for a long beat. “I doubt that would still be true if I told you that I fell into my job because I just happened to be good at it, but it got stressful. And then more stressful. And to deal with that stress, my roommate—a pot dealer, by the way—helped me out now and then. But it got a little out of control, because I was already using illegal prescription meds to relax and cope. And then I got the DUI and everything snowballed.”

“I hate how that all happened to you.”

“It didn’t happen to me. I did it to myself.” He looked her right in the eyes, not shying away. “I used up all my money for lawyers and rehab. Ran credit cards up too. By the time I got out, my world had imploded, leaving me jobless and just about penniless. And if it helps, Winnie didn’t know any of this either, not until I got out of rehab.” He lifted his hands. “Anyway, so here I am.”

She drew a deep breath and nodded. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“Yeah,” she said. “You’re my brother. You’re home, and being home will help. You’ll get through this, but you won’t be alone.”

Gavin looked at her, disbelieving.

“I mean it,” she said.

“You’re not mad?”

“Not at you.”

“We need more flour.” Then he wrapped his arms around her and buried his head against her shoulder. She felt his emotional shudder run through him.

She hugged him close. “We’ll get more flour.”

“We need more sugar too,” he said, or at least that’s what she thought he said, muffled against her shirt.

She swallowed hard. “Whatever you need.”

“Then I really need a new KitchenAid food processor in candy apple.”

She snorted through her thick throat.

“Piper?”

“Yeah?”

“What if what I really need is to be here with you and Win for a little bit?” He lifted his head and met her gaze.

She drew a deep breath as she realized her own hopes and dreams of going off to school were getting further and further away. “Then we’ll all live together again for a little bit.”

“And if we want to kill each other?”

“We already do,” she said. “Wanting to kill each other is sort of the definition of being siblings.”

He hugged her again. “Love you, Pea.”