“How could you?” he said. “You called me before you even left your house. Anyway, she’s not here anymore.” Continuing to pretend it was no big deal, he jerked his head toward the back corner. “Let’s get a game going.”

His brother eyed him closely. “It looked like she spoke to you…”

“She said hi. It’s not as though we’re enemies just because her ex chased me off with a baseball bat before I could destroy her life.” He chuckled, trying to make a joke out of it, but the way Atticus and Maddox exchanged glances told him they knew how he really felt.

“Stop it,” Tobias said with a scowl. “I knew she was too good for me from the start, so we can’t feel bad that it didn’t work out.”

“You should try to talk to her,” Atticus said.

“And say what?” Tobias replied. “‘Hey, now that you’ve seen that the skeletons in my closet are way worse than anyone else’s, how about a second chance?’” He laughed again, probably a little too loudly to be convincing.

“Tobias—” Jada started, but he waved her off.

“I’m fine. Don’t worry about me, and please don’t pity me. It only makes matters worse.”

“It’s not pity,” Atticus said. “It’s—”

Tobias raised a hand. “Let’s not even talk about it.”

Atticus sighed loudly. “Okay, but don’t think I’m going to go easy on you tonight just because you’re nursing a broken heart.”

“I hope you won’t. I could use the challenge.”

“To keep your mind off someone you don’t really care about, anyway?” Atticus teased.

“Just for that, I’m finally going to kick your ass at this game,” he said and planned to do his damnedest.

30

“I can’t believe it’s time to say goodbye,” Karoline said as Harper finished helping her clean up the breakfast dishes before getting the kids in the car.

“I know,” Harper said. “Time flew by. But it was wonderful for me to be with people who cared about me. Thanks for all you’ve done.”

“I haven’t done much,” she said, shrugging off Harper’s thanks.

“You let me stay here and lean on you when I needed it most. That’s huge. So I’m sorry that…well, that things didn’t go quite as smoothly as you would’ve liked—what with me meeting Tobias and all.”

“You mean you’re sorry you met someone besides Axel and realized that he wasn’t the only man in the world you could be attracted to? I consider that a good thing,” Karoline said.