Tobias waited to see what he’d ask.

“Will you stop ripping yourself apart? What happened at that party was just…one of those things. You didn’t even know what you were doing.” He scowled in an obvious attempt to get through to Tobias. “Please, let it go. You’re only making it worse. If you can’t get past it, you’ll pull down Maddox and Jada and Maya. Do you think I want to see them suffer?”

Resting his elbows on his knees, Tobias dropped his head into his hands. What Atticus said made sense. And it made sense when Maddox said similar things. But internalizing it, being able to let it go, that was the hard part. “I’m trying,” he said softly.

“I mean it, Tobias. I like you. I like you a lot. If you really want to help me, quit beating yourself up.”

The lump that rose in Tobias’s throat made it difficult to speak. He didn’t dare try for fear his voice would break. So he sat there until he could overcome his emotions. Then he said, “I’m going to hike Half Dome this summer.”

Atticus’s eyes had drifted shut. “Oh, yeah? I’ve driven through Yosemite. It might be the most gorgeous place on earth.”

“I agree. It’s even prettier when you get up on some of the trails.”

Atticus lifted his eyelids, but they looked heavy. Tobias guessed the doctor had given him a sedative so he wouldn’t move around too much. “I bet,” he said.

“That’s why…” Once again wrestling with his emotions, Tobias took a deep breath. “That’s why I’d like to take you with me.”

“Take me with you…where?” He sounded a bit more alert.

“Hiking.”

His eyebrows knit in a frown. “How do you propose to do that?”

“You’ve already seen how—in a video online.”

“I can’t even imagine what you’re talking about,” he said, but he was mumbling, winding down like a clock running out of battery power.

“We can talk about it later,” Tobias said. “I was just wondering if you’d be open to it.”

“To what?” He seemed to be drifting away despite his efforts to maintain the conversation.

“Hiking in Yosemite.”

“I’d love to go hiking,” he managed to say.

“Then that’s what we’ll do. We’ll figure out a way for me to carry you.”

Atticus said nothing. The meds had pulled him under.

Unable to resist, Tobias squeezed his hand as he stood to leave. “Get well.”

When Tobias returned home, he found a plate of brownies on his doorstep. Thinking they might be from Harper, he got excited—until he read the attached note.