“I expect not.”

“This is great, and she loves to come here and visit your mom.”

“Yeah,” he said, tenseness creeping into his voice at the mention of his mother.

“You guys had a fight when I was there that day. Didn’t you?”

“What makes you think that?”

Ellie smiled. “Oh, just the yelling, and you storming out.”

“It’ll be fine,” he said.

“Well, I would hope so. You’ve been the best family... You’re the only family I have.”

“Your parents and Clint’s really never come and see Amelia?”

She shrugged a slim shoulder. “Clint’s parents mean well. But they’re distracted with their own stuff. Then I think Amelia and I are a reminder. A not particularly happy one. I know we wouldn’t be for some people. But that is not how it works for them. My parents... They’ve been disengaged for a long time. Hank and Tammy, you, Jacob. Caleb, of course. You’re the reason I’m standing strong. You’re the reason I was able to be so strong for Amelia. Because you helped me.”

“Why do good people do such terrible things?” he asked of no one in particular. But since Ellie was the one who was sitting there, she definitely seemed to think it was directed at her.

“I don’t exactly know what you’re referring to... But... I think very few people are wholly good or wholly bad. I guess what makes it balance out differently in the end is how many times you choose to do the right thing instead of the wrong thing.”

“I guess.”

He thought about Jamie. And choices. Jamie seemed to think that everything came down to choices.

He ignored the cracking feeling in his chest.

Ellie stood and got her things together, stuffing her binder into her pale pink shoulder bag and sweeping her blond hair out of her face. She turned, and the door opened, Caleb walking inside. Ellie brightened visibly. “Hi, Caleb. Will I see you later?”

“Uh...yes.”

“I have to go grab Amelia now.” She walked by him, her fingertips brushing his shoulder, and for just one fleeting moment, an expression of intense pain crossed his brother’s face.

It was so acute, and so apparent, that it left Gabe shaken. And it echoed against something inside him, something that recognized that kind of pain.

A kind of pain he wanted to pretend he didn’t recognize at all.

“Bye, Ellie,” Caleb said, his voice gruff.

Gabe’s eyes met Caleb’s, and the expression there was so closed off, Gabe knew that there were no questions Caleb would answer.

“You wanted to see me?” Caleb asked.

“Yeah. It’s about West Caldwell.”

“I don’t know the name,” Caleb said, leaning against the wall.

“He’s our half brother.”

Caleb nodded slowly. “You have a name.”

“Yeah, and an address in Texas. I’m going to go ahead and send a letter.”

“Good,” Caleb said. “Have you talked to Jacob?”

“Couldn’t get ahold of him. I assume he’s up out of cell service somewhere.”

“Probably.”

They let that settle between them. Neither of them knew what to do about Jacob. Or the fact that his reclusiveness was getting a bit more pronounced, and not less.