A broken heart was one of them—especially since he didn’t know why it had happened. Ruby was the person who was supposed to see behind the stiff facade to the man he was underneath, the person who stepped up and met him challenge for challenge.

She was smart and strong and everything he desired…and she wanted nothing to do with him.

A loud thumping caused both Spencer and Caesar to jump. Spencer was so deep in his morose reflections that it took him a moment to identify the cause, but Caesar was on his feet and whirling in circles right away. His stub of a tail waggled back and forth, both his age and his stupor forgotten in a sudden burst of joy.

The thump sounded again, followed immediately by a jingle of the front doorknob.

“I know you’re in there, Spencer!” Caleb’s voice—mocking and loud and more welcome than Caleb would ever know—blared through the door. “And I can see that you had the locks changed again. Very funny. Let me in.”

Spencer scrambled to his feet and unlocked the door. It swung open, missing his face by inches, but he couldn’t find it in him to care. The sight of his brother—in ratty jeans and a well-worn band T-shirt, his hair still too long and his shoes coming apart at the soles—was so welcome that Spencer wrapped him in a hug as he pulled him through the door.

And Spencer—who rarely initiated a hug with anyone, who hadn’t done more than shake hands with his brother in years—wasn’t the first to let go.

“Well, shit.” Caleb’s soft laugh sounded as he extricated himself from Spencer’s grasp. He stepped back and took a good look at Spencer’s face. Those dark eyes, so much like his own, didn’t stop searching until they found what they were looking for—and what he found wasn’t good. “Eva wasn’t kidding, was she? You’re in rough shape.”

Spencer didn’t bother to deny it. “Eva called you?”

“Eva called me. Eva texted me. Eva stopped by Lawson’s house and demanded that I do something.” Caleb laughed again, but the sound carried more concern than delight this time. “I thought she was exaggerating when she said you’ve done nothing but mope for the past few days, but she was right. You look like hell.”

“I feel like hell,” Spencer admitted. “But you’d better do something about this dog of yours because he’s not going to stop until you pet him.”