This way she’d be ready for the inevitable end—until then, she’d enjoy every last second. There’d be bruises, no doubt about it. She’d deal with them as she’d dealt with the other blows of life.

Monday came around too soon. Danny woke with his stomach in knots, the meeting with team management the first thing on his mind. He was jittery, jumpy as he put on a dark gray suit for the formal meeting. All his brothers had called to tell him he had this, but his skin still felt too tight over his body. Gabe, Sailor, Jake—each and every one had offered to drive him so he’d have support on the way to the meeting, could talk things out, but Danny had turned them down.

His brothers had conquered their battles, done the hard yards, with no one holding their hand. Being the youngest of their quartet didn’t mean he could rely on them forever.

Right then, he swore he could feel Gabe’s glare from across the city.

His big brother would burn him to ash with his eyes if he heard him thinking that way. Gabe was of the same mindset as their father: family was forever, and it was always there to back you up.

“No feuds in this family, no getting angry at each other and not talking for days or weeks,” Joseph had declared the first time Danny and Jake had a big childhood blowup. “We’re aiga, and you are uso, are brothers. And a brother will walk by your side all your life.

“You see how Gabriel and Sailor are there for each other and for you two? That’s how it should be between uso. If you have a disagreement, you talk and you figure it out. This aiga loves, and it sticks together. There is nothing any of my four boys could do or say that’d make me reject you—and you don’t get to do that to each other either.”

Because Jake and Danny idolized their big brothers, they had figured it out. With maturity had come a deeper understanding of the value of their father’s words. That didn’t change the fact that Danny was the youngest of the group, the one who was following in the footsteps of giants.

Decorated captain of the national team turned celebrated corporate rebuilder.

CEO of a garden business that was now the biggest in the country.

Current vice-captain of the national team—and a student in an automotive engineering program, one who was already working with high-performance-motor-vehicle companies.

No wonder Danny had a complex.

Yet he’d change nothing of his brothers’ lives or achievements. He was so fucking proud of them. He was the problem. It’d be one thing if he wanted to go his own way, do something other than sport. But while Danny loved baking, that was for after rugby.