“No, it’s not simple. Neither is medical school. But you did that, didn’t you?”

A smile cracked across his face.

She knelt and yanked several carrots from the soil. She brushed one off and handed it to him. “Eat that.”

“Ma’am?”

“Eat it. You look skinny.”

He wasn’t skinny. Dirt stuck to the carrot, but he knew that CeCe believed the dirt was good for them. He’d offend her if he cleaned off his carrot more than she’d cleaned off the one she was eating. The bite he took crunched between his teeth.

“I hope you don’t think you owe Ben or any of the rest of us anything, Sebastian.”

“You’re kidding, right? I owe you guys everything.”

She shot him a slit-eyed stare. “Like what, exactly?”

He hesitated. “I wouldn’t have any success or any family if it weren’t for you.”

“Bull. You earned your success yourself, every day, with every paper and assignment and test and patient. Now, we did pull you into our family—and hardly gave you much choice in the matter, that’s true enough. But the love we have for you was, is, and always will be free. Totally free. There are no debts between us. Do you understand me?”

He’d lost count of the times CeCe had belligerently asked him, “Do you understand me?” over the course of his life.

“Do you understand me, Sebastian?” she repeated, when he didn’t answer quickly enough.

“Yes.”

“Then, c’mere.” She tugged him down so she could kiss his cheek. “Go on now and steal the heart of that girl,” she whispered.

Sauntering toward the back door, she pulled off her gloves. Then turned. “What’re you waiting for? Chop chop. I’ve got about ten chores for you to do inside.”

Since May, Sebastian had been in an almost constant bad mood over the way things stood between him, Leah, and Ben. Yet at least the way things stood had made sense to him. He couldn’t make sense of the encouragement that Ben and CeCe had given him regarding Leah.

He’d felt rotten every time he’d thought about the possibility of Ben and Leah as a couple. It had to be the same for Ben when Ben thought about him and Leah together—yet Ben had taken the noble course. Ben always took the noble course. Ben had been raised in an environment that nurtured nobility. Sebastian had been raised in an environment that nurtured survival.

Five days after his conversation with CeCe, his phone alerted him to an incoming text message. He should have gone home for the day a few hours ago, but he was still in his office, trying to catch up on work.

He focused on the screen through eyes gritty with weariness. It was Ben.

Have you asked Leah out yet?

No.