“But it’s not a stupid little thing like being able to sing. It’s a pretty big deal to have another dad. What if he has other kids, and you have other brothers and sisters? You could have a whole other family and not know it. And worst of all is they kept it from you—from us. Aren’t you pissed about it?”

He shrugged, so cool and collected, as if he hadn’t been sobbing his eyes out only an hour ago.

“I haven’t really thought about that. And besides, I know it seems big, but it doesn’t change anything, because you’re my family, not some stranger.”

Willow’s chin hung on her chest. Bumping shoulders with her, he drew her gaze upward. “Hey, you know that, right?”

She looked away, wordless.

“We don’t always have to tell each other everything. I’m sure you don’t tell me everything about you—like what boy you like at school.”

“Sure I do. I like Jamison Burke because he’s funny. So yeah, I do tell you everything.”

Ryan chuckled. “Really, everything?”

There was that one secret, the pantry secret. The secret she hadn’t told her bestie, or written about in her diary, or mentioned in her bedtime prayers. It seemed too heavy and delicate, like voicing it would make it explode, taking her whole family down with it. It was like the dominoes Grandpa used to play with her. Each domino stood perfectly aligned in a pretty pattern, but when you knocked that first one down, the whole creation fell. Putting it back together was long, hard work. That was the pantry secret—a dangerous game of dominoes.

She couldn’t let their family be destroyed or let her parents’ mistakes ruin them. The pantry secret would be hers to keep, even if it meant lying to her brother right now.

“Fine, I guess there are things you probably don’t want to know about, like how I’m getting boobs now and stuff like that.”

Ryan playfully covered her mouth with his hand.

“Exactly—I don’t want to know my little sister has boobs.”

They both laughed away the gravity of the conversation.

“What do you think he’s like—your biological father?”

“Mom said he’s an asshole. But I don’t know. You can’t sum up a person’s entire character in one word. It’s a matter of perspective, you know? He might not have treated her well, but maybe now he has a whole new family that loves him and he treats them great.”

“If you have other brothers and sisters out there, don’t you want to meet them?”

His eyebrow rose, as if the idea of meeting them wasn’t so bad.

“I suppose so. But you’re all I need, Will.” He hugged her, but it offered her no comfort.