“Yeah, I can’t see him having a problem.” Michael paused. “Not Gabriel?”

Nick stared into his mug and shook his head.

“So that’s why you two are fighting.”

“We’re not fighting.”

“Could’ve fooled me.”

Nick gritted his teeth and looked away. “I don’t want to talk about him.”

“Are you afraid of how he’ll take it?”

“No. Yes. I don’t know.”

Michael didn’t say anything for the longest time. After a while, he drained his mug of coffee, then set it back in the saucer.

“I remember,” Michael said, “when you were babies, Gabriel used to scream his fool head off. All the time. He wouldn’t fall asleep at night unless Mom put you in his crib.” He smiled. “It got so that any time he’d fuss, I’d just pick you up and put you next to him.” His smile turned a little sad. “I still remember the one time Mom caught me doing it. She was fit to be tied. Michael! Do not pick up the babies!”

Nick held still. It was rare that Michael would talk about Mom and Dad.

He kept talking. “But even when you grew older and got your own beds, we’d always find you in there with him in the morning. Curled up on top of his covers, just sleeping next to him. Mom used to say that you always knew when your brother needed you.” He paused. “I used to find you like that after they died.”

Emotion balled up a fist and struck Nick square in the chest. He tried to breathe around it. He remembered that. He remembered it.

“She was wrong,” he said, his voice husky. “That was when I needed him.”

“I don’t think so, Nick,” Michael said quietly. “If that were true, he’d know your secret.”

Nick rolled that around in his head for a moment.

Michael kept going. “And look, I can’t pretend to understand this twin thing you two have. But I know Gabriel knows you. And right now, he knows you’re keeping something from him. It’s probably tearing him up.”

Nick wanted to scoff, but he couldn’t. He felt it every time he was in the house.

Too bad he was such a creepy freak, or he’d do something about it.

“Do you think maybe you resent him for not figuring it out on his own?” Michael said. “Or for not pushing you to tell him?”

Nick snapped his eyes up. “No.”

But he’d answered without thinking about it. Now the thought was lodged in his brain and he couldn’t stop thinking about it.

He could picture Gabriel right now. Sitting with Layne, working through math problems, trying to get his grades up so he could take the firefighter course in the spring.

But he was thinking about Nick. Nick could feel it.

His cell phone chimed.

A message from Gabriel.