Michael glanced over. “You think you’ll be able to get back on the team?”

“Damn it.” Gabriel scowled. “I can’t believe Nick told you.”

“He didn’t. I’ve been waiting to see if you’d tell me yourself.”

Like that would ever happen. “Chris, then?”

Michael shook his head. “Your teacher called.”

“She what?”

“I don’t know why you guys are so surprised when the school calls me.”

Gabriel couldn’t believe this. “God, I hate her.”

Michael fell silent again, but this time it was weighted, like he wanted to say something. Gabriel wasn’t about to give him an excuse to lecture, so he kept his mouth shut and stared out the window.

“I used to hate it,” Michael finally said. “Your teachers would call me all the time. Especially in middle school. I mean, these were people who’d taught me, and four years later, they’re calling to ask me to control my little brothers. Every frigging day, another hassle. A fight. A missed assignment. Come in and sign this form, come down and fill out this paperwork. It used to make me nuts.”

Boo-hoo. Gabriel didn’t look away from the window.

He wondered if Michael was looking for an apology. He wasn’t getting one.

“By the time you and Nick hit freshman year, I thought it would settle down. But then I had middle school teachers and high school teachers calling me. I remember that October, I was trying to figure out how the hell to file a tax return for the business, and Vickers called me up to tell me Nick had gotten in a fight in the locker room.”

Vickers was the guidance counselor. Gabriel remembered that day, one of the few days Nick had actually been involved in a fight, when he wasn’t just taking the fall for Gabriel.

It wasn’t really a fight at all. Seth and Tyler had cornered Nick after gym class. They’d beaten the crap out of him.

Gabriel had switched places with Nick the next day. Seth and Tyler backed off after that.

He’d had no idea Vickers ever called the house.

“I hated that stupid cow when I went to school there,” Michael said. “I used to think she was useless. So when she called up to whine about Nick, I went off on her. Told her I was sick of her and every other teacher always getting on my case, setting me up to fail. I completely lost it. I’m surprised she didn’t hang up on me.”

Michael hit the turn signal for Compass Pointe. “When I finally shut up, she said something I’ll never forget. She said, ‘We’re not setting you up to fail. We’re calling because we want to help you succeed.’”

Gabriel stared at him for a long moment, waiting, hoping there was more. But his brother didn’t say anything else.