“You okay?” he asked after we parked and got out to pick a trail off the large welcome map. “You’ve been pretty quiet.”

I shrugged. “I’m fine. Sorry I was so late, by the way,” I said, but he sensed something was off.

“Come here,” he said, leading me to one of the picnic tables by the parking lot. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, it’s fine. Let’s just go.” I didn’t want to talk about it. The only person outside of the family who knew was Elise and that was bad enough.

Jack finally acquiesced, but as we walked through the woods, I couldn’t concentrate on anything he was saying.

“Seriously, are you okay?” he said when we finished the loop.

“It’s dumb.”

“I promise, whatever it is, I won’t think it’s dumb,” he said, and we sat in my car watching the sky darken as I told him about my parents.

“They’re fucked up.” I told him about the fights, the multiple divorce announcements, the time my dad took me on a business trip to Chicago, the fundraising dinner from a few months ago and what’d happened after. I told him about the weird, fucked-up dynamic we had, my mom’s favoritism, my dad’s absences, Christian’s coldness.

He listened patiently, only occasionally interrupting to ask a question or two.

“I just wish they’d do it already,” I said. “Put us all out of our misery and just leave each other.”

Jack nodded. “My parents split when I was two, and honestly, it’s for the better.”

“Really?” I didn’t know much about Jack’s family, but there had to have been a reason he was living with his aunt and uncle.

“Yeah. My dad moved across the country, and for a few years I’d see him at Christmas or for a few weeks in the summer, but now I don’t even bother. Good riddance.”

“And your mom?” I asked.

He sighed. “We’re not really speaking right now. Mostly because of how she handled everything that happened with my grandpa.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be, it’s okay. We all have different reactions to tragedy—or lack of reaction,” he said, tensing. “Besides, she’s hardly ever home anyway, and my grandpa was really the one who raised me, so it’s whatever. My aunt and uncle are all right, though.” Behind us, Lola had fallen asleep and was now snoring. Jack and I laughed.

“Hey,” he said. “I’m sorry this is happening to you.” It was so simple, but so powerful. I couldn’t help but think about how different he and Elise were.

Elise cared about me, I knew that. But where she was all about taking action and vanquishing your enemies, he didn’t offer simple answers or any answers at all. He acknowledged my pain but he didn’t try to fix it. They both talked about the ugliness within their families, but Jack didn’t place our experiences side by side for comparison.

We drove back to Jack’s place in a comfortable quiet. When I pulled up to his house, he didn’t leave right away. “There was this thing my grandpa said to me all the time, and I never really got it until after he passed away.”