“I don’t know, exactly. The precinct won’t tell me since he’s over eighteen. If it had been on government property I could easily have found out,” he said and huffed. My dad wasn’t used to not getting what he wanted. I could see the faint twitch of his eye masking the disappointment and shame he was going to pour all over my brother once he arrived.

“And how is he getting here?” I asked. Whatever this incident was that got him arrested, it must have been the reason he’d been calling me on my drive over. And I missed the call. Guilt bit me a little harder.

“Driving.” My dad shrugged.

Estelle sighed, still fussing over her presentation on the table. Moving effortlessly with stealth, she leaned over me to adjust the bread basket and reposition a napkin holder on the other side of the floral centerpiece.

“He’s driving himself?” I immediately had a bad feeling about this.

Dad nodded. “He should be here in a couple hours.”

Kael sat there with an almost diplomatic look on his face. His eyes were tracking whoever was speaking; he didn’t look panicked or stressed or the least bit bothered. Something felt cold and political about his presence.

“Where is he going to stay?” I asked. “Will he have to go back to North Carolina to deal with the arrest?” I hoped it was only a minor infraction, something like public intoxication, which he’d dealt with before, not like the aggravated assault that got pinned to him that summer when Dad saved his ass because it happened on post; my dad’s power was used as currency.

“He’s staying here. And we don’t need to talk about this anymore right now. Not in front of your . . .” He looked at Kael, but Kael’s eyes were on me. “Friend,” he pronounced.

Kael was still looking at me. I felt a bit dizzy from the intensity of his attention. Like the effect of a massage. I slowly started to feel my tensions releasing, enjoying the way my body was responding. Imagining that I could read his mind and he was saying something to calm me, I started to feel less dazed and confused. Maybe things would be okay?

“If you don’t have anything useful to say about your brother, let’s talk about something else,” my dad said, moving the conversation off the subject of Austin’s arrest. “Lighten up the mood.”

“Okay,” I said, wondering what was coming next.

“Okay?” he echoed.

My dad’s stone face fell for the smallest of seconds. He was playing his usual mental chess game with me. The difference was that I, for whatever reason, suddenly felt like it was stupid, a waste of time to play a passive-aggressive game with him.

Kael was watching me, and stealing a quick glance at him felt like the courageous hit of a cigarette.