“I feel like you’re not joking and that makes me worry for you.” He smirks. “How’ve you been, little bro? I haven’t seen you in ages.”

Hugo is always dramatic. I see him every Sunday without fail.

“Been busy. From the looks of it, so have you, AG.”

He straightens and flashes me a politician smile that’ll take him places one day. Probably all the way to the goddamn White House. “Tomorrow we’re making the announcement. I’d like everyone to be there. Naturally, Jude won’t come, but I’d like my other two brothers there.”

Jude never leaves his house unless it’s for Sunday dinner. Other than that, he stays holed up in his dark, outdated house, feeling sorry as fuck for himself.

“I’ll be there,” I assure him. “I’ll even be nice to Dad.”

He winces. “You know I’m sorry, right? I wanted to be the one to tell you.”

“It’s fine. Dad gets off on catching me off guard. Remember that time he surprised me by fucking my girlfriend and knocking her up?”

Hugo’s humor fades and he looks down at his beer bottle. “That was fucked up, man, but it was nearly twenty years ago. Don’t you ever just want to move on?”

His words are a punch to the gut.

“Kind of hard when you have to see the betrayal every week,” I remind him. “Dad hasn’t taken anything from you, so you don’t get it.”

He picks up his bottle and takes a long pull, avoiding my stare. “Do you still love her? Is that why you’re still so mad?”

“Jamie?” I bark out a laugh. “Fuck no. Jamie slept with my father and got pregnant with his babies. I stopped loving her the day I found out.”

“Then why do you let it pull you down every day, Cal?”

I’m not exactly in the mood to mull over the past. Of course Hugo doesn’t get it. I’d thought I was going to marry Jamie. We had plans to go to college together and live in an apartment near campus. She was my high school sweetheart. Four years we were together. Dad and Jamie mindfucked me. They broke my fucking heart.

No one understands.

And quite frankly, I don’t have the energy to try and explain this tonight.

Besides, I’m still high from seeing Willa. From kissing her and touching her. My mood improves considerably. I force a smile for Hugo.

“Yeah, yeah. So tell me what’s up with Neena. What does she think of you running for AG?”

Hugo’s face darkens and he grinds his teeth. “Neena’s gone off the grid again.”

“Again?”

“Spencer is pissed, hence his issues at school and with me. If I could keep Neena chained to the house, I would, but that woman has always been a free spirit.”