“I haven’t even thought about what I’m going to say.”

“Just tell him what you told me. I’ll even get out and give you a minute of privacy.” The jeep idled in the parking lot of the donut place where we’d gotten dessert. “Go ahead. I’m going to buy a few more donuts for the trip home.”

Simon answered on the first ring. I realized I’d never actually spoken to Simon on the phone. We’d only ever texted. He had a nice phone voice.

“Do you have a minute to talk?” I asked him.

“Sure,” he said.

“I just wanted to apologize for the way I reacted last Friday.” My words tumbled out so quickly they sounded more like an incomprehensible heap of syllables rather than an actual meaningful sentence.

Luckily he understood anyway. “You were angry, Lane. I understood.”

“But I had no right to be angry. It wasn’t personal, and I took it personally. After all you’ve done to help, it was childish of me to attack you like that.”

“It wasn’t childish at all. I appreciate how committed you are to a place you love. That’s nothing to be sorry for or ashamed of.”

“Thank you for saying so,” I said. “But I still stand by my apology.”

“Then I accept it. Thank you.”

There. Done. Time to move forward. In the end, I was glad Jamie had suggested I go ahead and get the apology over with.

Jamie climbed back in the jeep.

“Things okay?” he asked.

I nodded. “Much better. He was really nice about the whole thing.”

“He’s a decent guy, I guess,” Jamie said with a teasing grin.

“Just decent, huh?”

“Fine. Maybe a little better than decent.”

“How highly you praise him,” I joked.

“You want the truth? Mom thinks he’s the best of us, so decent might be an understatement.”

“She actually said that? He’s the best of you?”

“I don’t mean she loves him more. That’s me. She definitely loves me the most,” he joked. “But growing up, Simon was good, even when the rest of us were totally rotten. He had good perspective. Though sometimes I think that was both a blessing and a curse. He spent a lot of time analyzing situations, trying to decide if stuff was worth going for. Is it worth the risk? Worth caring about? Will others suffer for my actions? It’s a great quality to have, but that kind of perspective is a curse when you’re a kid because you can never just go for something because you want it, regardless of what other people think. Sometimes you have to eat the last Pop-Tart, you know? Because you’re hungry and everyone else can deal. He was never the kid who would eat the last one.”

I chuckled. “I can totally see that about him.”