them.
“Would you mind?”
Owen glanced at his brother.
Eli shrugged. “We can talk here.”
Daniel clearly wanted privacy, but the boys weren’t offering it.
So the five of us stood beside a university hallway while Vanessa and Mason remained several feet away.
Daniel began carefully.
“I know I haven’t been around as much as I should have been.”
Owen’s eyebrows rose slightly.
As much as I should have been.
Thirteen years compressed into a scheduling problem.
Daniel noticed the reaction.
“I made mistakes,” he corrected himself. “A lot happened between your mother and me. You were young. Things were complicated.”
I didn’t interrupt.
I wanted to.
But this wasn’t my conversation anymore.
Eli asked the question instead.
“Were our birthdays complicated?”
Daniel’s mouth opened.
Nothing came out.
“Our concerts?” Eli continued. “Were those complicated too?”
“Eli,” I said quietly.
He looked at me, and I realized he wasn’t losing
