Page 80 of Far

“Looking forward to it.” My lips curve into a smile. “After all, you’re already best buddies with my father.”

Connor’s answering grin lights up his whole face, erasing the last of my uncertainties.

“What about your brother?”

His smile fades, and his eyes cloud with an emotion I can’t quite decipher. Sadness? Guilt?

“Ezra,” he says. “He’s a few years younger than me. Looks just like our mother, blond hair and blue eyes.”

“Are you close?”

He falls silent, and I trace soothing circles over his chest, waiting patiently.

“We were, once. But things changed after she left. My father had a hard time looking at Ezra for a while. I think it reminded him too much of what he’d lost.” His hand strokes up and downmy side. “Ezra was just a kid. Barely remembers our mother at all. But I think some part of him still knows our father rejected him, even if just for a little while. It did something to him. Made him believe we didn’t want him either.”

“That’s terrible.” A little boy dealing with that kind of pain. Is that why Connor is so protective? Does he think I will abandon him, too? Are we even at that stage?

“Ezra looks so much like her, talks and laughs like her.” His hands halt on my hip, his grip tightening. “My brother hates himself for it. Because we hated him back then. He tries to hide it, but he resents us. Thinks we don’t care. He acts out for attention and starts trouble wherever he goes. Hockey helped, something where he could use his pent-up anger, but underneath it all, he’s just my little brother. The little boy who looked at me like his hero. The kid who asked me to stay with him, and I couldn’t until it was too late.”

I reach up and cup Connor’s cheek. “You love him, though.” It isn’t a question. I can see the ache, the regret in his eyes, a deep and abiding sorrow.

“I just wish he’d let me in, you know? We were so close once, and now… Ezra always thought Dad favored me, but that wasn’t true. Dad was just stricter with Ezra because he was younger. He didn’t want Ezra falling into the same trouble I did.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“The usual teenage stuff. Drinking, skipping school, petty theft. Nothing too serious, but enough to worry my dad. Hethought Ezra might follow my lead, so he came down hard on him.”

“Did it work?” I ask. “Did Ezra stay out of trouble?”

“For the most part, yeah.” A self-deprecating smile forms on his lips. “I don’t know. It’s too late.”

“It’s never too late,” I say. “People can surprise you. All it takes is one moment to change everything. You just have to take the opportunity when it presents itself.”

Connor searches my face. “Would you take such a chance? If it’s something you want? Even if it’s wrong?”

“How can it be wrong if you want it?”

He kisses me softly. “You’re pretty smart, you know that?”

“I have my moments. But seriously, look at us. For us, it also just took one moment.”

“A moment I might have to still punish you for.” He gives me a little teasing spank.

“Behave. We were having a serious conversation.”

“My apologies.”

“Anyway,” I say. “All I meant is that people can change. And relationships can heal. Maybe Ezra just needs to know you really care about him. That you accept him as he is.”

“Maybe,” Connor says. “You really are too good, you know that? Always seeing the best in people.”

“I just call it like I see it.”

“I’m glad you see me that way. But enough about me. What about your family? I know how much they mean to you.”

“My family is complicated.” How do I even begin to explain? “My mother means well, but she can be overbearing. She’s always wanted the best for us, her way of showing love, I suppose. Her and my ways don’t always align.”

“And your father? You seem close.”

---