Page 62 of Endeavor

“You’re his son,” he states.

I nod. “Yes. I’m your brother.”

He drops the photos and looks at me. “I…how…I…” He trails off and looks at me again.

I clear my throat as the waiter sets my drink down and asks if we want any food. “Not yet,” I say to him and he leaves us.

“I found notes in my father’s belongings and had a PI look into it. I just got information about you a few weeks ago. I wasn’t sure if I should contact you or not,” I admit.

“I…sorry, this is a lot to process,” he stammers.

“I know, shit, I’ve had weeks and I still am processing it,” I chuckle.

He laughs. “I’m glad you found me. When Mom died, I…well, I’m all alone now. It’s exciting to think I have more family.”

I smile at him. “Me too. It’s just me, Mom, and my grandmother right now.”

He frowns as the realization hits him. “You’re Blythe Daniels’s son!”

Laughing, I nod. “Yes. Guilty.”

“Wow. I mean, wow. This is…I can’t believe it.” He’s quiet for a long moment as he processes everything and then he looks up at me with serious eyes. “Does she know about me?”

“Yes. I told her. She’s happy for us. She apparently knew about your mom.”

“Mom always said Dad was a selfish prick who left her when she told him she was pregnant. But…shit, now this makes me rethink everything.”

“Tell me about it. I never knew my parents almost separated or that my dad cheated on my mom,” I confess.

“Well…geez, this is…” He trails off again.

“Overwhelming?” I suggest.

He nods.

“Let’s start from the beginning,” I offer. I launch into my life, what I know about how our parents came to know each other and any other detail I can think of as we sip beer. Jason tells me about growing up with his mom. My dad apparently gave her quite a bit of money to “disappear.” He grew up in a quiet suburb and led a normal life. When his mom died, he moved back to the city but kept a small cabin his grandparents had at a lake not too far from here.

We order burgers and continue data dumping for several hours. I find out that my brother loves race cars and even went to a concert of mine once. We are only two years apart in age and have a lot in common. By the time we finish talking, I’m so stoked about having a brother that I want to jump up and hug him. Which I do as we go to leave, promising to see each other soon.

As soon as I’m in my car, I call the one person I really want to talk to, which surprises me since it’s not my mom, but Emma.

“Hello?” she answers. She knows where I’ve been, and I can tell by her voice she’s anxious to hear how it went.

“It went well, really, really well. He’s a great guy and we’re going to meet up again soon. He wants to stay out of the limelight, so we are going with a low-key approach.”

“That’s great, Grady! I’m so happy for you!”

“I’m happy too, really fucking happy. We should do something to celebrate, you think you could get away for a night?” I ask.

“Uh, maybe?”

“I’ll take care of everything. This Saturday, be ready at nine and pack for the night.”

“I’m not getting out of this, am I?” she asks with a laugh.

“Nope, get all your work done this week because you are not going to spend a minute of the weekend on your computer.”

“You know that I’m in the middle of filming and editing a documentary, right?” she says, and I know she has one of those perfectly sculpted eyebrows raised.

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