“Henry, stop,” Hayden said, looking torn between coming closer and keeping her distance.
Bram was rubbing his chin and seething at Henry. “Can you calm down? You’re making things worse.”
Henry let out a frenzied laugh. “How can I make things worse? How can I screw things up any more than he already has?”
“You don’t mean that,” Bram snapped, a warning look in his gray eyes.
“Oh, I definitely mean it. We’re locked up in here like prisonersbecause ofhim! And he has the nerve to send Hayden away?”
The door clicked open again, and this time, Adam’s face appeared in the opening. “What exactly are you trying to say?”
Henry launched at Adam , but Bram grabbed him. Within seconds, Adam and Bram had overpowered Henry, joining forces to pin him to the ground out in the hall. He struggled, but it was useless.
“What did you mean by that?” Adam asked again, his knee on Henry’s stomach.
Henry’s glasses were smashed against the wooden floor. “Let me up, damn it!”
“Not until you tell me.”
Henry choked out a laugh. “Like you don’t know.”
“I don’t, actually.” Adam had Henry’s right arm pinned behind his back, and slowly, he began to pull on it. Feeling a shock of pain, Henry let out a cry.
Bram elbowed Adam and shoved him back. “Enough!”
With a grunt, Adam released Henry. Beside them, Bram rubbed his temples like an exhausted parent, the look on his face conveying that things were over.
Once Adam had locked himself back inside his room, Bram went over to Hayden, whose eyes welled with tears.
“I’m okay, I promise,” Henry heard her whisper to Bram, who watched her carefully another moment before striding off to his own room.
Henry examined his lenses, finding them smudged but still intact, and put them back on.
“Henry?” Hayden’s voice was meek. “Are you okay?”
A wave of embarrassment crashed over Henry. He ran a hand through his disheveled hair, making a poor attempt to tame it. “I’m sorry. I just didn’t like him talking to you that way. He had no right.”
Hayden took a tentative step toward him, and there was something unfamiliar and terrible in her eyes. Something like fear.
“I’m really sorry,” Henry tried again, forcing the rage down, forcing a calm he didn’t feel to ease the tension in his chest. “I don’t know why I acted like that. Guess he finally got to me.” Henry wanted to take her hand, to show her that she could trust him. But her elbows were tucked in close to her sides, and she looked ready to run for the door. “Don’t leave. Let me make it up to you? Please? We could watch a movie.”
Finally, Hayden’s lips curved into a half smile. “You just want me to stay and make brownies.”
He grinned back. “I’ll help.”
She glanced around the hall, as if trying to get her bearings. “Fine. But open your present first.” At some point, she’d abandoned Bram and Henry’s bags, and Henry hurried to bring them to the kitchen table.
“Which one’s mine?” Henry asked, inspecting one of the bags.
“They’re all the same. You’ll see.”
“Should we wait for Bram?”
“Nah, he can open his later.”
Henry liked that response. He liked that he and Hayden were sharing a private moment, apart from his brothers. He removed thetissue paper and pulled out the navy-blue hoodie, holding it up to his chest.
“Turn it over,” Hayden said, doing it for him. The letterAwas embroidered there in white. “I know you guys won’t be wearing your letterman jackets much this year. I thought these could keep you warm instead.”
