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Kim studied his face. “That’s why you left? Because you found out the truth about Tate and me?”
“Final straw,” he said with a shrug. “I’m just fed up with being jerked around by her. Dragged from place to place. Never knowing what’s real or what’s a figment of her self-centered imagination. Trying to be who she wants me to be. It’s no wonder you and Julian both got out of there as soon as you were eighteen. She ran you both off, and I was stuck there by myself. But now I’m eighteen, and it’s my turn to leave.”
Every word he said struck her like a blow. She’d had no idea her younger brother had been so unhappy. So lonely. Had she really been so wrapped up in herself that she hadn’t even considered she’d left him in the same circumstances she had been so impatient to escape? Of course, when she’d left Julian had still been at home. She’d always assumed the boys had a closer bond with each other than they did with her.
“What are you going to do now?” she asked in bewilderment. “Do you even know?”
“First, I’m going to eat that sandwich.” He moved toward the kitchen. “You want something, Tate?”
Tate gave Kim a look of rueful amusement as he replied, “You go ahead.”
He turned fully to her when Stuart was out of the room. “Making himself at home, isn’t he?”
“Can you believe this? He just packed his car and drove four hours to find me after having not seen me in three years.”
“I told you he wanted a relationship with you,” Tate reminded her in a low voice. “He’s decided to blame your mother for driving you away. It makes it easier for him, I guess.”
“I don’t know what to say to him.” It galled her to have to ask Tate for help again, but she didn’t have a clue what to do with Stuart. Tate was the one who seemed to have insight into a teenage boy’s mind. “Should I try to defend Mother’s actions and send him back home? Should I offer him a place to stay until he decides for himself what he wants to do? I hate to think he’d be missing the first week of college.”
“You need to talk to him. Find out exactly what happened to make him leave home. Find out what he wants. Then you can offer advice.”
She drew a deep breath and looked at him in appeal. “Will you stay for a little while?”
“I think he wants to talk to his sister,” Tate said gently. “I don’t want to intrude.”
“No, stay, Tate,” Stuart said, coming back into the room with the more-than-half-eaten sandwich in hand just in time to overhear. “I wouldn’t mind a dude’s opinion.”
Kim lifted her eyebrows. “You’ve already almost finished that sandwich?”
“I was hungry. So, could we, like, sit down or something? You, too, Tate.”
Tate watched as
Stuart dropped onto the couch. “You remember I’m not really family, right, Stu?”
Stuart smiled a little, but shook his head as he swallowed the last of the sandwich. “I know. But you and Kim are friends, right?”
Tate sent a smile toward Kim that made her toes curl. “Yes. Good friends.”
Oblivious to the undertones, Stuart continued to focus on his own problems. “So you can give me some pointers. You own a business, right? Do you have any jobs available? I’m going to need a paycheck. Place to live, that sort of thing.”
Settling into a chair, Tate nodded gravely. “I could put you to work. The only jobs I have available for someone your age and with your lack of experience would be minimum wage, manual labor. Digging, hauling supplies, cleaning up the sites, that sort of thing. Entry-level. You wouldn’t be able to afford much rent, so you’ll either have to find a roommate or settle for a dump.”
Stuart looked a bit daunted, but he swallowed. “Okay. Fine. I can do that.”
“Now, if you’d get your degree, either in mathematics or computers, I could maybe offer you a job that’s more interesting and rewarding.”
Stuart scowled. “You’re not going to start lecturing me about going back home to school, are you?”
“You really don’t want to go to college?” Kim asked tentatively. “I mean, I know college isn’t for everyone, but you’ve always been such a good student. Mom sent me copies of your report cards and your academic awards, and you did so well in everything. I know you were an honor graduate. I have a photo of you accepting your diploma on my computer. I’d have been there to see you graduate in person, but Daryn was still so little then, and harder for me to travel with on my own.”
He looked taken aback. “You’ve kept up with my schoolwork?”
“Of course, Stuart. Just because I needed to put some distance between myself and Mom didn’t mean I’d lost all interest in your welfare. I always asked about you when I called, even if that wasn’t very often.”
“Mom didn’t tell me that.”
“Yes, well, she’s not very reliable when it comes to communications. I should have made more of an effort to reach out to you myself. I’m afraid I’ve been in the habit of thinking of you as a kid who wouldn’t really be interested in hearing from me. Then I found out I was expecting Daryn and I became absorbed with the changes in my own life. I’m sorry I didn’t try harder with you.”
