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But it had never been like this. Noah felt small, and weak, and even a little young. It threw him off-kilter, and it felt so wrong, but there was something to be said about taking comfort in family. He liked that Adam’s arms—harsh as they could be—held him tight. He liked that this was a reminder that Adam was still there, and he wasn’t totally alone in the world, even if his brother hated him a little.
“You should have told me,” Adam murmured as he rubbed circles on Noah’s back. “Even if I was a kid, I would have been there for you. I wasn’t weak.”
“I know.” Noah’s voice was thick and muffled against the front of Adam’s apron. “But you were already hurting so much.”
“So were you. I love Bubbe. I’ll always love her, but it was unkind and unfair of her to dump that all on you.”
Noah swiped his hands down his face as he pulled back, and Adam took a step away. “It was more than just not wanting to burden you. You were a child, and I didn’t want you to become like me.”
“I’ve always been my own person,” Adam pointed out, making Noah smile in spite of himself. “Even back then, I could have handled it.”
“I know that now,” Noah said again. “You didn’t deserve to be left in the dark.”
Adam fixed him with a hard stare. “You didn’t deserve to hold the weight of this place on your shoulders alone. Not forever.”
Noah heard what Adam was saying and understood that it was more than just anger. Adam was never great with expressing his love in words, but he was good at this. He was good at showing it. Noah had just gotten so used to not watching.
Biting his lip, Noah swiped at his face again, finding his cheeks tacky but dry. His eyes ached, and his throat was sore from how much he’d been holding back. He wanted to fall apart—needed to—but not there.
“Where are you going to live when you sell?” Adam asked him, shattering the heavy silence between them.
“So you’re not going to try to stop me?”
Adam let out a put-upon sigh and shrugged. “Is there any point? Even between me and Talia, we don’t have the cash to pull this place out of the debt it’s in, and unless you want to ask your porn-star boyfriend…”
“No,” Noah said quickly.
Adam’s lips twitched, but his eyes were still heavy and sad. “Then I need to accept it’s over. And I get it, Noah. Businesses fail. Sometimes even after forty-two years, they go under.”
Noah rolled his eyes up to the ceiling and tried to imagine not having this place. He had no job prospects after this was finished. He knew enough people in Savannah that he’d never be homeless, never be unemployed, but his entire life since the age of twenty had been decided for him by these walls.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Adam cocked his head to the side. “Will you finish school?”
Noah didn’t mean to laugh. He knew the question was honest, but he couldn’t help it. “I’m an old man. There’s no place for me there.”
Adam scoffed. “That’s ridiculous. Anyone can go back to school. People get their doctorates at eighty, like, all the time.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t even finish my undergrad. The idea of sitting in a classroom full of toddlers all joining fraternities and sororities?” Noah shuddered, and it made Adam chuckle.
“Well, there’s online. There are options. We could get a new place together, you and me. I mean, Talia would be with us, but we could find somewhere bigger.”
Noah smiled at him, and he felt a hundred times lighter, even if the weight of his unknown future still pressed down on him. “You need that with her, not with your pathetic brother living like a third-wheel.”
He knew he saw some relief in Adam’s eyes but also worry. “So tell me what your plan is because I can’t sit here and worry every day about you ending up on a park bench by the damn fountain.”
Noah laughed. “It’s not that serious. And I’m working on something, okay?” The buzzer for the cookies went off, so he grabbed the last batch out of the oven and placed them down to cool. “Today, I’m going to try to sell everything we just baked so I can pay the damned vendors’ bills. Tonight, I’m going to sleep in bed with my boyfriend and let him figure out how to make all this feel better…”
“Boyfriend,” Adam echoed. “Like actual boyfriend? Because I was giving you shit before.”
Noah blushed a little, but he didn’t duck Adam’s gaze. “Or something. It’s new.”
Adam chuckled and shook his head. “Youarea fucking mess.”
“I know.” Noah took his apron off, then moved to the sink to wash his hands, filling his cup and rinsing each hand three times. “Tomorrow night, I’m going to set up my booth at the farmer’s market. I’m going to do that for the rest of the fall. Then I’m going to put this place on the market and see what happens.”
“You won’t be alone, you know,” Adam told him. “Even if I ever leave Savannah, I’m not…I’m not going anywhere.”
