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Quinn sniffed and swiped at her eyes "But I didn’t--Becca doesn’t know--"

"Well, she will soon If I getto stay with raentle, but stern "I’ve always told you that my door is open to you We’ve never had any secrets between us I wish you’d told h"

"I’ot out of control so fast--"

"I know I know Co out"

Quinn nodded and wiped at her eyes again, scared to let herself feel so like hope

But when Mrs Chandler pushed at the door to the office, Quinn said, "Wait If Becca didn’t tell you, then how did you know?"

"Your friend called ot my number from Michael Merrick He wanted to help you, but he wasn’t sure how He sounded pretty upset about as going on, but he didn’t want so "My friend? Who?"

"Nice young an"

By Wednesday night, Nick and Gabriel had settled into an uneasy truce

Well, Nick had settled into one He lived in the house and went through the uys, but where his tas concerned, he went out of his way to avoid hiht a ride to school froht to watch Adam and Quinn dance

He studied in his rooed hinored that

Then, true to for his silence That was even easier to ignore

But tonight, Adam had class and Quinn had texted that she was busy, so Nick was ho fro out late

Nick wondered if his tas avoiding him, now, if he’d made it so uncomfortable that Gabriel didn’t even want to be in the salad for his twin’s absence He found Michael sitting in a dim kitchen, hunched over his laptop

A stack of invoices sat next to him

Nick stopped short "I can do that"

"I know you can," said Michael "So can I" He looked at Nick, then nodded at the pile of papers in his hands "What do you have? So for school?"

"Sort of" Nick hesitated "I need to tell you so Whatever"

Michael uncapped a bottle of water and took a sip "Shoot"

Nick pulled a chair free and eased into it "My physics teacher said he needs a decision about that se" The words were rushing out, and he couldn’t figure out Michael’s expression, so he kept talking "It’s college credit, and they only accept a few students froh school, but it’s also a lot of work I don’t want to take ti is our busiest season"

His brother frowned "Are you asking et me to tell you not to?"

Nick took a breath "I have no idea"

Michael closed the laptop and pushed it to the side He leaned in against the table "Forget the business What do you want to do?

"I can’t forget the business, Michael It’s--it’s not like it’s your side job or so to cut back on my hours if that means the family needs to live on raht not evenanyway, so I don’t knohy I’ this"

"The same could be true of anyone on earth, Nick When the Guides co e’ve always done Not revealing our true abilities "

Nick didn’t say anything to that There was a warning there

Michael studied hi"

He wasn’t gone long When he returned, he had a beat-up white Teflon envelope stuffed with papers He tossed it on the table in front of Nick

Nick glanced at it, then back up at Michael

"Go ahead Open it"

Nick slid the contents out of the envelope The papers rinkly and a little worn On top was a college letter addressed to Michael Fro him to LSU

Nick read the next line and snapped his head up "They offered you a baseball scholarship"

Michael shrugged "I had two offers, actually Money from a lot of other places, too The letters are all in there"

"But why didn’t youwhy" He didn’t even kno to finish that sentence

He knehy

He met Michael’s eyes "Does anyone else know?"

"Nope"

"I won’t tell"

"It’s not a secret, Nick" Michael paused "Mom and Dad knew I’ht I won the lottery or so But when they died, there wasn’t any question of what I needed to do"

Nick’s throat felt tight He couldn’t meet his brother’s eyes

Michael put a hand on his arm "Stop Look, I didn’t show you this to one off to school and left you guys This isn’t a guilt trip"

Nick nodded But he felt the guilt all the same