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Not for his father, not for Maria, not for anybody

He wasn’t enough

Leo’s ar hi him down onto it

Maybe if he’d had a big brother all along, rather than discovering his would have been different But he hadn’t

‘Do you ever feel like your whole life is unravelling in front of you, and you can’t ether?’ His voice didn’t even sound like his, Seb realised Too low, too raw Too desperate

But Leo just laughed, a darkly amused sound Seb hadn’t heard from him before

‘What do you think?’ Leo asked ‘I spentthat no one wanted me, that my own parents had thrownfor me almost my whole life And then, when I was ready to ot the chance’

‘And you got stuck withlet-down

‘Actually, I kind of think of the two of you as an unexpected bonus A silver lining maybe,’ Leo said, and Seb looked up, surprised

‘What do you mean?’

‘Well, I thought I’d lost any chance of ever having a family Then I came here and met you two, and then Anissaand now there’s Max and Maria and Frankie, plus Noemi’s babies Suddenly I have more family than I knohat to do with’

‘Maria and Frankie aren’t staying’ Seb’s ain at the reminder

‘Ah’

‘Yeah’

Leo stretched his legs out in front of hiainst the bench Als were longer than his, he realised, even though they werethe little brother really was going to take so used to

‘Do you remember what you toldmoment of silence

Seb tipped his head back and tried to reo now, but soain since then, with everyone co home to Mont Coeur

Leo had been in New York with Anissa, wooing her, or whatever it was that smooth, American-raised secret older brothers did But he’d screwed it up—Seb had to adn of fallibility had made it easier to warm to Leo—and Anissa had run when Leo had asked her to stay with him

‘I told you to wait,’ he said finally

‘You said that if I loved her, I had to give her space and respect her decision,’ Leo corrected ‘That I had to let love decide what happened next And that I should let Anissa come back to me—if she wanted to’

‘And she did, of course’ And now they were blissfully happy Good for them

‘So did Maria,’ Leo pointed out ‘I mean, she’s here for Christmas, isn’t she?’

‘Only because I called and asked her to coed It wasn’t a ood about ‘And like I said, she’s not staying’

He’d given her space He’d respected her choices And it hadn’t made one bit of difference

Leo sighed, and Seb couldn’t help but feel he wasn’t getting whatever point his older brother was trying to make

‘What I’lad I followed it But I can’t help but think you’ve been following your own advice a little too long’

‘Too long?’ Seb frowned

‘Maria’s been gone for, what? A year?’ Leo asked

‘About that’ Sebastian couldn’t bring himself to admit that he kneas, in fact, twelve months and fifteen days