once.”
Noah nodded. “Yep.” Unlike Fox and Noah, David and Abe had families who loved them. They hadn’t been shipped off and forgotten… or hidden.
In Abe’s family, boarding school was a proud tradition; his folks had come to see him every visitation weekend, had taken him home each vacation.
David’s folks hadn’t been able to visit that often—Alicia and Vicente Rivera hadn’t had the funds for it. But David had received the best care packages, full of home-baked goodies, a letter, and articles his family had clipped for him from neighborhood papers. Those care packages had grown bigger after the four of them became friends, Mrs. Rivera including enough for Noah, Abe, and Fox as well.
She’d even written them all.
If Noah’d had a choice, he’d have gone home with Abe or David come vacation time. Either one of his friends’ families would’ve opened their doors to him and Fox. But he hadn’t had a choice. Noah’s father couldn’t stand to look at him, but he wasn’t about to be accused of neglect. So Noah had to go home.
The only thing that had made it bearable was having Fox with him—his friend would’ve rather gone to David’s or Abe’s too, but he’d always said he wanted to go home with Noah.
Noah would never forget that act of loyalty.
“Did you like boarding school?” Kit’s husky voice cut through the memories.
“It was better than home.” Kit knew he had a dysfunctional relationship with his mother and father. “That was how I thought of it at first, but after a while, yeah, I did enjoy it. Mostly because of the friendships.” Quite frankly, he wouldn’t have made it the first month, much less the first year, without Fox.
His need would’ve made him feel unequal in the friendship, except that Fox had needed a friend just as badly for different reasons. If Noah had parents who, in public, acted as if he mattered, all the while ignoring him in private, Fox’s mother had flat-out abandoned him for her shiny new family.
So they’d become one another’s family, brothers not by blood but by choice.
“Your classmates must’ve pulled a few interesting stunts,” he said, and, when Kit answered with a wry nod, he asked another question. He wanted to hear her speak, see her smile… fix what he’d deliberately broken.
I t had been a strange, oddly wonderful, and terribly painful day. Kit didn’t know quite how to process it, so she just shoved everything aside as she’d been doing since the moment Noah picked her up. Living in the moment was the only way she could deal with this.
“Thanks for the flight,” she said as they headed to the car early that afternoon. “It was beautiful.” No lie there, no need to watch her words.
“Anytime,” Noah answered with a smile before his phone went off. “Give me a sec.” His expression darkened when he saw the name on the screen, his answer a brusque “Yeah?”
Walking on to give him privacy, Kit was nonetheless aware of the curt nature of his conversation. He’d unlocked the SUV using the remote by the time she got to it, so she climbed inside and put the picnic blanket and the detritus of their meal in the back.
His jaw was set in a hard line when he got in, white lines around his mouth. “Did you want to stop anywhere on the way home?” he asked after driving out of the hangar, getting back out to lock it, then sliding into the driver’s seat again.
“No.” Kit knew she should keep her distance, but that wasn’t who she was when it came to people she cared about—and hell, that was the wrong direction to take. She couldn’t care about Noah, not that much. But she did. Despite everything, she did, and it was tearing her apart. “Bad news?”
Blowing out a breath, he turned on the music.
Kit kept her silence though frustration churned inside her. He’d always done this with certain questions. Just ignored them. Back when they’d been close, she’d excused it as him not wanting to talk about things
Noah nodded. “Yep.” Unlike Fox and Noah, David and Abe had families who loved them. They hadn’t been shipped off and forgotten… or hidden.
In Abe’s family, boarding school was a proud tradition; his folks had come to see him every visitation weekend, had taken him home each vacation.
David’s folks hadn’t been able to visit that often—Alicia and Vicente Rivera hadn’t had the funds for it. But David had received the best care packages, full of home-baked goodies, a letter, and articles his family had clipped for him from neighborhood papers. Those care packages had grown bigger after the four of them became friends, Mrs. Rivera including enough for Noah, Abe, and Fox as well.
She’d even written them all.
If Noah’d had a choice, he’d have gone home with Abe or David come vacation time. Either one of his friends’ families would’ve opened their doors to him and Fox. But he hadn’t had a choice. Noah’s father couldn’t stand to look at him, but he wasn’t about to be accused of neglect. So Noah had to go home.
The only thing that had made it bearable was having Fox with him—his friend would’ve rather gone to David’s or Abe’s too, but he’d always said he wanted to go home with Noah.
Noah would never forget that act of loyalty.
“Did you like boarding school?” Kit’s husky voice cut through the memories.
“It was better than home.” Kit knew he had a dysfunctional relationship with his mother and father. “That was how I thought of it at first, but after a while, yeah, I did enjoy it. Mostly because of the friendships.” Quite frankly, he wouldn’t have made it the first month, much less the first year, without Fox.
His need would’ve made him feel unequal in the friendship, except that Fox had needed a friend just as badly for different reasons. If Noah had parents who, in public, acted as if he mattered, all the while ignoring him in private, Fox’s mother had flat-out abandoned him for her shiny new family.
So they’d become one another’s family, brothers not by blood but by choice.
“Your classmates must’ve pulled a few interesting stunts,” he said, and, when Kit answered with a wry nod, he asked another question. He wanted to hear her speak, see her smile… fix what he’d deliberately broken.
I t had been a strange, oddly wonderful, and terribly painful day. Kit didn’t know quite how to process it, so she just shoved everything aside as she’d been doing since the moment Noah picked her up. Living in the moment was the only way she could deal with this.
“Thanks for the flight,” she said as they headed to the car early that afternoon. “It was beautiful.” No lie there, no need to watch her words.
“Anytime,” Noah answered with a smile before his phone went off. “Give me a sec.” His expression darkened when he saw the name on the screen, his answer a brusque “Yeah?”
Walking on to give him privacy, Kit was nonetheless aware of the curt nature of his conversation. He’d unlocked the SUV using the remote by the time she got to it, so she climbed inside and put the picnic blanket and the detritus of their meal in the back.
His jaw was set in a hard line when he got in, white lines around his mouth. “Did you want to stop anywhere on the way home?” he asked after driving out of the hangar, getting back out to lock it, then sliding into the driver’s seat again.
“No.” Kit knew she should keep her distance, but that wasn’t who she was when it came to people she cared about—and hell, that was the wrong direction to take. She couldn’t care about Noah, not that much. But she did. Despite everything, she did, and it was tearing her apart. “Bad news?”
Blowing out a breath, he turned on the music.
Kit kept her silence though frustration churned inside her. He’d always done this with certain questions. Just ignored them. Back when they’d been close, she’d excused it as him not wanting to talk about things
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