Page 15 of Crazy for You

Trent lifted a shoulder. “Don’t care either way.”

“How are you paying for all this?” Ryan asked.

“I’ve got a credit card,” Trent said. “Just charging stuff until I get a job.”

Their waitress came over, and they ordered burgers, chocolate milkshakes, and a plate of cheese fries. It seemed like appropriate chow for the occasion. While they ate, Ryan learned that Trent had been a business major for the short time he’d been in college before he dropped out to try his luck as a dubstep DJ. Ryan managed to keep his opinion on that decision to himself.

But in doing so, he realized something. Trent’s parents had always seen him as a bad influence. If Ryan was able to convince his brother to go back to college, he might finally win them over. Now that Trent was legally an adult, he didn’t need his parents’ permission to visit, but Ryan didn’t want to play it that way if he could help it. He was a decent human being, dammit, and he wanted them to see that. He wanted a permanent place in his brother’s life, and it would be so much easier if the Lamars weren’t constantly trying to push him out of the picture.

He glanced up to see Ethan and Mark coming toward their table.

“We heard there was a family reunion happening without us,” Ethan announced as he and Mark dropped into two empty chairs at the table. “I’m Ethan Hunter. We’re practically related, too, since I consider both of these guys to be my brothers.”

Trent just stared, but his eyes had gotten really wide again.

“Mark Dalton,” Mark said. “Don’t mind him. He hit his head a lot when he was a kid.”

Ryan shook his head with a laugh. “These two idiots are my business partners. We own Off-the-Grid Adventures together, but yeah, as kids we were foster brothers. They’re my family here, which makes them extended family of sorts for you, too.”

“Oh. Okay.” Trent gulped from his milkshake.

“You should come out tomorrow. I’ll take you for a ride on the zip-line course.” Ethan, with his unruly shock of blond hair and easygoing smile, was the fun-loving adventurer of their group.

Trent’s eyes lit with interest. “Cool.”

“It’s way cool,” Ethan told him, digging into their plate of cheese fries. “So how long are you in town?”

The kid shrugged. “Awhile, I guess.”

“Need a place to stay?” Ethan asked.

“Yeah.”

“I’ve got a place,” Ethan said.

Ryan slapped the table. “Your condo? That’s perfect.”

His friend nodded. “I was thinking about renting it out soon anyway. I’m basically living at Gabby’s house now. She’s my fiancée,” he told Trent.

“You’ll need a job, too,” Ryan said. “We can always use some extra help at Off-the-Grid, long as you don’t mind getting your hands dirty.”

Trent definitely looked interested. “Yeah. That sounds great.”

“We’re all really glad you’re here,” Ethan said.

Mark nodded, always a man of few words. He’d left the Army last year after getting blown half to pieces overseas. A deep scar creased his right cheek, but the other scars—the ones you couldn’t see by looking at him—might cut even deeper. He’d never told them what happened, but Ryan assumed it had been bad.

“Do you have a lot of family back in St. Louis?” Ryan asked. It was flat-out weird knowing so little about his brother or how he’d grown up.

“Yeah, I guess. I’m an only child, or…I mean, for a while I thought I was. Once my parents told me about you, I started trying to find you.”

“You know he never quit looking for you either, right?” Ethan said, his expression serious.

“Yeah.” Trent fiddled with his milkshake.

“You’re welcome to stay with us here in Haven as long as you like,” Ryan told him. “You have family here now, too.”

Emma took a deep breath and clicked on the big, red Submit button in the middle of her screen. There. She’d done it. She’d officially applied for college. She’d taken the first step toward fulfilling her dream of owning her own landscape design business.

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