Page 64 of Sugar

Be brave, Juno told himself. This was what you wanted. Be brave. He cleared his throat, then sat up and turned toward the computer screen. His eye wasn’t worse—he knew that—but for the moment, the spot was all he could see. “Click on his Facebook.”

“Are you sure?” Piper’s question sounded genuine and not like he was trying to subtly call Juno’s request a bad idea.

“I’m sure.”

Piper’s hand moved over the track pad. He clicked. And then the link opened up. Roe’s Facebook looked mostly private. He had no cover photo, and his profile picture was of a massive tree. There were a couple of shared links to charities but nothing else.

“He has some tagged photos,” Piper said quietly.

Juno nodded against him, closing his eyes again. He needed to take this in small bursts. He wondered for a moment if Miles had ever done this. He knew Oliver hadn’t. Oliver had known his birth family for far too long to bother trying to keep in touch with them. But Juno had no real memories of anyone.

He knew that not being with his parents had been for the best, but there was still a gaping wound inside him that would never fully heal. And now he had a brother.

“Juno,” Piper said softly.

Juno hummed.

“He looks like you. He looks so much like you. His hair is darker, but your face…”

Juno opened his eyes. There was a photo of a man who was wearing his face. There were a few more lines on his forehead, and his hair was a dark brown, but it was worn long the way Juno kept his, and it was just as curly. He had big eyes and a full mouth and broad shoulders.

It was his brother.

Juno had been apart from family for so long he hadn’t realized it would feel like this to see someone who looked like him so much. He had no name at all for the emotion he was feeling. He felt lost and yet somehow found.

Juno reached out and touched the edge of the screen, then leaned forward to get a better view of him. “I’m going to send him a friend request.”

“Oh.”

Juno glanced over his shoulder. “Bad idea?”

“No, sugar. Not a bad idea.”

“But not a good idea either,” Juno pressed.

Piper took a breath, running his hand down his face before he gathered Juno closer to him. “I can’t give you advice on this. I’ve never been in any situation like this in my life. I know who my family is. I know where I came from. I’ve never had to use some random test to try and find someone related to me.”

Juno licked his lips. “If you got an email or something from someone saying they were your sibling, would it hurt you?”

Piper laughed softly. “No. I wouldn’t even be surprised. Neither of my parents are very kind, and I don’t think they love each other that much. I might be a little envious of how they got to grow up. I wouldn’t trade having my brother for the world, but I used to fantasize about strangers rolling up to our house claiming they were our long-lost mom and dad.”

Juno’s smile felt frail. “There’s nothing about me to envy, so I doubt that’ll be an issue here. But I don’t want to disrupt this guy’s life. I don’t even know if I want him to reach out. When I first took the test, I told myself I just wanted to know who was out there. I didn’t think I’d actually find anyone.”

“And now you have. What do you do?”

Juno closed his eyes, feeling for the edge of the laptop. Then he opened them and pressed his finger to the track pad. He watched the mouse icon drift upward—upward, toward the little box in the center of the page. He took a breath.

And then he clicked it.

Juno did his best to leave his anxiety back in the room as he and Piper went down to dinner. Piper held his hand the entire time, and Juno caught the hostess giving them a knowing smile. It all made sense when they were escorted past the main dining room, up a set of stairs, and led to a very small, screened-in patio with a single table near the window.

It overlooked the field and the lake, which was dark black apart from the reflection of the crescent moon. He could hear the waves lapping at the shore, and it made him smile as he sat. The room was lit by small hanging string lights, and there was a glowing candle sitting at the corner of their table.

“Please enjoy your dinner,” the hostess said.

Juno looked across the table at Piper. “Is this what you were doing while I was napping?”

“This was what I did right before I seduced you in the shower.”

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