Page 3 of Worth the Fall

I rushed to meet him, hoping to take the cake from him so he wouldn’t drop it. You never knew with him. Out of the three of us, Matthew was like a golden retriever—happy to see you, but his tail might break everything in sight if you didn’t keep an eye on him.

“Give me that, jackass.” I reached for the cake, but he swiveled quickly, like he was on ice skates.

“How is it possible that I’m a jackass already? I just got here.” He twirled again, his feet moving far quicker than anyone’s should.

“You tell me.” I gave him a look that told him I knew what he’d done last night, but I truly had no idea what he’d been up to.

Matthew had been a big hockey star up until about a year ago. He got a knee injury during a playoff game and never fully recovered. Instead of plugging along in the league for as long as they’d let him, he hung up his skates instead and came home, knowing he’d never be the kind of player he once had been if he stayed in the league.

He had come back to Sugar Mountain the same kid we all knew and loved on the outside, but something on the inside had changed.

“I didn’t do shit last night,” he said before wincing. “That I remember.”

“Matthew,” I groaned, reaching for the cake and finally taking it this time.

“I don’t want to hear it from you, Grumpy.”

I rolled my eyes at the world’s stupidest nickname.

Placing the cake on the kitchen counter, I turned to face him, my tone serious. “You can’t keep drinking the way you do.”

He shrugged, and for a second, I could see him in his uniform, full pads and a helmet covering his grinning face as he held a stick in his hand.

“Technically, I can.”

I exhaled, loud and exaggerated.

“You don’t need to worry about me, Grumps. It’s not like I drive drunk.”

“Yeah, because Bella calls Patrick to come get you.”

Matthew winced. It was the slightest movement that he quickly recovered from, but I’d caught it. I wasn’t sure if it was the mention of Bella, our local bartender and his best friend’s little sister, or if it was because our other brother was playing taxi driver to this new version of him every night.

“It’s not like Patrick’s got anything else going on. It’s good for him to get out of Dad’s house.”

I watched him drop a bag of presents on the couch before heading toward the fridge and opening it, scanning the contents.

“I’m sure somewhere in your stupid brain, you actually believe that.”

“It’s better than him sitting at home, pining over a girl who’s never coming back.” He delivered the words like a sniper hitting his mark.

Our middle brother, Patrick, was still hung up on his first love, Addison.

Everyone had thought they’d get married, have a hundred babies, and live happily ever after in Sugar Mountain forever. But Addison had bigger dreams and goals that only seemed to grow after her parents divorced and her mom relocated to New York with her younger sister. She got accepted into some fancy cooking school there, so she packed her bags and headed to the Big Apple with tears streaming down her face. It’d broken our brother’s heart to watch her go, but he never would have asked her to stay.

“Damn. Life’s made you bitter.”

“Nah, just realistic,” he said as he popped open a beer and took a long pull.

“Little early, don’t you think?” I asked, clearly judging.

“Nope.” He took another swig out of spite.

“Kind of proving my point here about drinking too much.”

“Don’t care if I prove your point.”

“Damn. Why does it look like someone’s dog died?” Patrick announced as he and our dad walked inside, slamming the front door behind them a little too hard.

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