Page 5 of Captivating Mr. Second Chance

“There’s a clinic at Penn,” Justin explained, “but I have to wait for my insurance to preapprove it.”

“Fucking insurance,” their dad mumbled, and Rita tossed her hands up.

“Can everybody calm down with the goddamn language, please?”

That earned a relieved laugh from everyone. Rita Marrero did not curse. Until now.

“You know it’s bad if Mom is cursing,” Justin stage-whispered to Ethan, who nodded theatrically.

“What can we do, honey?” she asked, and Ethan removed his glasses to rub the heels of his hands over his eyes, willing his brain to connect the dots, to figure out a solution.

“There’s nothing to do,” Justin said, and Ethan put his glasses back on before thumping his fist on the table.

“No. No. We have to do something.”

Justin met Ethan’s gaze, for what seemed like the first time since he’d arrived, and Ethan shriveled under the defeated look in his brother’s eyes. Ethan couldn’t—didn’t want to—believe there was nothing to be done.

“There are two medications out there right now,” Leah said. “They’ll help the symptoms, hopefully slow the progression of them.”

Justin swallowed, his jaw working, as he smiled at Leah. His wife was forever patient and kind, and Ethan had to glance away from their private moment. After a few moments, Justin said, “I’ll have a team at the clinic. Neurologists, therapists, social workers.”

“We’ll get through this,” Leah finished, smiling at everyone in turn before gazing back at Justin.

Their parents nodded, but Ethan’s chest burned. They were going to get through this? No, there had to be a way tostopthis.

Justin was only thirty-four. He was the dad to a four-year-old; there was no way this should be happening to him. Then again, another thought stopped Ethan’s train of thought. “Wait. If…” Ethan rolled his index fingers over each other in a circle. “If this is genetic, then Trace is…”

Justin sucked his lower lip between his teeth and dropped his chin to his chest, offering a faint nod.

“There is a fifty percent chance he’s inherited it,” Leah said quietly.

Ethan thought of his perfect little nephew, and his heart broke all over again.

Tom let out a low breath. “Okay, let’s not get ahead of ourselves with this. We will take this one step at a time, all right?”

Everyone nodded except for Ethan, who had his arms crossed, forcing his father to repeat himself with a firm snap in his voice. “All right?”

“Yeah,” Ethan said then stood up, and his mother reached out to him.

“Where are you going?”

“I…” He slung on his coat. He didn’t know. He just needed to get out. He shook his head and walked over to the other end of the table and hugged his brother. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”

Justin didn’t answer, only patted Ethan’s back, returning the embrace.

Ethan felt like shit for leaving, but he couldn’t stay and cry, or be weak-willed when his brother needed support and strength. He had to pull himself together before he could give that to Justin, so he waved to his parents and walked out their front door, straight to his car, where he promptly Googled Huntington’s disease. After a quick read of three different websites, confirming what he thought he knew about it, he texted his best friend.Are you home? I’m coming over.

Ten minutes later, he pulled up to Dean’s house. All the lights were on and the front door open, so he knocked once on the storm door before heading in. “Hey, yo!”

Led Zeppelin was blasting from upstairs, accompanied by a couple of loud bangs. On the second floor, he found Dean in the bathroom, safety goggles on, demolishing the countertop. After Dean put the sledgehammer down, Ethan slapped the doorframe to get his attention.

Dean whipped around to him. “Oh hey, man. Didn’t know you were here.”

“I texted you.”

Dean removed his goggles and grabbed his cell phone from where it sat on the windowsill. “Sorry. Didn’t hear it.” Then Dean wiped his hands on his T-shirt and grabbed a bottle of water. He chugged a few gulps then asked, “What’s up?”

Ethan shook his head, staring down at his shoes.

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