15 Valentine Place

“Mom told you?”

He nodded. “Yeah. It’s not a secret, is it?”

Garret shrugged. “No. I just didn’t think you knew about it, that’s all,” he said as he removed the items from his tray and set it aside.

“So is Jason doing all right?”

“Yeah. He’s just trying to figure out what he wants to do with his life. There are so many opportunities, so many choices to make. It isn’t easy being nineteen.”

“As we both know,” Dylan agreed, slipping his jacket over the back of the chair before sitting down.

“It’s that emotional tug-of-war every college kid goes through—wanting to be independent, yet liking the security of still being able to be a dependent on the folks. One minute he’s saying, “I can take care of myself. The next he’s calling Mom and moaning about the latest crisis in his life.”

“You mean like when he needs money,” Dylan remarked dryly.

“It’s not just money. Mom handles things pretty well, but it’s too bad Dad isn’t here. Jason could use a good role model,” he said, ripping open the cellophane wrapping on his soda crackers and crumbling them into his soup.

Dylan would have liked to point out that their father wasn’t exactly a good role model, but he didn’t want their reunion to be spoiled by the animosity such a remark would create.

So he let the comment about their father slide and said, “I’ll talk to Jason while I’m here and see what I can do.”

“You don’t need to worry about it. Shane and I are keeping an eye on him.”

“You don’t want me talking to him?”

He shrugged. “I didn’t say that. I just think it might be better if you didn’t try to be an authority figure.”

Dylan frowned. “Why not?”

“He’s belligerent enough the way it is and you two haven’t exactly been close. You left home when he was only six.”

Dylan felt the hairs on his neck raise. He knew he had no reason to be defensive, but that didn’t matter. “It’s not my fault that there are twelve years difference in our ages. I left home at eighteen because it was time for me to leave.”

“Yeah, I know. I didn’t say you abandoned him,” he reminded Dylan. “I just said you weren’t here when he was growing up.”

“He’s still my brother and I care about him.”

“All of us do. And as I said, Shane and I have already had a talk with him about his grades.”

So you don’t need to, was the unspoken message that came through loud and clear. “I still would like to take a drive over to Wisconsin to see him. I’ll have the time once the surgery’s over.”

“Mom would probably appreciate it if you did, but you’d better be prepared to get a lecture from him on how he’s not a kid anymore and he can take care of himself. He doesn’t want anyone checking up on him,” he warned.

“I’m not going to check up on him,” he said with a hint of impatience. “I just want to visit him and see how he’s doing. Any other warnings you want to give me?” Dylan tried to keep his voice light but failed.

“Actually, there is. It’s about Mom.” He set his spoon down and stared at Dylan. “She was really upset by the way things went the last time you were home. The stuff that went on between you and Shane—”

Dylan interrupted him. “I’ve already had this conversation with Shane, and we’ve worked things out, so let it rest, okay?” He was disappointed to sense that Garret seemed to be on Shane’s side.

“Good. I’m glad to hear that. We’re brothers. We should act like it.”

There was a bit of an uncomfortable silence, which was broken by a nurse who stopped by to give Garret a message. When she eyed Dylan curiously, Garret made the introductions.

After a few minutes of small talk, she was gone and Garret said, “I can see you haven’t lost the touch.”

“Touch for what?”

“If you’d patted your knee she would have sat on your lap.” He shook his head. “Man, you have always had a quality that women respond to.”

“She stopped by to talk to you,” Dylan pointed out.

Garret chuckled. “Yeah, and if you believe that, I have some nice oceanfront property in South Dakota I can sell you.” He took a sip of his coffee, then said, “I don’t suppose these northern girls have the same appeal as those sun-kissed, bikini-clad island beauties running around on Saint Martin.”

Dylan smiled. “A beautiful woman is a beautiful woman, no matter what the climate.”

“And you’ve always had an eye for one, haven’t you,” he said with a sly smile. He took a bite of his sandwich, then asked. “How many are there in your life? Still juggling more than one at a time?”

“What makes you think I have any?”

He chuckled. “Come on. I may be five years younger than you, but I did know what was going on when we were kids. By the time I hit junior high your reputation with women was legendary.”

Dylan couldn’t suppress his smile. “All right, so I made the most of my youth and the opportunities that presented themselves.”

“Are you saying you don’t have those opportunities now?”

Dylan shook his head. “If I had kept going at that pace, I’d be dead.”

“So it’s one woman at a time now?”

“It always was. They just came closer together back then,” he said with another grin.

“Come on, be serious. Is there a special woman in your life?”

“Not at the moment.”

“I thought Mom said there was someone named Andrea.”

“Was is the correct word. That didn’t work out,” Dylan said, not wanting to tell him the details of a relationship he had already put in the past.

“What about you? Last time I was home you seemed pretty serious about another med student. A Sarah with auburn hair, nice legs.”

He shook his head. “It didn’t work out, which is probably good because I really don’t have time for anything but medicine right now.”

“Then Mom hasn’t tried to find you the perfect mate?”

“She’s not a matchmaker, Dylan. She only responds to those who seek her advice. Mom would never try to interfere in our love lives. She’s not like that.”

“I’m glad to hear that. The last thing I need is to have Mom trying to fix me up with someone. It’s going to be difficult enough staying in a house full of women. I’m used to living alone.”