I offered to pay off your house.”

“I know exactly what you offered,” I said.

“Daniel was my brother,” Dean said, turning back to face me.

“I cleaned up his mess after he went into that water.

I kept this family from coming apart.”

“Did you really?”

Dean stepped down onto the gravel walk.

His face went red above his collar, the calm he’d kept up for six years finally cracking around the edges.