Julie pulled a jug of orange juice from the refrigerator and poured two glasses. "I know we said we wouldn't talk about the whole situation until we know more, but you know I can't just drop something like this. Do you think mom and dad knew anything about Tom's brother?"

Elizabeth shrugged. "I don't know. I don't remember them ever talking about his birth family like they talked about mine. Although, Tom didn't ask questions about where he came from as often as I did."

"Not to mention your mother was Aunt Mary, so dad had all those stories from childhood." She handed Elizabeth a glass and took a seat beside her at the breakfast bar.

"True." She sipped her juice. "Maybe they just genuinely didn't know much about his family. It doesn't seem like mom and dad to knowingly split them up."

"Do you agree with Vi that this Jack fellow needs to give more proof?"

"Maybe. We have had people try to get close to us for the wrong reasons before. But I still feel like he was telling the truth. If he just wanted to get an in with our family, he could've just found a way to make friends with one of us. I mean, why concoct a wild story like that and go to all those lengths making up details and everything when he could just strike up a conversation with any one of us?"

"That's a good point. Unless…"

"Unless what?" Elizabeth turned in her chair to face her sister.

"Unless he wants to get in deeper with our family. A brother is different than a friend."

"Now you sound like Vi, playing Devil's advocate."

Julie gasped. "Bite your tongue!"

"I will not." Elizabeth smirked. "Anyway, enough about that. Tom and mom and dad need to get that all sorted before we start worrying about it."

"Fine. So, what should we do today?"

"I have a stack of essays to grade." She nodded toward the pile of papers sitting on the table.

"You should've just become an art teacher like me." Julie wrinkled her nose. "I feel like you're always grading essays."

Elizabeth laughed. "Do you not remember when I entered that painting of a dog in the fifth-grade art show and everyone thought it was a cow?" She shook her head. "I am not the one to be teaching children art. I'll stick with English and literature, thank you very much."

"Well then, have fun with your essays. I think I'm going to see if Andy is busy today."

"When are you two going to start dating?"

"I have no idea." She let out an exasperated sigh. "He keeps saying he's not ready for that yet."

"Please don't be upset with me for saying this, Jules, but maybe you need to move on. It sounds like he may never want to be more than friends."

"I know." She ran her thumb through the condensation on her glass. "Maybe we should find out if Jack Thornton has any single friends. For both of us. It's been a while since you've gone on a date."

Elizabeth laughed. "Julie Thatcher, don't even think about it."

...

Tom walked into his parents' house, nerves rising in his stomach. He had no idea how this conversation was going to go. "Mom? Dad? It's me."

"Tom?" William peered down the hall to the entryway. "We're in here."

"Hello, Tommy. It's good to see you." Grace hugged her son. "Did we know you were coming by today?"

"No." He cleared his throat and took a seat. "I have something I need to talk to you guys about."

"That sounds very serious." William took a seat across from his son.

"Please tell me you haven't gotten yourself into trouble." Grace's eyes grew wide momentarily when she noticed the picture in his hands. "You didn't get that girlfriend of yours pregnant, did you?"

"Mom! No! Nothing like that. Um." Tom handed the photograph to his father.

"What's this?"

"Apparently, that's me when I was a newborn. With my older brother."

Grace gasped. "Brother? What on earth are you talking about?" She took the photo from William, searching the faces of the young boys.

Tom shrugged. "This guy came to my apartment yesterday saying he's my brother. He gave me that picture. He said we were split up when we were young and sent to different foster homes. You didn't know about him?"

"No. The social worker never said anything about a brother. We actually didn't know much about your family, other than what we've told you: your parents both died and there was no other family to take you. As far as we knew, you were an only child." William seemed wary. "I just can't imagine why they would split you up if they knew we were willing to take in siblings."

"What's his name?"

"Jack Thornton."

"Thornton." Grace looked at her husband, an unspoken explanation passing between them. "I think he's telling the truth."

"Thornton is a relatively common surname, sweetheart. Or this man could be making things up, including his name. If he was able to find out where Tom lives, it would make sense that he could easily find out what his last name was before we adopted him."

"He seemed like he was telling the truth, dad. I don't think he wants anything from us."

William sighed. "I think we should meet this man."

"What a great idea, honey. Tom, why don't you invite him to have dinner with all of us on Friday? We can all get to know him. You do know how to get in contact with him?"

Tom nodded. "He gave me his phone number."

"Good. Tell him to be here at seven."

...

Tom stared at the business card in his hand. He had pulled it out multiple times in the few days since Jack had shown up at his door, but he hadn't yet built up the courage to call him up.

Finally, he typed the number into his phone and pressed call before he could psych himself out.

Jack answered after just a couple of rings. "Thornton."

"Jack? It's Tom Thatcher."

"Oh, Tom." He cleared his throat. "Hi. How are you?"

"I'm fine. Um, could we meet up sometime? I have questions."

"Sure. Today?"

"If you have time."

"I get off work in an hour."

Tom looked at the clock. "How about eight o'clock at The Saloon over on Main?"

"Great. I'll see you there."

Tom was sitting in a booth against the window, nervously bouncing his knee, when Jack arrived a few minutes before eight.

"Hey." Jack slipped into the seat across from him. "How are you doing?"

"Honestly? I'm still pretty freaked out by all of this."

"That's understandable. I kind of dropped a bomb on you the other night."

"Yeah." He took a sip of his drink. "So, you're a cop? Is that how you were able to find me?"

"It definitely helped." Jack chuckled.

They stopped talking for a moment while they waited for the waitress to bring Jack's drink. Once the glass was on the table, Tom spoke up again.

"And you know for sure that I'm the one you're looking for? I mean, I'm not just some guy who coincidentally has the same name as your long-lost brother?"

He nodded. "I'm one-hundred percent positive. I can get into the details of how I know, but I don't want to creep you out."

Tom laughed nervously. "I don't think I want to know right now, but I'm sure my parents will want the proof. When I told them about you, they said they had no idea I had a brother. I think my mom wants to believe you, but my dad is still really unsure."

"I get that. I bet they didn't know about me because we were split up when we left our first foster home. I guess after that, they just decided to keep us apart for our future placements. For what reason, I have no idea."

"This whole situation is so bizarre."

Jack nodded in agreement. "That it is."

"Oh, before I forget, my parents want to meet you. We're having a family dinner on Friday, and they asked me to invite you."

"Your whole family?"

"I can tell them you'd rather meet them some other time. I know it's really soon and everything."

"No, it's okay. I already met your sisters—and got interrogated by them."

"That's true." Tom chuckled. "So, can I tell them you'll be there? It's at seven."

"Sure." He cleared his throat and took a drink. "So, on the phone you said you had questions. What is it you wanted to ask?"

"Can you," Tom shifted in his seat, "can you tell me about our parents?"

"Of course. What do you want to know?"

"Everything."

"Oh, well," Jack chuckled, "where to start? They were high school sweethearts, got married right out of college. Mom was a teacher, and dad was a police officer."

"What were they like?"

Jack looked over Tom's shoulder, his gaze thoughtful. A smile played on his lips. "Dad was really laid back, and so funny. He had this really dry sense of humor, and he was always making people laugh. He was a pretty good woodworker, too, and he used to let me help him out with some of his projects. Mom, on the other hand, was pretty strict, but not in a bad way or anything. She had rules and she liked them to be followed, so she was the kind of person you didn't want to cross. But she was also so, so kind. She was always the first person to help someone out when they needed it, even after she got sick."

"Was it cancer?"

Jack nodded. "Brain cancer. I don't know much else about it; she tried not to talk about it too much since I was only six."

"And she died before my first birthday?"

"Yeah. About a month before, I think." His voice went quiet. "It got pretty bad at the end."

"Okay, but I don't understand. If she knew she was dying, why didn't she find guardians for us? How did we end up in foster care?"

He shrugged. "Honestly, I don't really know. I do know that our grandparents had all died and we had no aunts or uncles. But I have no idea why she didn't ask for us to be placed with a family friend or something. Maybe she genuinely thought she would beat it. I don't think we'll ever know why, though."

Tom took another sip of his drink. "Hey, you had that picture of us. Do you have anything else from them?"

"Just a few more pictures, and a little bear mom got for me when I was a baby. I think she got you a matching bear, but I obviously have no idea if it went with you after we were separated."

Tom immediately knew what he was talking about. "Light brown with a little red sweater on?"

"Yes, exactly. You still have it?"

Tom nodded. "He's a little faded and dirty now, but yeah. I think he's still at my parents' house somewhere." He grew quiet. "So, that was from our mom?"

"Yes."

"I never knew where it came from. My parents said I had it when I came to them, but they didn't know how long I had had it."

"I went with mom to get it when she was pregnant with you, so you've had it since before you were born."

He shook his head. "I just still can't believe after all these years thinking I had no biological family, you showed up."

"I can't believe I found you."

...

"He's really coming?" Julie asked as she set plates around the table.

Tom followed her, placing napkins beside each plate. "He said he was."

"I hope he's prepared for some intense interrogation from dad."

"He already been interrogated by you two and Vi, so how much worse can it get?"

Julie and Elizabeth both stopped what they were doing and looked at him.

"Have you met dad?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"Hey, why isn't Sophie coming tonight?"

Tom looked guilty. "I haven't told her about this whole situation yet."

"Tom!"

"Liz!" He teased. "I just want to get things figured out before I tell her. I mean, like you said, dad can be a lot. What if he decides it's too much? There's no reason for Soph to know unless I'm sure he's going to stay in my life."

"He looked for you for twenty years, Tom. I don't think he's going to give up that easily. I know I would do anything to get to know Julie or Vi if we had been separated when we were young."

"I hope you're right." He sighed. "I love you three, but a brother? I've wanted a brother my whole life. And he can tell me about my life before I came here. He's all I have of my birth family. You get it, don't you, Liz?"

"Yeah. It's been nice having dad to tell me about my mother whenever I've had questions. I can see why you'd like to have someone who can do that for you."

The doorbell rang, and all three of them looked up.

"Should I get that?" Tom asked.

Before he could decide, Grace hurried by.

Jack stood on the other side of the door, feeling more nervous than he had in a long time. He wanted to get to know his brother better—and Elizabeth, too, if he was being honest—but he figured he could potentially be completely cut off from contact with the Thatcher family if he didn't make a good impression on William and Grace.

Grace opened the door and smiled. "Hello. You must be Jack."

"It's nice to meet you, ma'am. Thank you for inviting me into your home tonight."

"Oh, you're very welcome." Grace ushered him in.

"These are for you." He held out the bouquet of flowers he had picked up on his way.

"Thank you. That's so kind of you."

He caught Elizabeth's eye as he followed Grace into the dining room. She didn't drop her gaze, but a flush filled her cheeks.

Once Grace excused herself to go help William bring the food in from the kitchen, Jack just stood by the table, a little uncomfortable, waiting to be told where to sit.

Julie sensed his dilemma—and noticed her sister's earlier reaction to seeing him. "Here, Jack. Why don't you sit right here? Right next to Elizabeth." She motioned to one of the empty chairs.

Elizabeth shot a look at Julie, but took a seat when Jack pulled out the chair for her. "Thank you," she whispered.

Julie and Tom sat across from them, leaving the chairs at either end of the table open for their parents.

"Where's Viola?"

"Her husband and daughter are sick, so they stayed home."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that."

"Jack Thornton."

He startled and turned toward William. He jumped out of his seat and held out his hand. "Mr. Thatcher, sir. It's nice to meet you."

William shook his hand, watching him carefully. "You as well." He invited him to sit back down.

They passed the dishes around, serving themselves from the platters of food Grace had prepared. William said grace before they all started eating.

"So, Jack," William began, "tell us a little about yourself."

"Well," he cleared his throat, "I've been a detective with the police department since I got out of school." He continued on to tell them most of what he had told Tom earlier in the week, adding in a few of the reasons why he was confident that Thomas Thatcher was really his biological brother.

By the end of the evening, he felt like they had all accepted his story, and he was looking forward to getting to spend more time with them.

Tom walked him to the door, and—with some prodding from Julie—Elizabeth joined them.

"Thanks again for having me over."

"Thanks for coming. I hope my parents didn't scare you too much."

"No." He chuckled. "It was nice to meet them, get to know the people who raised my little brother."

"And the sisters who terrorized me." Tom winked and nudged Elizabeth.

"It's been nice to get to know them, too." Jack looked directly at her.

Butterflies rose in her stomach at his gaze. She wanted to say something, but her mind went fuzzy as she got lost in his hazel eyes. "Um."

Tom nudged her again.

"Oh, uh." She finally came back to her senses. "I hope we'll be seeing you again, Jack." She stuck out her hand.

He shook her hand and gave her a grin, revealing his deep dimples. "I hope so, too."

"Bye, Jack." Tom waved as he walked to his car. Once he was out of view, he turned toward his sister. "Okay, Liz. What the heck was that?"

"What?" She feigned ignorance.

"That incredibly long silence followed by the world's most awkward handshake."

She turned and walked into the house. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Please don't tell me you have a crush on him."

"Who has a crush on whom?" Grace asked, glancing between them.

"No one," Elizabeth answered quickly. "I'm going to help dad in the kitchen." She hurried off, leaving her mother and brother standing there, confused.

I do not have a crush on Jack Thornton, she thought as she dried the dinner dishes and put them in the cabinet. Not at all. He's nice, but I don't have a crush.

"Something on your mind, honey?" William passed her another dish.

"Nope."

Little did she know, Jack was sitting in his car at that same moment, his mind on her. He couldn't stop thinking about how adorable she had looked when she got flustered. He couldn't deny he was drawn to her, and that evening when he was trying to focus on getting to know his brother better, he found his gaze wandering to her. But no. I don't care what Lee says, he thought. I do not have a crush on her.