Page 54 of Broken Dream

“How is that possible?” he asks. “If your family is as big as it seems, you must be celebrating a birthday every month.”

I nod. “Sometimes twice a month. And I have the same birthday as my twin, of course, so?—”

He raises his eyebrows. “Wait, your twin?”

“Yeah. We’re not identical twins, though we do look a lot alike. Sage—that’s her name—works for the family business. My dad is the chief financial officer for the umbrella company that oversees all our subsidiaries. He was grooming my brother to take over, but Dave had an epiphany a while back. He didn’t want to be cooped up in an office, so he started doing more of the work outdoors. Sage took his place, and she’s loving it. Like I said, we look a lot alike even though we’re not identical, but we couldn’t be more different in our personalities.”

“How so?”

“She’s really outgoing. The life of the party. And I…” I let out a forced chuckle. “I’m…not.”

He lets out a breath, his gaze vacant. “Being the life of the party isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

I tilt my head and look at him. At his gorgeous green eyes that seem to have a speck of sadness in them.

Was he the life of the party once?

And now he’s not?

I suppose losing the ability to do your life’s work has that effect on someone.

“What do you mean by that?” I decide to ask.

He runs his hands through his hair. “I was a partier back in the day, but not every weekend or anything. I think it was because I had to work so hard, you know, to get through med school and then through my internship and residency. When I had the chance to let loose, I took it.”

“That makes sense.”

“Yeah. It took its toll on—” He stops abruptly.

“Took its toll on what?”

He takes another bite of sandwich, chews, swallows. “On…everything,” he finally says. “Working and studying twenty-four seven doesn’t leave much time for anything else. So my partying days were few and far between.”

“I’m sorry.”

He smiles. “No reason to be sorry. I had to work my way through college and med school, and I still had student debt.”

“Is it all paid off now?”

“It is.” He looks down. “But I wish it weren’t.”

“Why would you wish that?”

He takes another sip of wine.

And he doesn’t answer.

Chapter Sixteen

Jason

After Julia was born, we talked to a financial advisor about setting up a college fund for her.

“Why not get her started on a whole-life policy?” our advisor said. “We love to start kids on these. The premiums are cheap, and the cash value builds up. By the time your kid is eighteen, she’ll have a nice nest egg. It won’t be huge, but if she decides to keep the policy, it will be a big part of her net worth by the time she retires.”

Lindsay and I looked at each other.

“Sure, why not?” we said.