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when talking to others, especially in his current condition, because everyone’s default setting seemed to be ‘tread lightly and don’t reveal too much.’
    But the way Tyler seemed to hesitate when it came to Megan sent all sorts of warning flags up for him. There was definitely something more to the story. It was driving him crazy because no one seemed to want him to know that particular story.
    “Really?” he asked, still trying to figure out a way to ask about Megan so that he’d get real answers, not filtered answers.
    Tyler nodded. “Yeah, she even spent summers working in my mom’s shop.” Tyler made a face. “Actually the shop belongs to your mom now too.”
    Jason looked at him in surprise. “Our mothers work together?”
    Tyler smiled. “Strange, hmm?”
    “So they’re friends?”
    “Good friends actually.”  Tyler smiled. “Being one of Bruce Kincaid’s ex-wives apparently is a bonding experience.”
    He nodded, but he was trying to sort through yet another fleeting memory. But this one, he couldn’t quite hold onto. “So how’d my Dad take it? I mean about our mothers working together and being friends?”
    Tyler shot him a knowing look. “How do you think he took it?”
    “That’s one thing I’m glad I can’t remember,” he said chuckling. Tyler smiled at him, but he could see the discomfort in his eyes. “Hey, relax man. If I can’t joke about losing a part of my mind, what else is there?”
    Tyler considered his comment for a few seconds before he smiled. “You got a point.”
    He shook his head. “Even as a kid I couldn’t understand how my Dad and you know, your mom and my mom could all. . .”
    “Yeah, I know. It’s weird. It always has been.” He shrugged. “But it works somehow.”
    He nodded. “So you, me and Megan?”
    “What?” Tyler asked, sounding confused.
    “Did we ever, you know, hook up with her?”
    “Ugh!” Tyler threw his hands up in horror. “God, man! The mental image you just put in my head! What the hell?”
    “What?” he asked. “You mean me and Megan?”
    “How about the three of us?” Tyler shot him a disgusted look. “You do realize you and I are brothers right?”
    “Stepbrothers, or ex-stepbrothers.” He groaned. “And I didn’t mean that!” Tyler was right. That image was disturbing. Extremely disturbing. He involuntarily shuddered. “I meant you know. . .Megan never. . .after all these years, she never. . .with either of us?”
    “Dude, I told you. Megan’s like a sister.” He shook his head. “And as my sister, I try not to get a blow-by-blow of her sex life.” Tyler made a face that Jason couldn’t help laughing at.
    “Megan’s like a sister to us?” he asked, forcing himself to sound nonchalant.
    “She is to me!” Tyler exclaimed, still looking disgusted.
    “What about me?”
    “Uh. . .” Tyler paused and Jason could see the telltale signs that he was trying to spin the answer. He had seen this all too often now. And he hated it.
    “Truth, man.”
    Tyler sighed. “Look, Jase, sometimes the truth is hard to handle.”
    “Especially for poor brain damaged me?”
    “I didn’t say that.”
    “You know what,” he said, letting his frustration and anger take hold. “I’m so sick of everyone acting like I’m some sort of idiot who can’t handle things! I’m fucking sick of having people give me half-truths or tell me I’m not ready to hear something. I’m not ready?! It’s my fucking life! And I have a right to know about it! All of it! Not just what people like you think I should know!”
     “I’m just trying to-“
    “If you say ‘help’ I swear to God I am gonna wheel myself over there and deck you!”
    “I get that you’re frustrated man, but the doctor-“
    “Fuck the doctor!”
    Tyler stood up. “This is getting out of hand. I’m gonna-“
    “Be an asshole?” He knew he was egging Tyler on, and unfairly at that, but all this pent-up frustration and anger needed a release and Tyler was