Jared was in no way new to the sibling thing. He was, however, in unfamiliar territory in the shoes of an older brother. Kevin was the epitome of the title Big Brother. He was disciplined, well-behaved, and protective. Jared was a poor man's version of his older sibling and he knew that, even on the best of days. But, to his credit, he was trying, for Gracie.
When he'd first heard about her, he'd wanted to hate her right off the bat. She was fathered by another man and, where she came from, he neither existed nor did his mother co-exist with his father; he would never be wherever it was that she came from. Worse, she was one of them. They accepted her because she was from their universe; a familiar face. He was an outsider; a bastard child from a couple that never was in their eyes. Part of him secretly still resented her for it. The larger part, though, was willing to acknowledge the fact that he loved Gracie. Everything about her felt like Mom; felt like home.
So, to see her face brighten at his agreement alone made his chest swell with a weird sort of pride that he found himself wondering if Kevin sometimes felt once upon a time when Jared had hero-worshipped him. He also wondered, just then, if Kevin ever missed it or wished things were different now that Jared had grown into his own person, too loud and obnoxious to be visibly related to the other man. He thought maybe Kevin might, because he thought that if Gracie ever turned on him the way he sometimes felt he had on Kevin, it'd rip him up inside.
"I have no idea, but there's gotta be," he thought aloud. "What kind of shit town would it be if there wasn't? Wanna go check it out? There is always plan B, if not," he agreed thoughtfully at her offer of asking her friend to break into a mini bar, should their mission fail.