They both burst out laughing, and Francine only stopped when it hurt her ribs to carry on. She wiped the tears from her eyes and smiled happily, grateful to have this brief moment of lighthearted banter with her big brother without any drama.
"I'm going to be out most of tomorrow, so I might not be able to answer my phone, but I'll be at the party, just try and stop me. But while we are alone, which is a rare thing with so many people around here these days, I wanted to give you this," Lander reached out, looked deep into her eyes with a startlingly sincere look in his eyes, and placed a folded-up piece of paper into her hand. Once it laid flat in her palm, he folded her hand around it as if it was extremely important.
"What's this?" She frowned in utter confusion at why this appeared to
