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I was going to be an uncle, and that seemed almost unbelievable to me.

I could only imagine how Tanner felt knowing he was going to be a father soon.

“Anna is starting to think about kids,” Kaleb shared.

“And?” I asked, already knowing that Kaleb would love to be a father.

He shot me a lopsided grin. “I’m more than ready to do my part in getting her pregnant. Hell, I’d love to see her pregnant with my child, but it will definitely screw up her career for a while. She’s still traveling a lot, even though she records her music in her studio in Billings. I don’t want her to make sacrifices for me. I love her. Just having her as my wife is enough.”

I shook my head slowly. “I don’t think it would be a sacrifice for her. She wants to have kids, right?”

He nodded. “Hopefully more than one, which is why she’s thinking about getting started soon. She’s going to start slowly decreasing her traveling and personal appearances. She keeps saying that she’s not getting any younger.”

Tanner barked out a laugh. “Hannah says the same thing, but this pregnancy thing scares the shit out of me. Well, not really the pregnancy, but the labor and the discomfort Hannah is going to go through to bring our kid into the world. Once I watch the pain she’ll go through during the birth, I’m not sure I can do it again. And anything could happen during childbirth.”

“Nothing bad is going to happen,” I assured Tanner. “Women have babies every day. Hannah will be fine.”

“She’ll have to be,” Tanner answered in a disgruntled voice. “Hannah is my entire world now.”

Kaleb nodded like he understood completely. “Just like Anna is mine.”

I couldn’t say that I related to what they were saying because I didn’t believe that one person could be your entire world, but I knew my brothers.

If anything happened to their wives, neither one of them would ever be the same.

I could comprehend that much, which is why I tried to watch out for them.

Truthfully, Hannah and Anna were family to me now, and I’d do anything to keep them safe.

My concern about Reese had all started because of my protective instincts for my family.

“I still plan on figuring out what’s going on with Reese,” I warned them. “Maybe she’ll tell me more if we’re on friendlier terms.”

“Don’t push on her, Devon,” Tanner warned. “She seems like a private person, and we all should respect that. She wasn’t raised here in Crystal Fork where everyone trusts their neighbors. We all grew up here. She’s still adjusting.”

“I’m not sure she’s just trying to be private. I think she’s scared,” I finally blurted out.

A look of concern formed on my brothers’ faces.

“What makes you think that?” Tanner asked.

“Fuck!” I cursed, feeling frustrated. “Gut instinct. The flash of fear I see in her eyes for just a nanosecond before she masks it. She’ll share some things with me easily. Her likes. Her dislikes. Some of her past experiences. But when it comes to specifics about her past, she clams up like she’s afraid to say anything.”

“I guess I can’t give you any input about that,” Tanner admitted. “I’ve never felt the need to interrogate her on her background. However, there’s something to be said about your gut instinct. You’re almost never wrong.”

I hadn’t always had a good gut instinct.

I wished that I’d been born with it, but I’d developed it and listened to it as I’d matured.

“I did notice that she’s friendly with Chief Norton,” Kaleb mentioned. “Anna and I saw them having coffee at Charlie’s a while back. But Norton makes it a point to know everyone in this town. He’s been reacquainting himself with everyone and meeting the townspeople he doesn’t know.”

Ralph Norton was our Chief of Police. He’d been hired and had started his position not long before Reese had moved here.

Kaleb had made it a point to improve our police department after our cousin, Shelby, had been kidnapped and almost killed by a serial killer while she was staying in Crystal Fork.

Ralph Norton was single, but a lot older than Reese. About thirty years older. Unless Reese was really into much older men, I doubted there was any romantic interest there on either side.

Kaleb had helped recruit Norton from Spokane, where he’d been known as a very experienced and very savvy senior detective.