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Nick continued walking, shaking his head. “If you haven’t learned about my mother or family after all this time, I won’t tell you. You’ll figure it out soon enough.”

Matt frowned, jogging to catch up with his friend before he got out of sight. He honestly had no idea what Nick was talking about. Normally, he hated it when someone acted mysteriously. He’d never been good at nuance, and hints tended to sail right over his head. Some people found that hilarious and liked to use it against him, making him the butt of the joke. When it was his team, that was okay. He knew they didn’t mean anything by it. That was just how they were

Nick wasn’t like that, though, never had been. Yeah, Nick teased him, but Matt always knewwhenhe was the butt of the joke, and he knew Nick would sooner throw himself off a cliffthan intentionally hit a tender spot. If Nick was vague, it wasn’t because he was irritated with Matt or wanted to make a fool of him. Matt could take Nick at face value, and he would learn what he meant soon enough.

“Oh,” Matt muttered as they entered the baggage pickup area.

Nick only sighed, raising his hand to greet the clan of people waiting beside the conveyor belt. Matt counted at least a dozen, and they made the noise of double that when they spotted them.

“Shit,” Matt grimaced, raising a hand in greeting.

“You always forget,” Nick said companionably beside him as they approached.

It wasn’t that he forgot necessarily. He remembered how Nick’s family could be. He just sometimes didn’t believe they wouldalwaysbe as exuberant. It was impossible to remember they also had the same reaction when it came to him.

The crowd waiting for them looked so much like Nick. The same pale skin, some with freckles, others without, and none had dark hair. Eye color varied, but some had the same brightness as Nick, while others had the same shape. Some of them even had that same crooked grin, different in how they showed it, but somehow the same one he’d seen spread over Nick’s face.

From the crowd of mismatched doppelgangers came a woman Matt knew all too well. Kimberly Engel looked so little like her oldest son. But Matt had seen the identical shape of their eyes and learned enough about her to know the surface was where all the differences lay. Nick may look more like his father, but he had his mother’s steely resolve, observant nature, and giant heart.

“Well, there’s my boys,” she called loudly.

Matt winced, glad Nick had not inherited her big mouth. “Hi, Mrs. Engel.”

She scowled. “You don’t have to call me Mom, but you know, ‘Mrs. Engel’ is for the man at the DMV, not you.”

Before he could reply,he was yanked into her firm grasp. She was a head shorter than Matt, which meant Nick towered over her. That didn’t alter how absurdly strong the woman was. Petite and frail-looking did not a weak person make, and Matt knew better than to argue with her. As much as her slight frame did little to betray her physical strength, it showed even less of how little Kimberly Engel was willing to put up with.

“God in heaven, it’s good to see you two,” she whispered fiercely, squeezing Matt’s neck.

His eyes prickled as she gave him a wiggle before pulling back and holding onto his face. She was not a woman to be crossed lightly, bearing the air of command and the force of personality behind it. Yet she wasn’t a woman given to barking orders and snapping at people, not coldly anyway. She had a heart as big as Nick’s, though she was far more open about it.

“It’s good to see you too,” Matt muttered, hoping no one but she and Nick heard him.

“Oh, honey,” she said, giving him another squeeze.

Matt was at a loss for words, suddenly realizing just how much he missed this forceful, sweet woman. He was spared fumbling over his thoughts and converting them into words by Nick’s timely intervention.

“Am I getting a hug?” Nick asked dryly.

She turned to him, grabbing Nick’s elbows and gazing up at him. “Just so long as I get a good look at you first.”

“I’m in one piece, Mama,” he murmured softly.

The gentle affection, in tone and nickname, was enough to take the wind out of Kimberly Engel’s sails. Even Matt could see that. Her shoulders sank, her features softened, and she bent forward to hug her eldest. Nick smiled gently, wrapping his thick arms around her and holding tight.

The sweetness lasted only a moment before another voice cut through. “And where’s my hug?”

Matt had only a moment to realize who the voice belonged to before an impossibly small woman barreled into view and wrapped herself around him. Matt stumbled, wondering how the hell the Engel women could be so small and yet so strong before Nick’s sister peered up at him fiercely.

“And just where the hell have you two been for the past couple of years?” Maria demanded.

Matt couldn’t help but laugh. “I don’t exactly have control over when we can show up. Your brother’s the one with more pull than me now.”

“Thanks, buddy,” Nick muttered.

Matt winked at him, not ashamed that he’d thrown his friend under the bus. He would gladly take a bullet for Nick and had. But when choosing between one of them having to deal with the Kimberly and Maria tag-team duo, Matt would happily scuttle for cover and leave Nick to deal with the fallout.

Sure enough, Maria released her grip on Matt to turn to her older brother. “Don’t try to blame him becauseyou’vebeen too busy to come see us too.”