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“Good, because I didn’t raise any liars,” his mother piped up.

“You could always ask him yourself,” Nick suggested.

“Yeah, and if I did that now, he’d get that scared, rabbity look, like I just asked him the meaning of life,” Maria told him.

“Hey,” Nick chided with a frown.

“Or what his intentions with my child are,” his mother added oh so helpfully.

Nick scowled. “Leave him alone, and leave...that alone.”

His mother’s eyes were wide and innocent as she turned to look at him. “And what by chance is ‘that’?”

He held his dirty look, knowing better than to say anything else. Refusing to say what she wanted him to would only result in her dancing around the subject even more. Admitting it would give her the ammunition she needed to continue with whatever opinion she’d formed. Nick had learned long ago that silence was usually enough to get someone to stop.

“You look like your father when you do that,” she noted.

Maria looked in the rearview mirror again. “I bet you wish you hadn’t had so much to drink the last time you were here, huh?”

It hadn’t been at the lodge, but he agreed with his sister’s assessment. The last visit a couple of years ago somehow ended with Nick getting too deep into the bottle of whiskey his mother had pulled out and sitting on the front porch with them. The night was hazy, but boy, did he remember spilling his guts about his true feelings for Matt.

Admittedly, they’d taken the news well, although Maria had already known about Nick’s occasional dalliances with the same sex. He wasn’t sure if his mother was a consummate actress who hid her true feelings at the news or didn’t care. Either way, they had been sympathetic, accepting, and full of so many questions that, in his drunken state, he’d been more than happy to answer.

Now, the memory burned in the forefront of his mind, and he felt his cheeks growing warm. They were the only two people who knew about his feelings for Matt. Personally, he would have preferred the secret had been kept, but between the booze, a melancholy wistfulness that caught him just right, and a surge of affection for his sister and mother, he had poured his heart out to them.

“Ooh, that’s not a happy face,” Maria noted.

“There’s nothing to talk about, and you two had better not make comments around him.”

“Oh please, what are we, idiots?” Maria asked.

“Nosy, gossipy, and impulsive, but not idiots, no,” Nick said.

His mother waved a finger at him. “You best behave yourself. Don’t think you’re too old for me to come back there and put you over my knee. And don’t forget to thank your sisters for taking him with them. Lord knows I don’t know why that boy is so scared of being around us sometimes, but it’s good of them,” his mother said, facing the front again.

“He’s not scared,” Nick told her.

“Not that I’d blame him,” Maria said.

Nick shrugged, knowing Matt liked his family just fine. The man just didn’t do people very well, it was part of who he was, and Nick had no problem with it. Around too many people, Matt shut down and kept quiet, unsure what to say and afraid that whatever came out would create problems. Nick had never had a problem with anything Matt said, but there were memories before Matt joined the military that Nick suspected had a big part to play in his friend’s attitude.

His mother glanced at him, brow furrowing. “Oh, don’t get that look on your face, honey. We love him, and I’m glad he’s comfortable with Nicole and Emily, and they’re willing to back him up. Maybe then he can see you’re not the only person in this family he can get along with.”

Nick sighed, shaking his head gently but saying nothing else. He knew his mother meant well, and she wanted Matt to be as comfortable as everyone else with group gatherings. The thing was, Nick knew Matt never would be at ease, groups made him nervous, and crowds were the bane of his existence. Nick didn’t expect Matt to change and didn’t want him to, but he couldn’t fault his mother for trying to do what she thought was best.

As they came over the next ridge, Maria sighed. “God, it’s been years.”

Nick leaned forward as eager for a view as he was for a change in subject. The area that made up The Lodge sprawled for several acres. A dozen buildings were spread out in a grid, with paths connecting them. In the center was the main building, a wide two-story affair where his immediate family usually stayed when it was just them. It was the perfect place for the extended family to convene, with its large kitchen, dining room, lounges, and movie theatre tucked in the back.

The buildings closest to the entrance road were where everything utility-based resided. The garages, the workshop his father had installed years ago, and, of course, the infamousboiler sat in the middle of it all. The rest of the buildings spread out around the estate were all cabins of varying sizes, capable of housing his entire family if need be.

“You ever get the feeling our family has way too much money?” Nick asked lightly.

“I told Dad he should see if this place could be used for, like, a kids’ camp or something during the summer since we barely use the place unless it’s cold,” Maria said as they drove the last half mile.

Their mother looked at her sharply. “And what did he say?”

Maria smirked. “He said I’d have to talk to my mother.”