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“Ya told the other boys where you were gonna be, right?” Matt heard William ask.

Nick nodded. “If we’re not under orders to keep our mouths shut, we always tell each other where we’re going.”

“He gave the exact coordinates,” Matt said.

Nick grinned. “Damn right, I did. They would have looked it up if I didn’t, so I saved them the trouble.”

“And Sean made him swear that if he didn’t get at least a message from us within twenty-four hours of when we’re supposed to come back, he’s sending in a rescue party,” Matt added.

William frowned. “I know we’re out in the middle of nowhere, but it ain’t like you boys are camping out.”

Nick grimaced. “Probably remembering our little team-building exercise.”

“Ah, right. That’s the one when the troublemaker joined?”

“He wasn’t a troublemaker, Dad.”

“Oh, yeah, he was...is,” Matt corrected.

Nick rolled his eyes. “Yeah, it was when Aidan joined, and we got thrown into the middle of nowhere to freeze our asses off and almost got Sean killed. Now Sean’s a little...touchy about cold places.”

It was a rough but accurate summary of the test General Winter had put the team through years before. It hadn’t started well when they’d lost Sean in the middle of a blizzard. The team had nearly lost their minds. They’d lost Clint months before, and the idea of losing Sean had sent most of them into a tailspin. Thankfully, Aidan had been there, keeping them in line and organizing their mission to hunt Sean down before getting them to the designated rendezvous point.

All in all, not their finest moment. But it had cemented Aidan’s place in their team and gone a long way toward making their family whole again. It might have been an absolute mess, but Matt wouldn’t give it up for anything.

“Well, if they decide to show up, I’ll point ‘em your way. Though ya might need a bigger place,” William said, pointing ahead.

Matt looked to where he indicated, hoping it wasn’t as bad as he feared. He nearly sighed in relief at the small cabin tucked away in the furthest corner of the property. It was slightly tallerthan a one-story, constructed to look like a log cabin. A light shone through the front door window, and he wondered if the inside would be as rustic as the exterior.

Nick glanced back at him, a ghost of a smile on his face. “I told you it wasn’t going to be very big.”

“Only got one bedroom,” William added.

Nick’s gaze sharpened as he looked at his father. “We’ll live.”

Matt snorted. “We’ve had a lot smaller than this for the whole team to share. I think Nick and I can manage one bed.”

“Don’t doubt it for a second,” William said amiably.

Matt could see Nick was trying to communicate silently with his father. What the message was and why he was trying to do it silently, he didn’t know. There were loads of conversations and inside jokes between the Engels, though, and Matt ignored it as he stepped around them to check out the cabin up close.

“Full bath downstairs,” William told him. “Along with the living room. Got a little kitchen in there too, though most of the food is gonna come from Kim. Bedroom’s upstairs.”

“There’s an upstairs?” Matt asked as they approached.

“Just the one room, nothing fancy,” William said, opening the front door.

The air in the small entranceway had the slight tang of cleaning product, but otherwise, Matt smelled pine and earth. It was chilly inside, but he assumed they had aired the house out. It led immediately into an open room equipped with a plush couch, fireplace, and thick rug on the floor. To his left was the small kitchen William had mentioned. The hallway had one door to the right and a small set of stairs on the left.

“Nothing fancy,” Matt repeated as he looked around.

It was decorated to look rustic, from the bare wood walls and animal pelts on the floor. An old rifle hung above the mantelpiece, and he was fairly sure the rug in front of the fireplace was genuine bear. The light fixtures were modern andclean, hanging from the sloping ceiling. It wasn’t fancy in a glam and glitter sort of way, but he was pretty sure everything, down to the leather couch, probably cost more than he and Nick’s apartments and their contents.

“Nothing fancy,” Nick said, and Matt could hear the grin in his voice.

A warm hand wrapped around the back of Matt’s neck and gave a squeeze before Nick continued inside. Matt smirked, patting Nick’s hip before he was out of reach. Their comfort with one another, combined with their tendency to touch casually, was one of those things that got people’s brows raised.

Personally, Matt didn’t see what the big deal was. Nick could say a lot with a firm grip or a squeeze of his neck, and Matt enjoyed the attention. They weren’t always the best at talking through everything, but there were conversations in those little touches. Nick had been welcoming him into the home and telling him to relax, and Matt had been assuring him he would when they were alone and he could breathe.