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“What the hell happened?” I asked. “Noah isn’t here, and nothing—nothing—that I’ve seen from him or any of the Resting Warrior guys has warranted your reaction to them.”

Whatever had made him feel comfortable enough to joke with me disappeared. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

I huffed out a breath, counting to five in my head so I didn’t lose my cool. No one could get under your skin like family. “That’s fine. You don’t have to talk to me about it. But you should talk about it with someone. I’m not saying it’s the therapist that they work with, but Resting Warrior has saved your life. The men there, who had no reason to help either of us, have put their lives on the line for both of us.”

Brandon looked shaken. “What happened?”

I’d avoided telling him some of the details, glossing over them because I didn’t want to upset him. And in the middle of a department store wasn’t the place I wanted to tell him that his buddy Max had sold me. “Not here. Later. But when I say I trust them? I have good reason to.”

“Okay.” The answer wasn’t sullen. It was accepting.

All of today, even arguing in the hospital, he’d been better. I’d been so wrapped up in what we had to do, I hadn’t noticed until this second that he seemed so much clearer.

Like the Brandon I remembered.

“Let’s pay,” I said.

It took long minutes for the cashier to put everything together.

“I’ll pay you back,” Brandon said, voice quiet. He was embarrassed.

Reaching out, I wrapped an arm around his shoulders—or as well as I could with him being so much taller. “Don’t worry about it,” I whispered. “Let’s take care of the debt that actually matters first before we worry about stuff like clothes, all right?”

He nodded.

I called Noah. “We’re done.”

The truck pulled up a second later, and I turned to my brother. “If you say anything about the lingerie, I will throw you back in with the dogs.”

Brandon laughed louder than I’d heard in years. “Don’t worry, sis. I won’t tattle on you buying sexy underwear. Trust me, I don’t want to think about that at all.”

“Good.”

We slid our bags under the covered bed of the truck before climbing back in. Noah relaxed as soon as I was beside him, and deep in the pit of my stomach, I loved that.

“So, Noah,” Brandon said, climbing into the truck and closing the door. I gave him a glare, but he just smiled.

Noah raised an eyebrow. “Yeah?”

“When do I get to give you the ‘if you hurt my sister, I’ll hurt you’ talk?”

For one second, all the air in the cab went taut. Then Noah was laughing, and Brandon was laughing with him. “After you can spar with me and win? Then you feel free.”

“Deal,” Brandon said.

Whatever happened between Brandon and Resting Warrior wasn’t resolved. But this was a good start. Even if it was at my expense.

The rest of the drive was much less awkward.

As we rode, I leaned my head on Noah’s shoulder. Despite everything that was hanging over our heads and nipping at our heels, this was the happiest I’d ever been.

Chapter 22

Kate

Noah was somewhere in a meeting with the Resting Warrior guys, and I was sick of being in the house. Instead, I found my way to the alpaca enclosure. They were fascinating to watch.

I liked the animals. The more time I spent around them, the more comfortable I became, and the more I felt they liked me.