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“I don’t, but I also can’t help myself.”

“You shouldn’t. You’ve warned me, and I’m still here.”

“I know. And it baffles the mind.” He dug into his omelet again.

“So it’s just you and your brother and mom and dad.”

“Yeah. Like you, we have some really close cousins. Dad’s brother married my mom’s best friend. They have three sons.”

“All boys in the family.”

“Mostly, yeah. We have some extended family who have a couple of girls, but the boys dominate the family tree.”

“Did you spend the holiday with them?”

“I wasn’t supposed to, but due to circumstances, it worked out that I could this year.”

She didn’t ask about that. He was relieved that he didn’t have to shut her down once again. They were on a roll, and he wanted to keep sharing his real life with her. “What do your mom and dad do for a living?”

“Mom raises alpacas and has her own yarn company.”

“Really? That’s awesome.”

He got up, went into his room, pulled the blanket off his bed, and brought it out to her. “She made this with her yarn.” He hadn’t shared anything this personal with someone in a long time. “I take it everywhere I go, so I have a piece of her with me.”

Lyric stared up at him, tears gathering in her eyes. “That’s really sweet.” She grasped the corner of the blanket and rubbed it in her hands. “This is so soft. I love all the different shades of gray with the black. Your signature color.”

He grinned about him wearing only black clothes. “It’s easy to get dressed. Everything matches.” It made him look tough. And at night, he could blend into the shadows and no one could see him. Very handy for his line of work.

He draped the blanket over the back of his chair, sat, and finished off his potatoes. “Those were so good.”

“I’m glad you liked them.”

He took his meds, downed some water, then worked on the rest of his omelet.

“What about your dad?” she prompted because he’d stopped talking.

“I grew up on the family cattle ranch. Dad still runs it, though it’s a much smaller operation than when my brother and I lived there.”

“Was he disappointed you didn’t go into the family business?”

“Actually, we did. Sorta. We followed the previous four generations into the same line of work.”

“I see. And is he proud of you both for that?”

“Incredibly, though he wishes I did more of what my brother does than what I do.” He watched her face, looking for the frustration that he had answered but basically told her nothing.

“I’ll fill in all the gaps and make sense of all this when you can finally tell me everything.”

“You read my mind.”

She grinned. “And your cousins?”

“Dad’s brother is a lawyer turned judge. His wife, Mom’s best friend, was a stay-at-home mom to her boys, but now she works for them at their distillery.”

Lyric perked up. “Really? Which one?”

That would get her too close to his name and identity, and it was too dangerous for her to know that right now. “Ask me something else.”