Well, Nico sure knew how to keep a secret because he hadn’t mentioned a word of it. Apparently, Judd would be chatting with his little brother…after he’d dealt with Buck.”

“As for Buck,” Cleo went on, “I try to call him at least every other month, and I visit him when I can.” Cleo finally sat, then picked up an ink pen and fidgeted with it.

Nerves, Judd knew. And he waited for her to voice the same concern Judd had for their foster father’s health. Since Buck was recovering from cancer, the concern was justified.

Still fidgeting, Cleo glanced at the picture. “You and I go back a long way. Seventeen years. Friends,” she added, as if testing that word to see if he agreed with the label.

Not quite friends. More than that. Then less, once she’d been moved to another foster home shortly after that picture on her bookshelf had been taken. Judd had stayed in Coldwater with his brothers and Buck, while Cleo had been placed with a family in San Antonio only days after Buck’s wife, Anita, had been killed in a car wreck. The system hadn’t thought it appropriate for a teenage girl to be living in the house with four teenage boys and a foster father when there was no female around.

“Remember the night I left you a note on your bed and asked you to do me a big favor?” The smile she flashed him was laced with nerves now, too.

“Sex,” he provided. “You wanted me to rid you of your virginity.” And she’d done that with a “check yes or no” box with the question “You want to get lucky tonight?”

“You obliged me,” she said.

Judd lifted his shoulder. “I was sixteen. It didn’t take any arm twisting. I checked that ‘yes’ box pretty damn fast.” He paused, studied her. “You didn’t ask me here to have sex with you, did you?”

He knew the answer to that was “no.” Cleo and he hadn’t had sex in seventeen years, not since she’d moved to San Antonio. Still, it took her several long moments to confirm his “no” by voicing one of her own.

She looked him straight in the eyes. “You remember how bad it could be in the system.”

Yeah, he remembered. Still had nightmares about it, but he settled for a nod. One that accompanied what Judd was certain was a confused look. Why the hell was Cleo digging up this old dirt and memories?

“I need you to go somewhere with me,” she said, standing. She scribbled a note and put it in the center of her desk. It said, “Daisy, I’ll be back soon.”

Judd looked up from the note and stared at her. “Go where?”