Careful not to jostle her when she held hot coffee, he sat next to her and allowed her to put her arm around him.

He dropped his head onto her shoulder as Nick watched them, arms crossed and a stormy expression on his face that told her he was still wound up about her call to Agent Hill. Too bad. She’d do it again if it meant getting Brooke out of this awful mess.

She turned her focus to Scotty, running her fingers through his silky dark hair that was so much like Nick’s they could’ve been biological father and son. “How you holding up, pal?”

“Okay.”

“You want to talk about it?”

He was quiet for a long moment. “Not really.”

“You saw some upsetting stuff about your new cousin. It’s only natural to have questions.”

“I was wondering...”

“You can say it. It’s okay.”

“Why did she let them do that to her?” This was said with a quiver of his chin that broke Sam’s heart. She wanted to go back in time to the night before at the ice rink and bring Scotty to the ER with them. Maybe he wouldn’t have seen such upsetting things if he’d slept at home the night before.

“She didn’t let them, buddy. She was drunk and high, and they took advantage of her.”

“Why would they do that?”

“Because they were drunk and high, too, and not thinking properly,” Nick said. “Real men take care of women and girls. They don’t lose control of themselves and take advantage of a girl who isn’t able to say no.”

“That’s right,” Skip said. “And whoever did the videotaping is just as culpable as the other boys.”

“What does that word mean?” Scotty asked. “Culpable?”

“Responsible,” Sam said. “They could’ve stopped it, but instead they chose to film it. That makes them just as bad as the others.”

As he rested against her, Scotty seemed to be processing everything they’d told him.

“You know you can ask any of us anything whenever you want, right?” Skip said. “Even me. I’ll never tell you anything but the truth and neither will your mom and dad.”

“My mom and dad,” Scotty said with the grin that was much more like him. “That’s still so cool to hear.”

“It’s cool for us too,” Sam said, as a sudden rush of emotion had her blinking back tears. She closed her eyes and took a moment to breathe in the scent of his clean hair. “You have no idea how cool.”

“We need to get going to hockey practice,” Nick said.

“Go ahead and get ready,” Sam said, giving Scotty a kiss before she released him.

At the word “hockey” Scotty was up and on the way to the stairs to change.

“You feel like taking him?” Sam asked her husband.

“Yep.”

“Okay.”