“No, I don’t, but that’s okay. Apparently it doesn’t matter if I get it or not.”

Scotty came in the front door, back from helping Skip home. “Ready to go, Nick?”

He tore his gaze off his wife to focus on his son. “Yeah, buddy. I’m ready.” Without another word for Sam, he grabbed his phone, keys and coat and headed for the door.

“See you later, Sam,” Scotty called as he followed Nick out.

“Have a good practice.”

“Thanks.”

In the year they’d been together, Nick had never been angrier with her than he was right now. She was defying a direct order from her chief to stay out of the case and gambling her hard-won career for a kid who’d shown absolutely no regard for anyone other than herself.

That’s what he’d meant when he questioned whether Brooke was worth it. The words had come out wrong, but the sentiment behind them was dead-on, and she knew it. Brooke had been making trouble in their family for years now, and while he wouldn’t wish this latest situation on anyone—least of all Tracy and Mike, who totally didn’t deserve it—he wasn’t as surprised as he should’ve been that it had happened in the first place. And if she were being truthful with herself, Sam wasn’t either.

“What’s wrong?” Scotty asked when they had driven halfway to the rink in rare silence.

“Nothing. Sorry. Just a lot going on today.”

“You’re mad at Sam. I can tell.”

Nick still wasn’t used to having a perceptive kid in the middle of his marriage, not that he’d want that perceptive kid anywhere else. “We don’t agree about her approach to this situation with Brooke.”

“How do you mean?”

“She wants to figure out what happened last night, and I want her to stay out of it.”

“She can’t do that. It’s not how she rolls.”

Nick glanced over at the boy, who was in fact exceptionally perceptive. “No,” he said with a sigh, “it isn’t, but I wish this once she’d roll in another direction.”

“Because she could get into trouble for helping Brooke?”

“For one thing.”

“And because it’s messing up the vacation?”

“For another. Not that I blame Brooke for that. Well, not really. It’s just...complicated, and this week was supposed to be relaxing.”

“Sam was excited about the vacation too.”