“This is what happens when you let people into your life,” Dylan muttered as he turned into the drive that led to the main house. “Things get complicated.”

The Trainers would take him apart if they knew what he’d been up to in that shower with their cousin, and he couldn’t blame them, even though they were two consenting adults.

What he’d just experienced had moved him, he couldn’t explain it any other way. And after, he’d behaved like a jackass... again.

He’d walked into the bathroom knowing she was in there. Something about Piper made him irrational, another side to his nature he hadn’t known existed. Seeing her standing there covering her lovely body with a towel had eradicated the one small streak of sanity he had left where she was concerned.

Pulling up outside the house Piper lived in, he studied the place. Joe’s wife’s family had once lived here, but he’d never been inside. From memory the Joneses had been an odd family that didn’t mix much with the other Ryker locals.

Getting out, he pushed aside a vision of Piper naked and wet and took the stairs up. He knocked on the door and waited; when no one came he let himself inside.

The smells of food and hum of voices led him through the house. It was nice, homely, he thought. Lived in as a home should be.

Everyone was seated around a huge table in the kitchen when he arrived.

“Where’s Piper?” Jack Trainer fired at him. All eyes turned his way, even those of the Pissants, who all held beers.

Dylan managed a shrug, then said, “She was talking to the horses when I got there, so I took the first shower.”

“Don’t tell me we have to wait for her to eat, Aunt Jess,” Luke complained.

“No, I’ll be sure to save her some, I know how long it takes for her to clean up.”

“Amen,” Joe muttered, reaching for a chili dog from the platter Mr. Goldhirsh had just placed on the table.

“Dylan Howard, how are you?”

He held out a hand as the matriarch of the Trainer family greeted him. Dylan hadn’t known her before he was sent away but the one time Joe mentioned her, he’d had good things to say.

“I’m good thanks, Ms. Trainer. I’m just sorry that I left so much trouble behind the day I drove out of Ryker Falls.”

She swatted his arm.

“Don’t you worry about any of that. We all have growing to do, boy, and from what I hear you’ve done just fine. Now you go on and eat before those heathens clean the plate.”