She didn’t stop, not until she got to the van and fumbled with getting the key in the lock.

“Astrid. Let me drive. You’re in no condition to—”

She spun on me, her ponytail whipping around. “I can drive when I’m upset, Thatcher.”

I held up my hands. “Yeah, I know, but you don’t have to.”

Tears filled her eyes and she pushed at her glasses.

Oh shit. Not tears. This was the first time I’d seen her break down, even after everything she’d been through. The passive aggressiveness. The accusations. The belittling. She didn’t even know the half of the things I’d heard. What her father had said about her. What Eddie had said. Bunky, too. I wanted to take her to the ranch and tuck her into my farmhouse and shield her from the world. To tell her every day how perfect she was, just the way she was. She didn’t need any of the losers here in Cutthroat. She didn’t need her parents or sister.

She blinked, then set her hands on her hips. “Yeah, I do.”

“I’m here,” I replied. She’d let me help her before.

“No, you’re not.”

I frowned. She wasn’t making sense. “Sweets, I’m standing right here.”

“You’re not really with me,” she added. “You’re my fake boyfriend, remember?”

I rolled my eyes, flung a hand in the air. “Come on, we’re past that, don’t you think?”

I wanted to pull her into my arms, hug the shit out of her. She didn’t get enough of them in her life, and I wanted to be the one to change that. It was different than sex. Different than my obsession with her body. I wanted her, to comfort her. To make all her problems in life go away. I was working on it one broken nose at a time.

She shifted and crossed her arms. “You’re going to Mexico, remember? You don’t want a relationship.”

Shit.

It was my turn to be scolded. My own words were being tossed at me and I didn’t like the feel of it. Mexico didn’t sound so exotic right about now. The warm sun, the beach, and the ocean, all of that wasn’t really going to keep me warm over the winter months. But Astrid could.

For the first time, I could see why Huck wanted to hunker down with Sarah. Stay home. Nap. Make babies.

But I’d avoided all that in my life because things happened. Kelsey almost died in a fucking fire last weekend. Sarah and Huck were ripped apart for six years. Turned out, they’d even lost a baby. Our parents had died. Shit happened and that hurt. Going to Mexico was a way to ensure the love trap that my brothers were falling into didn’t happen to me.