“Where did she go…” he whispered, when he saw the back of a pair of Crocs underneath the bed of the truck. He dropped into a crouch. “Need any help down there?”

The woman hit her head on the muffler with a thump. “Damn it.” She groaned.

“Are you all right?”

She opened her eyes with a mumbled “I’m alive.”

“Sorry,” Kaden said. “I didn’t mean to distract you. I thought I could help carry this in.”

It wasn’t until she’d rolled out from underneath the truck, her freckles on full display, that Kaden recognized her and realized he may have been right about the woman at the door.

“Irene?”

He was assailed by flashes of her—long curls, flannel shirts, overalls. She’d been engaged to his brother. Judging by the lack of a ring on her finger, that hadn’t ended well. She looked up at him and narrowed her eyes. She’d paired loose denim with a simple burnt-orange tank top, and just a hint of gray threaded through her thick, strawberry-blond braid.

“You look… Do I know you?” she said.

“Kaden.” He reached out his hand.

She shook her head slowly. “Bonner?”

After a few seconds she started to laugh. The sound was throaty and deep. Bitter. It hit him hard in the chest like a sip of white dog—the pure, sharp alcohol that came out of a still before it was aged in the barrel. It was not a pleasant thing.

Kaden took a step back.

“A visitor.” Irene shoved her hands into her pockets. “A damn visitor.”

He pressed his lips together as he tried to understand her words and tilted his head to one side. “Excuse me?”

“Of course it’s a Bonner.”

She said his name like a curse, and his cheeks burned. She stumbled as she stood. Kaden offered an arm to steady her, but she righted herself on the truck instead.

“Can I help you bring these boxes in or…?”

“It can’t have meant you.” She worried at her lip as she looked him over, but he didn’t think the words were for him. Then, eyes locked on his, she said, “Sylvia sent you.”

Kaden wasn’t following. “My mom?”

“I’m not coming to the funeral. Sending the son I don’t hate to ask on her behalf isn’t going to change that.”

A cicada landed on the truck.

Kaden held up his hands. “I, um… came for a cup of tea. I didn’t know this was your place, and I haven’t seen my mom in twenty-five years.”

Irene blinked a few times. Her green eyes caught the sunlight and threw it back at him.

“You’re here… for tea?”

Kaden rubbed at the back of his neck. “Technically I’m here because my father’s dead, but I wasn’t ready to see my family just yet.”