“I’m not grieving my dad,” Kaden said. But that wasn’t fully true. He’d never stopped mourning the father Christian Durant could have been. The family he might have had if they’d chosen love over control.

“I take it things weren’t great between the two of you,” Irene said.

What could it hurt, baring his heart to this woman who could read it so clearly? The day had already been strange enough.

“He was abusive,” Kaden said.

“Nate never told me that.” Irene shook her head.

“He wouldn’t have,” Kaden said. “Dad never raised a hand to him. It was me he went after.”

“Did your mom know?” Irene asked.

He let out a strangled laugh. “You know, she told me I could stop what my father was doing to me?” He rubbed at his eyes. “I thought I’d buried all this, but coming back here…”

“If you want me to ease the pain…”

Kaden shook his head. “I think some pain we’re meant to keep. To remind us who we never want to be.”

Irene sipped her drink. “You surprise me, Kaden Bonner.”

He kneaded his knuckles against the side of his neck and stole a quick glance at her. “Why are you doing this for me?”

“Drinking a mint julep and watching the sunset?” Irene asked.

“Inviting me to your family dinner, agreeing to attend my father’s funeral,” Kaden said. “You don’t even know me.”

She started to answer, but he cut her short. “And don’t tell me it’s because of the leaves.”

“It is because of the leaves,” she said.

“From what I heard in there, you hate my family far more than I remember,” Kaden said.

“You can thank your brother for that.”

“This is about more than Nate.”

“My mom doesn’t like what the bourbon industry’s become. She doesn’t like the memory harvest, the gloom, any of it.” She sighed. “When you spend enough time pulling sorrow from people’s hearts, you start to wonder where it comes from.”

“You think my family’s responsible?”

Irene shrugged. “My mom thinks they are. And that definitely made it easier for me to write off your entire family after what your brother did to me.”

“But you’re still willing to help me,” Kaden said. “That’s what I don’t understand.”

She let out a heavy sigh and leaned her head back against the chair. “I have this… feeling when I’m around you. I can’t really explain it. Like I want to trust you. It doesn’t make any sense, but there it is. Combined with the leaves, it’s something I can’t just ignore.”