“I had lost my shit with my brothers and stalked off. Morning chores hadn’t been done yet. I was tired of ramrodding three depressed siblings every morning and afternoon, so I said fuck it and hid. Grandpa found me in the barn, sitting on a bucket in the corner, crying.”

“And he told you to man up.”

“Among other things.”

You’re not a baby like Dawson. You’re old enough to know what’s at stake. You’re old enough to act like you have a little sense. Sitting here crying when two hundred cattle are relying on you for food? Goddamn it, kid. It’s not like you have an oil company to run and hundreds of employees like your dad. You have chores and school. Do you think we’re asking too much?

“That’s awful.” Her arms tightened and she did nothing but hold me. Her cool fire soothed the raging burn around my heart. “You were just a kid. Did he talk like that to your brothers too?”

I hadn’t given him a reason to. I’d stood up, kicked the bucket over, and done my chores. I’d even done my brothers’ share. Partly so I didn’t have to return home so soon. But also so DB would leave them alone and they could have the time to grieve that I wasn’t allowed to. “Not as severely. He was old-fashioned. The oldest carries the rest of the family. That’s how it was done in his day.”

“God, Aiden. I’m sorry.”

So was I.

“Does your dad know DB said all that?”

“Grandpa died a couple years after that.”

“But you can still talk to him—”

“He’s happy now, Kate,” I said softly. “He’s healthy. I don’t want him to stress about the past.” His heart attack had scared the shit out of me, out of all of us. I’d been so angry that he’d been distant all those years and then he’d almost been gone for good.

“You’re allowed to, you know.”

I brushed the backs of my fingers down her face. “You plan to talk to your dad about how upset you are with him that he doesn’t talk to your brothers? Or how you wish he was more than a birthday-card dad?”

“I’ll give you that. But there are other people you can talk to.”

I didn’t want to talk to anyone but her. Her face was an inch from mine. It’d be so easy to capture a kiss, but it was too soon. One small kiss would show me everything I was missing while she was no longer under the same roof as me. “You have to know that I loved you when I married you. I wasn’t lying about that.”

“Learning about the trust highlighted a lot that’s wrong between us.”