Twelve years ago, when JD was home on leave, helping out around our family ranch in Texas, he met Jillian. She was like a female JD, as gorgeous as he is handsome, with long blonde hair and curves that made men stare, and that same toughness and no-nonsense attitude. She had the country gene that I’d somehow missed out on. Not long after they started dating, she arrived at our ranch with a dead coyote that she’d shot from horseback while on her way home from digging a well. But despite us being so different, she was always warm and welcoming, becoming like a big sister to me. She always acted sweet and demure when my folks were around, but she had a filthy sense of humor and was refreshingly open about sex— It was her I went to with all my sex questions.

Right from the start, we all knew she was The One. JD doted on her, going after her with the same unshakeable determination he goes about anything. A little over a year after they met, he popped the question and six months after that, they were married in a beautiful, outdoor ceremony. When JD kissed her, I remember thinking I’d never seen my brother happier.

A couple of years later, they had Max, a baby boy with Jillian’s shining blonde hair but JD’s thick curls. He had JD’s pale blue eyes, too, and with the blonde curls he looked like a choirboy. Pretty young, he discovered he could get away with most anything if he turned those eyes on you. But it wasn’t me who let the chickens out, Aunt Erin! I loved the l’il rascal and spoiled him rotten.

And then, not long after Max’s fifth birthday, my mom got a frantic call from JD, saying she needed to get to his place right now. My mom arrived to find the street filled with police cars.

Jillian and Max were dead.

JD was overseas, on an op. He’d been on the phone to them when an intruder broke into their house and he’d had to listen from a thousand miles away as they were killed, unable to do anything to help.

Their deaths broke him. He quit the army, which had always been the core of his life, and sank into a deep depression for years. Then, six months ago, his best friend had managed to persuade him to come and lead this team in Colorado—

Wait. His best friend? JD had never mentioned his name but I was sure now that he’d been talking about Danny. Danny was the one who’d pulled him out of that dark pit, maybe even saved his life. But if the two of them were so close, how come JD had never introduced us?

“There,” said JD from the passenger seat. “On the left.”