“No, I tried to tell you not all men think with their—”

“Stop!” she said on a rare laugh, covering her ears. “The first time was bad enough.”

“How about if I take you up to Mt. Hennessy?” he suggested.

There’d been a time when she’d loved to go four-wheeling up to Mt. Hennessy with him. The faster they’d gone, the louder she’d laughed in sheer delight. At the top, they’d sit on the edge, their feet hanging over the crevice a thousand feet below and they’d just … be. In a rare moment of openness, she’d once told him that had been her favorite thing to do next to strapping on her board and taking any double X diamond run on Cedar Ridge.

But now she just shrugged her indifference.

“Come on,” he coaxed. “I’ll even yell into the crevice and maybe nearly get arrested by Hud again. Just for you.”

Kenna smiled a little at the memory of Aidan taking her up there last year. They’d taken turns yelling themselves hoarse into the canyons, laughing at the echoes. They’d been so loud that someone had called the cops on them, saying someone was screaming bloody murder. Hudson had responded to the call and been pissed to find two of his siblings screwing around.

“Good times,” he said, nudging her shoulder with his.

Her smile vanished, and she sighed. “Maybe another time.” She met his gaze. “You look pretty done in, A.”

Aidan felt Gray take a second, longer look at him as well. “I’m fine,” he said.

“You’re not,” Kenna said, laughing a little. “You’re as screwed up as I am and we all know it.” She patted his cheek like he was the baby sister. “You do know you don’t always have to take care of me, right? You can work on taking care of yourself.”

With Gray still looking at him like a bug on a slide, Aidan tugged lightly on Kenna’s ponytail and bent a little to look right into her eyes so that she really heard him. “I know I don’t have to take care of you. I want to.”

She sighed again, and he prepared for her to roll her eyes, but then she surprised him and walked into his arms. She even let him hold her tight for a beat before pulling free.

She wasn’t back on the touch train yet either.

And then she was gone.

“Shit,” Gray said, staring at the door. “She’s not getting any better.”

“Yeah, but she’s not getting worse,” Aidan said. He took heart in that.

The front door opened again, but it wasn’t Kenna coming back. It was Hudson. He was in uniform, holding half a bagel and a to-go cup of coffee.

Gray gave him a brows-up glance.

Hudson ground his teeth.

“Yes or no?” Gray demanded. “You play, you pay.”