“So you have three brothers and one sister?” She stops, pausing to look at a painted family portrait. “Him?”

It’s a picture of all of us when we were kids. When Mom was still alive and Jude wasn’t so…destroyed. Jude actually smiles in the picture even though we were supposed to look serious. I’m not sure he’s smiled since Mom died.

“The picture you showed me on your desk in your home office just had you, the twins, and Hugo. Why wasn’t Jude in that picture?”

“You can barely get Jude out of the house once a week for Sunday dinner at Dad’s. A picture is an impossibility. He’s not exactly happy with the way he looks.”

She frowns at me. “What’s wrong with the way he looks? He’s a cute little boy in this painting.”

“That night,” I say softly, “when Mom died, Jude had been the one to try and save her.”

“How did she die?” She flinches. “I shouldn’t ask that.”

I take her hands in mine, peering down at her. “You can ask me anything. I want to open up to you, sweetheart. Just because it’s not easy doesn’t mean I don’t want to.”

Her smile is breathtaking. “I like learning about you and your life.”

Dipping down, I press a kiss to her supple lips. “Then I’ll tell you everything. Let’s get dinner started first.”

Willa moves around my kitchen like she belongs there. While I season the steaks, she starts pulling out vegetables to prepare a salad. A deep ache forms inside my chest. I like having her here. This thing between us feels so damn right, despite how it’d seem to everyone else.

“I think Mom tried to burn the house down with herself inside,” I grit out, unable to meet Willa’s stare. “She and Dad had already split up, but after learning how he’d gotten my girlfriend pregnant, I think it was too much.”

“That had to be awful for everyone.”

“The fire department ruled it as a kitchen grease fire. They claim she didn’t do it on purpose.” I close my eyes, remembering the smell of smoke that stayed with me for months after. “Her body would have completely burned up in the fire, but Jude happened to be skipping school and was at Park Mountain Lodge. He saw the smoke. By the time he made it to the house, it was engulfed.”

“Oh no,” she murmurs. “He went inside?”

“He did.” I swallow down the ball of emotion in my throat. “The firefighters found him passed out from smoke inhalation. He’d been dragging Mom’s body away from the kitchen, trying to get her outside, when he succumbed to the smoke.”

“That’s so awful.”