It should be a no-brainer. She was no longer a grieving college student getting over the death of Ashley, her best friend and cousin, fiercely determined to live out the dreams they’d had of traveling and making something different and exciting of their lives. She wasn’t that naive girl who had been caught up in the excitement of being overseas for the first time, away from her hawk-eyed brothers and cousins, enraptured by a man finally treating her like a woman instead of a girl. She’d left that starry-eyed girl, and any silly notions about falling in love, behind, and as Tobias had so eloquently put it, she wasn’t dumb enough to go back for seconds.

She’d given up on relationships, focusing on making something of herself, and she’d done a damn good job of it. Wanting to make her late cousin proud, she’d traveled all over the world, doing puppetry and musical storytelling, while building a six-figure career with her greeting card line. But even now, with all that experience, knowing better than to ignore the red flags, as she closed her eyes, willing herself not to think about Tobias, it was his face that appeared behind her closed lids. Those guarded eyes, the lips that had slipped and curved into a smile for only a few seconds, giving her a glimpse of…Who? The man he’d once been? The person he could be? She didn’t know, but she knew there was more to him than just a hot, broody guy. She’d felt his pain when he’d shut down. The same way she’d felt Ashley’s older brother Tank’s pain when he’d shut everyone out all those years ago.

Ashley’s death had impacted everyone differently, and while Ashley’s other brothers, Baz and Gunner, had been devastated, too, Tank had literally walled off his emotions, keeping everyone at arm’s length. He was the one who had found Ashley after she’d accidentally overdosed, and he’d never forgiven himself for not being able to revive her. Nobody thought he would ever allow himself to be happy again, but Madigan had always believed he’d find his way out of the darkness at some point. She’d tried to draw him out of his pain, and although they were close, she was never able to do it for more than a few minutes. But that didn’t stop her from believing that someone would eventually scale the walls he’d erected and ease that pain. It had taken a decade and the love of Leah Yates and her two young girls, Junie and Rosie. Tank would never be the same person he’d been when Ashley was alive—none of them would be—but he was happy with Leah, who was pregnant with their baby, and the girls, who adored their Papa Tank, and that was everything.