You’re a kid too, Aiden thought. Roman was only a year and a half older than him, but the kids in the Vasil family seemed to make a distinction. They afforded a certain distinction to the ones who were old enough to remember their dad, to get tested by him, whatever that meant, and disciplined by him… he knew what that meant. Samuel who was the oldest that hadn’t bailed yet, Chastity, Roman, Juliette, and then Aroa barely making the cut.

Roman was only two years older than Darlene, but he acted like he was four years older. Unless Juliette was involved. He looked older too. Like Juliette, he had straighter hair, which he’d cut and styled, slicking to one side. The family resemblance was strong, besides that. Pale face, bigger lower lip, sharp, ‘pretty’ features that didn’t change much between the boys and the girls.

Candy approached from Aiden’s right, seizing his arm and wrapping it in hers.

He rankled. “I want my right hand free.”

Candy reached out and tapped the knife that had been holstered at the small of his back. “Because of this?”

She could sense everything about him just like he could sense everything about her, so of course she’d felt the knife there. The straps went over his shoulders like suspenders with one leather strap running down his spine.

Candy continued, pressing while hugging his arm tighter. “Why didn’t you put it at your belt like a normal person?”

“Aiden’s the most normal person here,” Darlene said. He could feel her pulse quickening, feel how genuine that anger she was now feeling was.

“It doesn’t matter,” he said.

“It’s strategically important,” Candy said.

“It shows more if it’s at the belt,” he said.

“We’re wearing warm and heavy clothes for winter. Well, most of us are,” Candy said. “Darlene’s wearing a chiffon dress she got in the summer, which is why she’s cold.”

“If you don’t stop interrupting and being a pain I’m going to get mad,” Darlene said.

She was already mad, Aiden was sure. He could feel it. The blood in her veins, the heartbeat, the restrained breathing.

“No fighting,” Roman said. He gave Darlene a light push on one shoulder. “I don’t want to clean up the mess.”

“It really is because I didn’t want it to show,” Aiden told Candy. Maybe explaining would cool things down. She looked like she was going to say something, so he added, in a quiet voice, “And because it was heavy enough it made my pants fall down.”

He could feel the shift in the tension with that. Roman chuckled, Amias outright giggling. Darlene’s face got hot, and Candy barely reacted. Why did she barely react?

“Aww,” Candy said. “That’s a cute mental picture, isn’t it, Darlene?”