“I’d love to, but I have to get back. This came at the worst time. I have a trial starting tomorrow.”

“Oh, wow. Sorry.” I wave her inside. “At least let me make you some coffee for the road.”

“Thanks.”

She follows me into the kitchen and pours a generous amount of cream and sugar into one of the travel mugs I hand her.

“You leave room for coffee?”

She chuckles. “Marcel says the same thing.” She hesitates, then meets my eyes. “I hate asking, but would you check on him? Later today. Whenever you have a few minutes? I know Murphy will be back later.” She rolls her eyes. “And Marcel swears he’s fine, but I’m worried—”

“Of course. I can do that.”

“Just ignore him if he’s crabby.”

I chuckle and squeeze her arm. “I have an older brother, remember? Plenty of experience with cranky males who don’t want to admit they need anything.”

“That’ll come in handy. Thanks, Lilly. I appreciate it.”

At the door, she gives me a quick, tight hug. “I’ll hopefully be back down Saturday morning. We’ll see how my trial goes.”

“Good luck.”

“Want to go visit Uncle Teller?” I ask Chance after his nap.

“Otay.”

“What do you think we can bring him to cheer him up?”

He races over to the coffee table and picks up what’s become his new favorite coloring book. Full of monster trucks. “Good choice.”

Besides motorcycles, I’ve noticed quite a few of Z’s brothers have an affinity for tricked-out trucks. Teller’s is especially impressive. It seems to be a running joke between him and Charlotte that no one except Murphy has ever driven his truck.

If Heidi or Charlotte were home, I’d probably go through the back gate and knock on their patio door, but as far as I know, Teller’s home alone, so I cross our front yards and ring the doorbell.

He takes a while to answer and I almost consider calling instead, but finally, he opens the door.

“Lilly? What are you doing here?” He winces as he steps back to open the door wider, but otherwise remains stoic.

“Chance wanted to come say hello and show you his book of monster trucks.”

Finally, his harsh expression softens as he glances down. “Hey, buddy. You bring that for me?” He nods to the book in Chance’s hand.

“Uh-huh.”

“Let me guess,” Teller says in a low voice as I walk past him. “Z asked you to come check up on me?”

“No, Charlotte did. She was upset she had to leave.”

“Damn,” he mutters. “She has a rough enough week without worrying about this BS.”