But it was so good, and made them so close that it was easy to forget all the work. Easy to coast on the fucking and forget the rest. Which was why she’d wanted to wait, of course. But damn, he was glad she was as powerless against their sexual chemistry as he was.

“It’s good. All of it. Uncomfortable sometimes. I did some damage, you know?”

Ezra snorted. “Yeah, I think I can imagine what that might feel like.”

His big brother had fallen down the deep pit of addiction. Driven himself right off the road of life, had to go to rehab and rebuild everything, including all his relationships. Which he had.

Ezra, being who he was, though, carried it around, all that guilt, as if he hadn’t made up for his mistakes a thousand times by then.

“I say this with love, Vaughan.”

Vaughan cringed at whatever his brother was about to say.

Ezra laughed. “Calm down. You’ve been given a pass. Most of your life. Now you have to face some shit you pulled. Bad enough to have derailed your own damned life. Own your shit and then move forward with these women who adore you. Don’t look back, Vaughan. Once you’ve dealt with the hurts of the past, it’s time to look to the future.”

“I’m trying.”

“You’re out of your element, too. Not here, but at Kelly’s house. How’s that feel?” Ezra asked.

“She’s got reasons for that,” Vaughan said, defensiveness in his tone.

“I imagine she does. We’re all responsible for that. In protecting you, we were less than kind to her.”

How could Ezra be so spot-on about everyone else, but never cut himself a break?

“And now she doesn’t trust you all,” Vaughan said. Which he really hated. This was his family; he loved them. They were an incredibly important part of his life and he wanted her to feel that, too. Though his family had opened their hearts up to his sister-in-law Mary, Natalie, his brother Paddy’s girlfriend, and even to Tuesday, the woman Ezra was just starting up with, they hadn’t with Kelly.

“Fair enough. You have to get her trust back first. And then you have to lay out the whole truth. Mom will do the right thing once she knows.”

Vaughan blew out a breath. “Maybe. She seems pretty invested in not liking Kelly.”

“Sure she did. You’re her son. She’d cut someone to protect any of us.” Ezra shrugged. “Back then the whole family was different. You brought this woman around and she was pregnant and your wife before they even met her?”

“Mom took one look, got how pretty Kelly was and then wrote her off. You can’t pretend that wasn’t part of it.”

Ezra nodded. “Yeah, most likely. We never got to know her very well.”

Vaughan just hoped he got the chance to get his family to open up in ways they hadn’t before. If they gave Kelly the time, they’d see she was so much more than a pretty woman who’d had his kids.

“Step one is to get her back. Then I guess the rest of it will follow,” Vaughan said.

“Only if you work your ass off for it.”

“That so? How are things with Tuesday, then?”

His messed-up brother had found a woman with her own set of vulnerabilities. The two fit in ways Vaughan could see made his brother uncertain. But that he kept at it and continued a relationship with her was a good thing.

Ezra smirked. “I’m keeping it close for the time being. We like each other.”

“Fair enough. Help me load this stuff into my car.”

As they did, his father approached with a wave, a few dogs and a pig in his wake. “Ezra, your animals came to see me this morning. Your mom loves the visits but your pig roots in her flower beds and then I have to listen to her rant about it. You know how she is about those beds. It was your goats last time now it’s the pig again. Don’t do that to me, boy.”

Ezra was a burly man. Broad-shouldered. He didn’t speak unless it was necessary most of the time. Taciturn. Gruff. But that was all for show. He was a giant marshmallow when it came to his animals and his family. He had a sweet but not exceptionally bright Lab named Loopy and a pig named Violet who seemed to think she was a dog and Ez let her.

Currently though, Violet knew she was in trouble for digging and she made a cute little squeaky grunt. Ezra rolled his eyes, went to his haunches to dust the dirt from her snout.

“I thought we had a deal?” Loopy licked the side of Ezra’s face. “And you? You’re supposed to keep her away from those flower beds.”

As Ezra pretended to scold his pig who thought it was a dog, Vaughan hugged his dad quickly.

“Hey there, stranger. How’s my granddaughter today?”

“First day back to school. I made Kelly promise to text if there was a problem, but she was strong and happy when she left this morning.”

“Good. Bring them over to see us soon, all right? She brought them out here, you know. While you were on tour,” his dad said quietly. “For your mom’s birthday. We had them for the weekend.”

“I didn’t know.” Though he wasn’t surprised. Despite her feelings about Sharon, Kelly had gone out of her way to be sure the girls saw his family.

“She gave up her career to move here. She didn’t have to. She could be making a huge amount of money if she was modeling regularly.”

“She sure did.” His father clapped his shoulder.

“He’s sneaky with the lessons,” Ezra said as he stood, brushing his hands down the front of his jeans.