He parked in front of the porch and looked up at the house. When Jessie had lived there, it had looked nicer than it ever had in Eli’s memory. And everything had slipped since losing her.

Connor’s muddy boots and other random castaways from a day’s work were spread out on the wooden deck, which was in bad need of staining. The windows, vast and prominent, were spotted with water drops and splattered with dirt. Even the door had dirty handprints. Like a very large child lived here. A man child who’d crawled down into a bottle of whiskey the day his wife had been put in the ground.

A man who echoed their father a little too much. Not that Eli had a right to judge, considering that he’d never loved anyone. Not the way Connor had loved Jessie.

He’d never lost like that as a result, either, and he planned to keep it that way.

He got out of the car and noticed Jack’s F-150 was already parked in the muddy driveway—which badly needed to be graveled, Eli would handle that—and he walked up the steps, knocking his boots against the top stair to get some of the mud off before pushing the front door open.

He could hear Jack’s voice already—animated, loud, the same as he’d been since they were a bunch of skinny preteen boys. Jack was a year younger than Eli, but had always been close to both Connor and himself. If Eli had gotten in trouble as a kid, Jack was the reason. As much as Eli liked order, Jack liked disrupting it. Eli couldn’t help but foster a strange admiration for Jack’s total disregard for rules.

He couldn’t partake, but he could admire. From a distance.

“The police are here,” Eli said drily, walking through the entryway and into the dining room, where Connor and Jack were already seated, a stack of cards and poker chips in the middle of the table.

“Sadly,” Jack said, “we haven’t had the chance to do anything illegal yet.”

Connor just sat there looking long-suffering. It was painfully obvious they were trying to pull him out of the pit he was in, and as always, he was so damned aware of it that he’d dug his heels in and was clinging to rock bottom for all he was worth. Stubborn ass.

“And now you won’t get a chance. Are we ready to play? And drink? Thankfully, I’m within walking distance so sobriety is not a necessity.”

“Public drunkenness?” Jack asked.

“Private property.”

“Fair enough.”

“Liss is coming,” Connor said.

“Then why isn’t she here?” Eli asked.

“I invited her,” he ground out. “But she’s not off work yet.”

“So now we have to wait, I take it?”

“She’s bringing the good alcohol,” Connor said.

“Well, in that case,” Jack said, relenting.

“Where’s Kate?” Eli asked.

“Home, I expect,” Connor told him.

Kate lived in another house on the property. It was small, and designed for two people at most, but it was perfect for her.

“Does she know Liss is coming? She might want to see her.” Liss was one of Connor’s best friends, and had been a very close friend of his and Jessie’s, both before and during their marriage. And Kate seemed starved for female companionship, as evidenced by her obvious desire to wrap Sadie Miller up in a blanket like a little stray kitten. But he was not having that. There would be no adopting of Sadie Miller.

He grabbed a beer from the center of the table, out of the bucket of ice emblazoned with the Oregon Ducks O on the side, and popped the top off.

“We don’t really need Katie hanging out and listening to us talk,” Jack said.

“Don’t call her Katie,” Connor said. “She hates that.”

“You call her that exclusively,” Eli reminded him.

“Yeah. I’m her older brother. I can.” He jabbed a finger in Jack’s direction. “He can’t, though.”

“Oh, for God’s sake, Connor. Isn’t it hard work being this unpleasant all the time?” Jack asked.

“You’re still here,” Connor said. “The door is open. There are plenty of other men for you to play cards and drink with. Though they’ll never satisfy you the way I do.”

Eli almost choked on his beer. “You have to warn people before you break out random acts of humor, Connor. It’s unexpected.”

“I hate to be predictable.”

“Yeah,” Jack said. “You also hate puppies, rainbows, and I’m pretty sure if compound bow season ever opened on unicorns you’d be first in line.”

Eli heard the front door open, and the sound of feminine shoes on the hardwood floor. Which meant it wasn’t Kate, because she wore boots, just like the rest of them.

“I’m here!”

It was Liss. She breezed into the room, tugging her auburn hair from its bun and shaking her head. “Gah. Nightmare of a day. Going through financial records for...a place. Confidentiality, sorry.”

“Yeah, I know something about that,” Eli said.

“I’m sure you do. But accountant work doesn’t show up on a police scanner.” She set a brown bag on the table. “I come bearing Jack. Daniel’s, that is.”

“Then you can sit down,” Connor said, already reaching for the bag.

Liss frowned.

“Stop it,” he said. “Don’t give me the sad eyes.” He looked around. “This isn’t an intervention, is it?”

“Does it need to be?” Eli asked.

“No. I’m fine. Let’s play cards.”

“Strip poker,” Jack said. “Because Liss is here.”

Liss looked him over, then looked at Connor and Eli. “I’d win that game, Jack. No matter how you cut it.”

“No strip poker,” Eli said.

“You’re just still mad because the last time I talked you into taking your clothes off, when we were about twelve, I think, we ended up getting caught skinny-dipping by that group of high school girls,” Jack said.

“And that was the day I quit listening to you.”

“Less talking. More betting,” Liss said, pounding the table.