“Yeah, I promise I’ll never think about it again. Or ask you about it again.”

“Sounds like a plan. So there. You had the talk with me. You said the thing that’s been brewing. And I spoke my piece. You can call your brotherly duty done.”

“Good,” Eli said, but none of it felt good.

“The sex good?” Connor asked.

“What?”

“With Sadie. Is the sex good? Tell me that at least.”

“Damn good.”

Connor groaned. “Okay, well, we got that out of the way, too. World’s most awkward conversation?”

“Very.”

“Did you want to talk about religion or politics next?”

“I’ll pass,” Eli said.

“I guess we just fix the fence and mind our own business, then.”

“I’m okay with that.”

Eli went back to work, his eyes on the pale blue sky extending above lush green mountains. He tried not to replay the conversation he’d had with Connor. Tried not to remember the bleakness in his brother’s eyes. It was everything he’d been afraid was in him, said out loud. That Connor wasn’t okay at all.

And he couldn’t fix it. Dammit, he hated when he couldn’t fix it.

It was like his dad all over again. Watching somebody drown in sorrow, doing their best to manage their addiction until just once...just once you weren’t there to stop them. To care for them.

At least Connor wasn’t drinking as much as their father used to. But Eli worried. His brother sure as hell drank more now than he had before Jessie’s death.

The thought gave him heartburn. More than that, it made him want to get back into Sadie’s bed. At least there things were good.

Mind-bendingly good.

There, he didn’t think so much about the things he needed to fix that couldn’t be fixed. He could just think about himself. Just a hell of a lot more length of fence to fix, some calf vaccinations to deal with, and he’d be back with her.

That would be his happy thought for the day. It was rare he had a happy thought, and no one was more surprised than he was that today Sadie Miller was his.

* * *

“Thank you for coming, Kate,” Sadie said, standing with one hand outstretched, an apron dangling from her fingertips.

Kate looked from side to side. “I see no half-naked deck builders.”

“You’re not here to ogle, sweetheart. You’re here to bake.”

Kate crossed her arms beneath her breasts, her dark eyebrows shooting upward. “I am?”

“Yep. We’re going to make dinner rolls. I mean, if you want to. I thought we could hang out. And since I’m trying to learn how to get some recipes perfected I thought this might be fun.” Sadie really hoped this might be Kate’s idea of fun. Otherwise she feared hanging out with Kate might involve intensive horseback riding, or something equally outdoorsy. Not that Sadie was opposed. She just needed to work up to it.

Much to her relief, Kate brightened and took the apron. “Sounds great.” She started putting the apron on. “Not that I really need to protect my clothes,” she said, indicating her plain white T-shirt and high-waisted jeans.

“Better than wearing flour for the rest of the day.”

Sadie started getting out mixing bowls and ingredients while Kate stood in the center of the kitchen, obviously slightly out of place in the environment.

“Let me guess,” Sadie said. “You don’t have much cooking experience.”

“Not really. Eli’s always done that. Throw meat on the grill, bring home pizza or whatever. Why are you cooking rolls for a bed-and-breakfast?”

“Well, I have to eat so I thought I would offer additional meals for an additional price a few days a week,” Sadie said. “Anyway, I like cooking.”

“Oh.” Kate moved in closer and stood at the counter.

“You sound surprised.”

“Eli never seemed to like it. But, I mean, he did it. And his food is edible. Unlike Connor’s...”

“So Eli did all the cooking for you guys?” Sadie asked, unbearably curious and slightly guilty. She should not be interrogating Kate about her brother. Especially because Kate’s brother was her secret lover. And if Kate knew that Sadie and Eli were sleeping together, she would probably make a horror face and run screaming from the room and never speak to Sadie again.

And thus, Sadie would lose one of the very few friends she had.

“Yeah. He did. Connor kept the money coming in, and, I mean, Lord knows that was important, but...Eli was the one who made sure I was ready for school. He learned to braid my hair,” she said, her hand going to the hairstyle she still wore.

Sadie’s stomach squeezed tight, her eyes stinging. Eli’s strength was sexy, no question, but this? This was even sexier. It was a part of the strength, really. A part that most people wouldn’t see.

Braiding a little girl’s hair.

Sadie saw it, though. An older brother, a teenager, getting his little sister ready for school. Cooking meals. All things that would never be public, but that had shaped Kate into the woman she was.

Eli was all that had stood between Kate growing up to feel safe and secure...and growing up feeling like Sadie had. Like no one cared. Like she was better off cutting ties and leaving parents who didn’t want her anyway.

It was Eli who’d protected Kate’s trust. Her openness. Eli who’d given her her strength.

Sadie couldn’t help but be envious. And she realized then that the little fascination she’d had for him when she was a teenager hadn’t been about a bad girl wanting a cop. It had been about wanting a man with that kind of strength to protect her. Care for her.

Well, he didn’t. No one did. Deal with it.

“That’s...really sweet,” she said, grabbing a measuring cup and pushing it down into the flour bag, a white cloud rising up around them.

Kate smiled. “Well, don’t let him hear you say that. But then, if he’s still avoiding you, that shouldn’t be a problem.”

Sadie felt a twinge of guilt, which made a sucky companion to the envy. “Yeah,” she said. “Not sure when I’ll see him again. So, let’s make rolls.”

* * *