Logan moved with grim purpose alongside Reid and Trystan, crossing the village grounds and climbing their drive.

Fear nipped at Logan’s heels. Fear that he was losing everything that meant anything to him. He could stand to sell Raven’s Cove, even though it had come to feel more like home in the last months than it had during any other time in in his life.

He was losing Sophie, too. He had no right to hold her back so he had to let her go.

But Storm? If Tiffany’s sister was thinking she could take her, if she somehow managed to, what would he have? His brothers both had lives to go back to. Even his mother had built a new life without him.

He would wind up alone in some far-off place, trying to convince himself he was happy when he knew damned well he was faking it. As they pushed into the house, Sophie opened the door to the deck off the kitchen.

“We’re out here,” she said cheerfully.

Cheerfully? Didn’t she realize his entire fucking world was ending?

They filed out to see a woman in jeans and a white-and-yellow striped T-shirt rise from a lounger and wipe her palms nervously on her hips. She offered a tentative smile.

“Hi. I’m Cloe, Tiffany’s sister.” She sounded sheepish as she offered her hand.

“Logan.” He was closest so he shook first.

She didn’t look much like the blonde, very white bombshell that Tiffany had been. She was pretty, but shorter. The shape of her eyes were Storm’s all the way, but there wasn’t much else that resembled his little sister. Logan wasn’t about to ask her to prove her identity, though. Not when he’d been asked in the past if Trystan was his “real” brother.

He was. And, lately, Logan had started to feel like he had brothers.

The tension in his chest cranked up another notch.

“Reid.” He stepped forward and gave her hand one firm pump.

“Trystan.”

“Hi.” Cloe’s intimidated expression became more starstruck. Color blossomed in her cheeks. “I, um, recognized you as I was getting off the water taxi this morning. I didn’t mean to stare. I should have said something, but… I was nervous. This is a lot.” She withdrew her hand and swallowed, flicking her gaze between all three of them.

Logan had noticed Trystan’s distraction this morning, but any sign of male interest was gone from Trystan’s expression now. Good. They needed to find out what the hell this woman wanted, then get her on her way. “Should I call Em?” Sophie asked in a helpful tone.

“No,” they said together.

Logan glared at her. Did she not understand the stakes. Em had been scared. He was.

Sophie rocked back on her heels, seeming shocked by their collective hostility.

“What are you doing here?” Reid asked Cloe gruffly.

“I’d like to see Storm if that’s okay.” Her blue-gray gaze shifted from man to man to man. She tried to stand tall and lift her chin, but she was too petite to pull off looking tough.

“Why?” Reid folded his arms.

Logan couldn’t help mirroring that and so did Trys.

“Because she’s her aunt,” Sophie said with admonishment in her tone. “Can you guys all take one big, collective breath? You’re coming on really strong.”

“Sophie,” Logan warned in a lethal voice. “Do you remember telling me never to get between you and Biyen? This is like that.” He would do anything to keep his sister. She must understand that.

“I’m not telling you what to do with Storm. I’m telling you to bleed off some of that testosterone you’re all gassed up on. You’re being scary when Cloe is a perfectly normal person who does not have a gun to your head. Everything is fine.”

“No, it’s not!” Logan said and, damn. That had come out really fucking loud.

He knotted his fists and looked to the water, instantly embarrassed. He tried to get a grip on himself, but it wasn’t easy.

“Logan,” Sophie said gently as she came to stand in front of him.

He could feel everyone staring at him. Her hand settled lightly on his chest where his heart was slamming with fear. Real fear.

“It’s going to be okay, Logan.”

“No, it’s not,” he insisted, reaching for her upper arms. Her firm biceps were so her. Everything about her was so fucking precious and so fucking not his. His eyes were hot, his throat aching all the way down into his chest. “Art is gone, you and Biyen are leaving, we’re selling this place, and now Storm? These two will fuck off.” The way they always had. “There won’t be anyone left.”

He felt like such a tool, standing here already lonely, but he was. His nose was stinging and his throat was aching and he couldn’t stand it.

And there was Sophie looking up at him with her fall-into-me eyes.

Into the resounding silence, he heard the front door open.

“Reid?” Emma called from inside the house. “I saw you all come back.”

“I’d really like to see her,” Cloe pleaded in a soft tone. “She’s all the family I have left.”

Logan’s heart lurched. He knew exactly how that felt.

He couldn’t deny her. When Reid glanced at him and Trys, Logan nodded jerkily to allow it.

*

“We’re out here, Em,” Reid called over his shoulder.

Sophie could feel the tension in Logan, as though he was braced for a body blow. She hadn’t appreciated how threatened these men were by Cloe. How threatened Logan was by her own talk of leaving.

She pressed herself to his side and looped her arms around his waist, trying to reassure him with her closeness. His arm curled firmly around her, but she thought she detected a tremor in him. He watched closely as Emma came warily out the door onto the deck, Storm in her arms.

Reid lifted his arm in invitation, and Emma tucked herself against his side.

Cloe’s gaze was fixed on Storm. Her voice shook as she said to Emma, “I should have called first, so you weren’t blindsided when I showed up on the doorstep. Sophie told me you two are married and want to adopt her?”

“Yes,” Reid confirmed with a nod.

“I’m not here to get in the way of that,” Cloe’s brow tilted in anguish. “I’m not actually in a position to take her. I came to make sure she was in good hands, that’s all. It looks like she is.” She was eating up Storm’s fine hair and big blue eyes and teething-rashed cheeks with a poignant smile.

“I shouldn’t have run out like that. I panicked.” Emma’s face was still splotchy with tears, but she offered an uncertain smile to Cloe.

“It’s okay. I…” Cloe trailed off and tilted her head down, trying to catch Storm’s eye. “Hi, baby.”