Gage knocked on Reid’s office door and waited for the big man to look up from his laptop. “Hey,” he said. “How’d it go?”

“I waited outside, but she said it was fine. Said what she had to say. Now she's done. Ready to move on.”

“What a mess. It’ll be good having her home. She's a pain in the ass, but I missed her.”

Love. Steele style.

Apparently finished with that subject, Reid pointed at the computer. “Just got the inventory list for the hotel. Who the hell knew there was that much shit in a hotel?”

“It’s a lot of soap, for sure.”

“And really, do we need the fancy stuff? I mean, moisturizer? How many guys do you know who can’t live without that for a few days? Aside from Danny B. from our old unit. He’s a walking personal hygiene product.”

Gage laughed. “The hope is the men will bring their families. If it’s putting you over the edge, cut it. Just remember, it was Brynne’s suggestion.”

“Come on, man! Are you kidding me? I love her, but that’s a lot of fucking moisturizer.” He shook his head and swiveled his chair to face Gage. “I know you didn't come in here to talk moisturizer. What’s up?”

What was up was today would be the day Gage came clean to his bosses about his injury. In all the discussions with Micki about her secrets and having faith in her family to support her, Gage hadn’t followed his own advice. True, Micki might be their own blood, but the Steeles had been good to him. They deserved the truth.

No matter the consequences.

In ten minutes Micki would meet with Jonah to pitch her software and Gage would be there as her test dummy. The day before, her need for distraction drove them to spending twelve freaking hours testing the program. It had some kinks, but he could see the use for it. Particularly in VA hospitals. Jonah, having launched a successful video game, knew the right people to make Micki's dream come true.

Gage waggled his hand. “I wanted to check in before this meeting with Jonah.”

“Jonah,” Reid said, heavy on the sarcasm. “The Baby Billionaire is the only guy I know who can get stabbed and have the knife miss every major organ.” Reid ran both hands over his face and blew out a breath. “Damn, that took a dozen years off my life. Scared the shit out of me.”

“He’s lucky he got out of it only needing stitches.”

“Amen, brother. Am I in this meeting with you?”

“No. But, uh, I’ve been helping Micki with the software.”

“I thought it was educational.”

“It started out that way. She originally developed it with ADD kids in mind. She’s tweaked it.”

Reid sat back and propped one hand on the arm of his chair. Waiting. He narrowed his eyes, studying Gage as if, somehow, he knew what was coming. Still, an actual conversation needed to be had. He’d have to ask his friend to forgive him for concealing facts about his health. Facts that could have affected the business.

And really, that’s what it came down to. Gage had been too caught up in proving he still had a right to carry a Man Club card to realize he’d jeopardized Jonah’s money and Reid’s future.

Now it was time to ’fess up. To admit that their president of operations suffered from a traumatic brain injury.

Sensing Gage’s hesitation, Reid waved him off. “You don’t have to say it. It’s all good.”

“No. It isn’t.”

“Look, dude, don’t put yourself through this for me. We’re men. We don’t talk about shit like this. I know what you’re gonna say. We don’t need a conversation.”

Yeah, they did. “I have a TBI.”

There. He’d said it. After all these months of hiding it, damned if it didn’t roll right off his tongue. No agony, no incompetence, no shame. Just…relief.

Settling in, Reid propped his giant feet on the desk. “I know. Which is why I said we don’t have to talk about it.”

“You knew-knew. Or you thought you knew?”

“God save me. What the hell does it matter? You hit your head. I saw changes in you. It’s not rocket science. I kept it to myself, figuring you needed time to heal. And, for the record, I was right.” He flashed his teeth. “As usual.”

“Oh, fuck you.”

Clearly enjoying himself, Reid raised his hands before Gage lit into him. “I’ll admit there were a few things you missed. With all we had going on, it was minor. I fixed it and that was that. I got you, Suds. Always.”

“Does Jonah know?”

“Not from me.”

Damn. Now that was loyalty. The guy’s brother had millions invested in this place and Reid had been covering Gage’s ass while making sure his brother didn’t lose his investment. The weight of Reid’s responsibility hit him and the shame finally came. The superhero, because of his own ego, had put his friend in one hell of a corner. “Thank you. I didn’t intend…”

“Stop.” Reid said. “Please. We’re all good and you’re trying to piss me off by talking about this. I’m done analyzing. I suck at this sensitivity crap.”

“Okay. We’re done. I wanted you to hear it from me first. And I’m getting better. Every day.”

“Once again, I know. I see the improvement. Chat over. Bye-bye.”

“Also—”

“Son of a bitch, why is it never over when I think it’s over? Brynne does this to me all the time.” He held up a finger. “‘Are you okay?’” he said, mimicking Brynne's voice. “And then I say I’m fine. And then she says”—he cleared his throat to mimic his soon-to-be-bride again—“ ‘you don’t seem fine.’” Back to his regular voice. “I’m telling you, it never ends. It’s like entering the gates of hell.”

Wow. Dude needed to chill. “Jeez, take it easy. It’s over. I’m just saying thanks for taking a chance when you knew my brain was scrambled.”

“On your worst day, your scrambled brain is better than ninety percent of the brains out there. Hiring you was not a hard decision. Believe me. You could do this job in your sleep. With a scrambled brain. Now leave. Before I fire your ass.”

Gage offered up a crisp salute. “Sir, yes, sir.”

“Hey.”

Gage turned back. “What?”

“My sister. You're sure she's okay?”

“She is. Getting settled in.”

“Good. She deserves to be happy.”

If the TBI thing wasn’t all that awkward, why did this feel like a waterboarding session? “Uh, anything else you want to say? In regard to Micki?”

“No. But”—he circled one hand—“you know, all that other crap about if you hurt her, I’ll kill you and I don’t want to hear jack-shit about any problems. I told her and I’m telling you, I’m not gonna be in the middle.”

“I wouldn’t do that to you.”

“Yeah, but you’d saddle me with five tons of moisturizer.”

If it made their guests happy, yeah, he would. “Let’s see how the moisturizer goes over. If we need to, we’ll ditch it.”

Reid let out a long growl. “We can test it for a month. Now get the fuck out.”

Gage held up his fist, waited for his friend to bump it. “Deal. By the way, if the moisturizer goes, so does that extra set of flash bangs you wanted.”

With that, he left his boss alone and headed to the conference room to ’fess up to his other boss.

Micki checked the focus of the projector, then fiddled with the height adjustment so the screen would be centered on the whiteboard at the far end of the conference room wall.

All of it needed to be perfect. For her. For Jonah. And for Gage.

That’s when it hit her. That this presentation, this demo of her software, for the first time, didn’t need to be hidden. This project, the one good thing she’d done and which had kept her sane for months, gave her a long-missing sense of pride. For years she’d written code and lurked around the deep Web, scraping and dredging for any nibble of damning information that could be used as leverage.

Her career, until this point, had been centered on negativity. Career success meant destroying people.

How had she never seen that? Or at least admitted it.

Today, all of that changed. She checked the screen once more, where the home page of her program flashed. Not quite centered. She slid her notepad under the legs of the projector and—there—perfect.

“Good morning, Ms. Steele.”

She swung back, found Gage in the doorway, one shoulder casually propped against the frame, his hair perfectly neat and orderly. He wore khakis and a white cotton shirt with the top button undone. Wisps of blond hair curled over the top button and she thought back to the night before, stretched out on his couch with her cheek and hands resting on his chest, her fingers, curling into the thin line of hair swirling down his torso. More perfection for her not-so-perfect existence.

Phil was out of her life and Gage, as much as he couldn’t understand it, had let her cry. Let her mourn for a man who’d taken so much from her, but somehow still managed to make her care.

“Hello, Captain America. How are you this morning?”

“I’m good.”

She held her hands wide. “Are you sure you’re ready for this?”

“I am.”

“I may have been gone a long time, but if I know my twin, he'll have a lot of questions. About the software and…”

“Cognitive function. I know, Micki. It’s fine.” He boosted off the wall and approached, sliding his arm around her and all at once dropping a quick kiss on her lips and a gentle pat on the butt. “We’re good. I talked to Reid already. He’s up to speed.”

He did it. Admitted the one thing he thought made him weak. Good for him. “How was that? Reid isn’t exactly in the running for president of the Sensitivity Club.”

“He was an ace.”

Oh, come on. Reid? Seriously? “Stop it.”

He laughed. “Yep. He said he’d figured it out. My big reveal wasn’t so big.”

“But saying it, admitting it is harder. It feels good, doesn’t it? To have it all out there.”

“No more secrets.”

She nodded. “No more secrets.”

“In fact, I'm thinking I need some time off next month. For the holidays.”

A jab of panic froze her in her spot. Time off. Why? Maybe the ordeal with Phil had set him back on his recovery. She set her hands on his cheeks and the overhead light glinted off her skull ring. Some things she couldn't give up. “Are you okay? You can tell me.”

He stepped back, gathered her hands in his, and squeezed. “I’m good. But please, you can’t be checking on me all the time. If my head hurts, I’ll tell you. Otherwise, I can’t have it be a thing between us. It’s…emasculating.”

As if. The man was a Green Beret and about as manly as men could get. That history, years spent running toward danger rather than away from it, had conditioned him to think a certain way. To push through and never give in. For Captain America, being a man meant taking charge, protecting his loved ones, and not giving in to injury. “I’m sorry. I never thought about it that way.”

“Now you know. We’re learning here. Figuring out each other’s hot buttons.”

Yes they were. A relationship. The thought of it still amazed her. Home. “It’s exciting. I’ve never had that before. I’ve always had to hide.”

“That’s over. Which is why, when I go to Iowa next month, I’d like you to come with me. To meet my family.”

She opened her mouth, but her jaw simply hung there, refusing to move. Not just the fact that he’d finally decided to go home and face his family, but that he wanted to take her, the princess of darkness, with him. “You want…” She let out a gasp. “Oh.”

“What you said to me the other day. About me needing my fix and you being the damsel in distress.”

“I shouldn't have said that.”

“You were right. It's why I haven't seen my family since my injury. I was afraid to face them. I thought if I couldn't be the fix-it guy, they'd be disappointed.”

“Well,” she said, “I can't imagine that.”

“Now that you called me out on it, I've been thinking how incredibly stupid it is. It’s time. They need to understand I’m not the guy I was when I left home. I can’t fix all their problems. They’ll have to adjust. You made me realize that. Thank you.”

A burst of pride swarmed her chest. In her own twisted way, she'd helped. Go, me.

“You're welcome. I'm glad I could help. And that you want to see your family.” She scrunched her nose. “Taking me, though? Are you sure about that?”

“Yep. If I have my way, you'll be around awhile and I want you to see where I come from. I’m thinking we’ll drive. Maybe stop along the way and be tourists. But you don’t have to answer me now. Think about it.”

Damned Captain America comes into her life and now she’s taking vacations and meeting his family.

Suddenly she’s…normal.

And someone a man would want to take home to his parents.

Tears filled her eyes—and what was up with all the blubbering? She didn’t fight them, just them fall. Let Gage see it. Why not? He’d seen everything else of her.

“Oh, ouch,” he said. “I’m not all that experienced with this whole taking-a-girl-home thing, but no one has ever cried over the idea.”

Micki cracked up. It came out as a disgusting half sob, half snort that was as humiliating as the tears. “I can’t believe you want me.”

“Well, babe, believe it.”

Jonah swung into the room, caught them up close and personal and spun around, ready to head back in the direction he came from. “Whoopsie. Sorry. I’ll go.”

“No.” Gage stepped back. “Micki has something important to talk to you about.”

A wave of insecurity, that stomach-shredding doubt that she’d lived with for so long, ripped into her. No. She could do this. Wanted to do this. She faced Gage. “You ready?”

“I am. Let’s do this,” he said. “Together.”