Aaron knew he should’ve been concentrating on the meeting, but too often since yesterday, he’d spent a hell of a lot of time thinking about Rob. Stupid really because the man was exactly what Aaron should be avoiding. He had secrets behind his steady green gaze. Former Navy, and from the way he held himself—confidence, arrogance, the surety that he could handle anything thrown at him, he had to be Special Forces. Or at least he had been.

But, there was something else in that expression of his that battled against the confidence. Wariness? Exhaustion? And the way he’d winced when he crouched? That man was in pain. Aaron had seen soldiers in pain before, hiding what they were feeling, pushing through, determined to finish an op or not let their team down.

Idiots with their heroics and disregard for their own lives.

Of course, there was also the line, ” I'm a friend of Justin's.” What kind of friend? Aaron had been the one to patch up Justin, digging a bullet out of him, off the record. He’d heard enough to know that Justin had been involved in some shady shit, but no one had offered anything more in the way of information, not even his brother, Ryan, who had known more about what happened to Justin than he’d let on.

Shady shit was such a good description for whatever Rob had going on in his head, but he also had the children with him. Bran and Toby, quiet kids, whose backstory was likely just as complicated.

How did one enigmatic man with palpable pain issues and an expression full of secrets end up vacationing with his nephews? Where were the parents, and why wasn’t there an obvious connection between the three of them? The kids acted as if Rob was a stranger and not their uncle.

“Earth to Aaron,” someone catcalled, and he snapped back to the meeting, which had clearly started while he’d been lost in his thoughts.

“Sorry,” he apologized, but no one called him on his inattention.

Aaron sat back in the chair, part of the circle of veterans who were just about to start a session dealing with personal health. He’d seen his share of things overseas, and talking things out meant he could lessen the experiences and images that were trapped inside him. He tried to sit in on as many meetings at Hepburn House as he could, particularly when there was a new, recently arrived guest staying there.

This newbie was Lieutenant Lacey McAdams, coming up on the end of her third week and, up to now, quiet in all the sessions. That wasn’t unusual for a newcomer to Hepburn House. When it started as a single place in the mountains of Tennessee, run by a former soldier, it had been a safe place for veterans to talk, to heal, to be with each other. To date, there were ten such places, and this was Aaron’s home away from home.

Lacey had stuck to the usual path of least resistance since arriving, where it was easier to listen than to lay herself bare. Today though, a switch had been flipped, and she was opening up about her time overseas, and in particular, finding her best friend trying to kill herself. How they had gotten to that was anyone’s guess, but Aaron had seen the subtle way she’d crafted the conversation because it seemed to him that the near-death of her friend was the core of her issues and tied into her own PTSD.

None of the conversations were led. No one person sat down and said, “okay let's talk about PTSD.” It just happened. An organic process that was incredibly painful.

“Of course, being a woman, her trying to commit suicide was put down as being a woman or ‘hormones,’ but when I found Lyn in the bathrooms hacking at her wrists, I knew that this wasn’t some kind of monthly shit. This was real honest despair. She and I, women, we have all the same symptoms of PTSD as men, the hyper-arousal, re-experiencing, avoidance, and numbing. It’s no different because we don’t have dicks.” She laughed then, but it was hollow, and no one laughed with her; this was too serious. "PTSD related to on-the-job incidents isn't just something that needs to viewed from the male perspective.”

One of the others, Sean, a young man barely in his twenties, leaned forward and nodded.

“I get that, I do,” he began, and Aaron could hear the but. He felt the tension ramp up in the room. What god-awful gender-specific crap was Sean going to spout now? “I guess the funding and research goes to the majority, and that is shit. All the researchers would need to do is include more women in the initial trials and counseling, and then it would benefit everyone.”

The tension immediately subsided. Sean, former Marine, eyesight destroyed in one eye, hearing loss, and lower left arm amputation, apparently wasn’t an asshole who needed to be ignored.

Now, it was Lacey’s turn. “Men are more likely to feel angry, prone to abusing alcohol or drugs to deal.”

Sean patted his prosthetic arm and nodded. “Drugs are good,” he said and smiled wryly.

Everyone laughed with him, including Aaron. He’d had his share of seeing people pop pills to get through the day and considered himself lucky that he’d managed to avoid them. It wasn’t for the lack of trying, but every time he’d tried to numb the pain of everything he’d seen and done, Elijah’s ghost had pulled him back from the edge. He didn’t know whether to be resentful or pleased that he couldn’t shake the memories of the man he’d briefly loved and lost in the war.

Mary, the leader for this session, more like a guidance counselor than the highly qualified shrink she was, moved to summarize, helping to keep the conversation going.

“Women tend to have trouble feeling emotions and are prone to developing anxiety or depression, not drug dependency as much as men.”

Lacey snorted a laugh. “See, we even miss out on the drugs part.”

She and Sean exchanged glances and smiles, and Aaron sensed there could be a friendship in the making. Gallows humor about what they’d all seen and done.

They split for coffee. Aaron checked his watch, given it was Sunday morning, and he’d agreed to get himself over to Carters Bar for food with his brothers and their growing families. If he left now, he’d be early. That way he could help Saul, get a million brownie points, and not have to wash up after. Also, it gave him time to play with the kids, and that was the highlight of Sunday dinner. When he wasn’t on shift, Sundays involved a session at the center, dinner with his brothers, and then off to Crooked Tree with his niece and nephew for their riding lessons. The perfect day then ended with a beer and chilling on his back porch with the view of the mountains.

He considered his last visit to Crooked Tree had ended in him getting up in the face of that sexy enigma, Rob. Still, that didn’t mean he wasn’t interested in talking to the man again. Maybe exchange a few war stories or something.

Yeah, that is such a shit idea.

“This coffee is appallingly bad,” Lacey said at his elbow, coffee and donut in hand.

“Donuts help.” He picked up the coffee he’d just poured and sipped the bitter brew. He wanted one of the ring donuts, but dinner at big brother’s place was only two hours away. How could he win at eating the most of all the Carter brothers when space in his belly had been taken up by cake?

“Who’s the new guy?” She inclined her head to mean Sean, or at least that’s who Aaron thought she meant.

“Sean?”

“Hmmm, he’s young, isn’t he?”

Aaron couldn’t pass on information like age or tours or injuries. This wasn’t that kind of place, and Lacey was another of the guests here.

“You’re not exactly old yourself.”

She sighed and took a sip of coffee, grimacing and biting into her donut quickly. Only when she’d swallowed and licked the powdered sugar from the corner of her mouth did she quirk a smile.

“I’m at that point that we all hate, in my thirties and feeling so much older.”

He nodded but felt the soft press of his approaching forty-third birthday keenly. Not that he didn’t have something to show for his life. He’d saved lives in the war, and he'd worked at this house with veterans. He'd stayed as a paramedic in a town that couldn't afford all the extras he would have gotten in the city. He’d loved and lost, had his heart broken, and known the tragedy of holding a lover who’d died in his arms. He’d seen and achieved all kinds of things, and he was at peace with his age.

Most of the time.

Lust wasn’t something he’d felt in a long while, but Rob with his green eyes, intense focus, and his secrets had stirred something in Aaron at the accident site. Not to mention their meeting at the lake with all that testosterone and sarcasm. Maybe it was time for him to find someone to be with, even just for one night, before his libido disappeared from lack of use.

But first, Sunday dinner with his family, the highlight of his week when he wasn’t on shift. He headed straight for Carters, pleased to see Eddie’s car in the parking lot. That meant his niece and nephew were there, and as soon as he walked in the kitchen, seeing Saul and Eddie talking loudly about the best way to cook carrots, he turned on his heel and went to find Milly and Jake. The kids were all kinds of awesome, and he loved spending time with them, so uncomplicated and innocent, and precisely what he needed. They'd built a convoluted tent system in the hallway off the kitchen, the same as they did every weekend, and he was used to crawling inside, but not before he had three attempts at this week’s password.

“Sausages,” he said.

“That’s always your first try, Uncle Aaron,” Milly fake-reprimanded and poked her head out of the entrance, her dark hair in two braids, her face split in a wide smile. “It’s boring, and it’s always wrong.”

He considered himself told off. “Okay, how about kittens then,” he said and sat cross-legged in front of her on the carpet.

“He better not say tomato as usual,” Jake’s voice came from behind her.

“Shhh,” Milly whispered loudly.

“Hmmm, my third guess is tomato?”

“Told ya he’d say it,” Jake said with an exaggerated sigh. “He never remembers anything.”

Given they changed the password each week, Aaron doubted his brain could recall a load of passwords, but he didn't say that, instead making them laugh by suggesting the same three things each week.

Milly held back the curtain of material that formed the door. “I guess you can come in if you like.”

He crawled in, turning as he did so and finding the space he took whenever he was allowed inside.

“Hey guys,” he said and accepted the hugs he was given.

“Uncle Aaron, my car is broke.” Jake thrust the battered model Ferrari at him.

Aaron turned the tiny thing over in his hand. “What’s wrong with it?” He wound the small key in the side that would give the car the oomph to move along the floor. He found out what was wrong with it when the key spun in the hole, and there was no sound of the band inside being wound up.

“It won’t go,” Jake said and frowned. He was one of those cute kids who melted everyone’s hearts with the combination of his bright blue eyes and his pout. “But Dad said you can fix it.”

Thanks, Eddie. Throw me to the wolves, why don’t you.

“I’ll take it with me and get it fixed up good as new, okay?”

That earned him another hug, and then he played for a while, being typecast as a medic having to supply emergency care to Jake’s teddy, which had a broken leg after falling off a horse at Crooked Tree. Or that was the story Jake was going with. Milly leaned against him reading out loud, and he could’ve quite happily stayed in the tent all day.

He always thought that one day he’d have kids of his own, but that hadn’t happened. Still, he could be a damn good Uncle.

“I’m gonna canter today,” Milly informed him. “Luke said I could.”

Milly had a small crush on Luke Todd, back home from college on the weekends and spending his free time with the horses. He was the youngest of the Todd siblings and was good at teaching the kids how to ride.

“That’s awesome.”

“An’ I’m gonna jump up and down on my saddle,” Jake informed with a gap-toothed grin that spoke of mischief.

“No jumping in the saddle,” Aaron murmured, making a mental note to mention that nugget of information to Luke. Jake had this way of pushing boundaries, but Aaron had caught this before it happened.

Only family was here, and he loved catching up with everything. When he and the kids crawled out of the tent just before two, the scent of steaks had filled the kitchen, and the large table was piled high with carrots, peas, potatoes, steaks, and the requisite steaming jug of Saul's special gravy. There were biscuits so fluffy that Aaron could swear they would float away, and he was desperate to dig in. Everything was being kept warm over little candle burners, and the only people at the table were Eddie, Jenny, and Saul.

“Where is everyone?” Aaron asked.

“The rest’ll be through in a minute.” Saul gestured for him to sit. “Catching up with Jordan and Micah. We can wait.”

“Fuck that,” Aaron muttered under his breath so the kids wouldn’t hear. Jordan was a Hollywood actor who’d fallen for the youngest of the Carter siblings, Sheriff Ryan. Everyone always had so many questions for him, but that shit wasn’t as important as eating steak and potatoes. He left the table and then pushed open the door to the external bar, run by what Saul called his Sunday staff. He put two fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly to get the attention of the group of people standing at one end of the wooden counter. His brothers Jason and Ryan, plus boyfriend, boyfriend’s twin, and twin’s girlfriend.

"Dinner now, or it's gone," he announced and closed the door. First, at the table, give or take a brother or two, meant he got first pick on it all. When everyone finally sat down it was noisy and lively, and everybody was up in each other’s business, and that was pretty much his idea of heaven.

“Aaron, how did that man do, the one from the accident?” Jason asked as he passed over the big bowl of potatoes.

Ryan took the question, given Aaron had a mouth full of potato and steak. “The driver? Last I heard he’ll be out on Monday. We got to him in time.”

And out alive, thanks to the help of one stubborn idiot Navy guy with green eyes.

Aaron helped himself to more potato and then assisted little Jake, who couldn’t hold the bowl and scoop at the same time.

“Do we know who the other guy in the car was?” Jason asked. “The one who stayed with you and helped?”

“His name is Rob,” Aaron said. “I don’t know much else, but he’s up at Crooked Tree. Former forces I think, and stupid stubborn.”

He looked to Ryan for confirmation. As sheriff, he would surely have taken names and witnesses. After all, the accident had happened right in front of the man’s SUV, so he must have had eyes on everything that happened.

Also, Aaron wanted to know the guy’s reason for being at Crooked Tree because there was something else in that icy expression and arrogance, a pain that Aaron felt keenly.

“Yeah, Rob Brady, was traveling with his nephews in the back. He’s not from around here but said he was staying up at Crooked Tree, although he was shady about how long. Said he’s a friend of Justin. Seemed okay when I visited though, answered what I needed, and his credentials check out.”

Interest poked at Aaron. There was something about the man that had him intrigued. He’d recognized another soldier, sailor, he corrected himself, a man who’d seen action. This Rob had been level-headed, known enough medicine to be helpful, calm in the face of the blood. He’d had the glacial calculation of someone who’d seen a lot and knew how to handle disaster. He was also all kinds of sexy. And annoying. And way too much of a top to ever make it good with Aaron.

Right?

“Earth to Aaron.” Saul waved his fork in front of Aaron’s face.

Aaron blinked back to whatever Saul had been saying, that he’d missed. “Sorry?”

“You spaced out,” he observed, leaning closer. “Everything okay?”

“Oh, yeah, just some Hepburn House stuff on my mind.”

“Like what?”

How did he get out of this one, when he’d been actually thinking about green eyes, a trimmed, neat beard, and dark hair that was thick and unruly. "Nothing to worry about," he said and gave Saul a look that said he couldn't talk.

Luckily, Saul didn’t push, and it was over.

He collected the kids after they’d finished, ready to do uncle duty and take them to Crooked Tree Ranch, but he wasn’t away fast enough. Eddie caught him as he was so very nearly away.

“Can I ask you something?” Eddie planted himself between Aaron and the door.

“Yeah. Kids, go wait in the truck.” He pointed his key fob at his old Ford and pressed the button to release the locks. This was bound to be another question about Jenny’s pregnancy, and he was happy to answer most of the questions, at least the ones with a medical slant.

Eddie leaned in as soon as the kids were safely in the truck, and lowered his voice. “Is it okay that a woman needs more sex when they’re pregnant, do they get more… y’know… I mean Jenny wants it all the time, but will it hurt the baby if I… y’know.”

Aaron’s mouth fell open. Was Eddie seriously telling him about the state of his sex life? “You did not just ask me that, asshole,” he said and punched Eddie in the arm.

“Ouch, fucker,” Eddie said and punched him back.

Aaron ignored the punch and his brother and headed straight for the truck.

“But what does—?”

Aaron rounded back on Eddie. “Google is your friend, Ed. Use it.”

He couldn't believe his older brother had just asked him sex questions. What was it with them all? He was a paramedic, with battlefield experience, not a counselor or a midwife, and certainly not an expert in marital sex with the due date eight weeks away.

“Why did Daddy punch you?” Milly asked.

“An’ why did you punch him back?” Jake added.

“Your dad was playing a joke on me, and we didn’t really hurt each other,” Aaron explained and started the car.

I wish I could have. I’d have quite enjoyed pummeling Eddie into the ground now that he’s all soft in the middle and complacent and I’m still at the gym and could take him down in an instant.

“I can’t wait to canter.” Milly changed the subject, chattering on about the horses and her hero Luke and the possibility they might go for a swim in Silver Lake after, and wasn’t it great that her rabbits, Ginny and Harry, made babies like her stepmom and dad did.

Some of those things Aaron was cool with talking about, but the babies bit? He was steering clear of that one.

They made it to Crooked Tree a little after three, and on Sundays, the place was quieter. The guests who rented cabins were still there, but the walk-through visitors who were there for Sunday lunch at Branches would have moved on by now. He remembered coming here as a kid and it being empty, but with the push in marketing and the reputation for horse care, riding, and food at the restaurant, Crooked Tree was becoming something more than a dude ranch. It was the local place to go for a business meeting or a family outing. Walks along the river, watching the horses, the food, all of it was making the place valuable in the community, and wider.

“Uncle Aaron? Why are you dressed so fancy?” Milly asked.

Aaron parked the car at the end of a row, in the shade of the trees, and killed the engine.

"Fancy?" He attempted innocence, but he was lucky none of his brothers had called him on it. Ordinarily happy in jeans and T’s with cute messages, he'd worn a button-down, with his best jeans. Like the kind of thing he’d wear on a night out. All that was missing was lube, condoms, and a ready smile.

“And you smell really nice,” she pointed out.

“He put gunk on his hair too,” Jake added and then snorted a laugh as he pressed his small hand to Aaron’s hair and made a face.

Sue him, but if there was a chance of meeting Rob again today, he wanted to have his armor in place. It wasn’t as if he wanted to act on his attraction. Looks aside, Rob was not his type, far too action-man, stubborn, and an asshole.

He caught Jake’s hand and swung him onto his shoulders, not caring that his hair was getting messed up.

“Little man, one day you will want gunk in your hair for all the good reasons.”

Jake clung to his head, laughing like a loon, and Milly skipped alongside him and around him, making him dizzy with her energy.

“Aaron’s got a boyfriend. Aaron’s got a boyfriend!” she singsonged as she danced, and he wasn’t going to tell her to stop, because she was damn cute.

They walked up past Branches and the shop and on to the stables. Luke waved at them from the shade of the feed store. Milly ran the last few feet, and Luke swung her up and around before setting her down and grinning widely.

“How you doin’ this weekend, Miss Milly?”

“We went swimming, and I swam all the way to the big rock, and so did Jake.”

Luke ruffled her hair and lifted his arms to take Jake. “Wow, that’s cool, and you’re only six.”

Milly smacked Luke’s leg, and he made a show of hobbling.

“I’m older than that,” she admonished, but she was grinning as well.

“Right you two, go find Pippa and Sky, and I’ll be in there soon.”

Luke let Jake down, and the two children raced away to find the horses, and Aaron watched them go, exchanging waves with Gabriel who was sitting at a desk writing. He’d keep an eye on them while Aaron had his weekly catchup with Luke.

“Milly says she wants to canter.”

“She’s ready for it, and for maybe moving up bigger than Pippa.”

“Okay, but it’s Jake you need to watch out for. He says he wants to go bouncing on the saddle.”

Luke raised an eyebrow. "Message received. Talk later." He turned to leave, and generally, at this point, Aaron would either get a coffee at Branches or maybe watch the kids or wander around Crooked Tree. He had a solid hour of me-time, and he loved it. This week he had a specific goal in mind, though.

“Hey, Luke, you know Rob? He’s staying here with two children. Says he’s Justin’s friend.”

Luke went from confused to understanding. “Oh, the guy who’s staying in the staff cabin? That Rob?”

“I guess so.”

“What about him?”

“Nothing, just wanted to catch up with him.”

Luke didn’t question that, just gestured down the hill toward the staff places, which mostly sat empty now.

Not thinking too hard about what he was doing, he flattened his hair down again and sauntered to the bridge and over to the cabins. It was easy to spot which one Rob and his nephews were in, by the fact that the windows were open. He walked around the back of that one, not quite knowing what he was looking for.

Only when he saw Rob sitting on the back porch staring at the lake, he knew exactly what he’d hoped to find.

“What are you doing here?” Rob cut straight to the point.

“Just walking.” Aaron moved to the porch steps and leaned against a post, one boot on the first step, the other flat on the ground.

“Then I suggest you walk away.”

Nope, he was not walking away. He had questions, and a burning need to check the man out again. “Why are you in a staff cabin?”

Rob leaned forward in his chair. “I’m staff. Obviously. I clean the bathrooms. They make me use a toothbrush. It’s unfair. You think I should I join a union?”

“Smartass.”

“And I ask again. Why are you here, and why do you have your foot on my property?”

Aaron glanced down at his boot and smirked. “This?” he asked and hooked his thumbs in his belt loops.

“Move away.”

“Before what? You get territorial on me?” He laughed then. “You got coffee in there?” He took another step up, so he was entirely on Rob's ground, and then he stopped and waited.

“Jesus,” Rob said with a sigh. “You're not going, are you." It was a statement of fact and one that didn't need an answer. Rob headed inside. "Stay the fuck out there."

So Aaron did. He stayed with both feet on the porch, and after a few moments, he took the nearest seat, a large Adirondack with views of the mountain. He wondered where the children were. He couldn’t hear talking or laughter, and to be honest, if his own niece and nephew spotted him, they would have been out here messing with him.

“Here.” Rob thrust a coffee at him, and Aaron jumped a little.

“You’re a ninja,” he offered.

“Nah, you’re just soft around the edges.”

“I can’t deny that,” Aaron murmured. “Learning not to jump at the slightest thing is one of the things I’ve mastered that makes me a productive citizen.”

“Is that what you are? All normal now?”

“Sometimes.” Then he changed the subject. “Where are Bran and Toby?”

"Toby’s napping. Bran watches over him; it’s a sibling thing.”

Aaron hesitated a little. “Do you think Bran seems very protective?”

“They’re fine.”

“I wasn’t saying they weren’t.”

Rob huffed, and that was the end of that conversation. In silence, they sipped coffee, both staring at the same view.

“So, let’s not fuck about here. Do you switch?” Aaron finally asked because as Nanna Carter had always said, you don’t ask you don’t get.

“What the hell?” Rob said.

Aaron sighed and finished his coffee. “Are we doing that, then?”

“Doing what?”

“Pretending we’re not going to end up in bed with each other or screwing over the nearest surface.” He patted the handrail that ran along the porch. “Or maybe you bent over here.”

“I don’t have time for your shit.”

His expression belied his words. In fact, he checked Aaron out right there and then, his gaze lingering a long way south of Aaron’s face.

Aaron tilted his hips a little and hooked the thumb of his left hand in a belt loop. “So you never answered my question about switching?”

Rob shot him a glance that spoke volumes. “Do you?”

Aaron didn’t know where he was taking this, but he wanted something from Rob. He just hadn’t decided what yet. He deliberately raked a look from head to toe, stopping halfway and nodding.

“I wouldn’t say no…” He trailed off and raised his coffee mug in salute. “So, uncomplicated fucking or not?”

Rob placed his mug very carefully on the table, and Aaron waited for the explosion. They were two strong, determined; some would say stubborn, men, and who was to say they'd be compatible at all? It seemed that what they’d done so far was get up in each other’s faces. He expected Rob to say something sarcastic so they could carry on this weird sexual thing they had going on, but all Rob did was stand, go into his cabin, and shut the door in Aaron’s face.

Amused and turned on more than he liked to admit, Aaron left his mug on the step.

It was a damn shame Rob hadn’t immediately agreed to his proposal, because the back view of Rob walking in the cabin was as damn fine as the front.