Never in her life had Cassie felt so mixed up about a man. Usually she found them either frustrating or disappointing, often both at the same time. Kevin didn’t fall into either of those categories.

Okay, maybe “frustrating” because she still didn’t know if those thousand-count sheets were ever going to materialize. They might never end up in an actual bed together.

Which would absolutely be disappointing.

But nothing involving Kevin followed any kind of usual pattern. In the past, after she’d slept with a man—which didn’t happen all that often—she felt…depressed. Even if she’d enjoyed the sex itself, she would most often lie next to her bedmate, staring at the ceiling and wondering why she wasn’t happier. Orgasms were supposed to lift your mood, relax you, make you all blissed out, at least according to the movies.

They’d really never done that for her—until now. Her afterglows had been more like after-black-holes-of-regret. But what she’d experienced with Kevin didn’t fit in the same category as those other encounters. She and Kevin were friends. She knew him really well, and most of all, she trusted him. And respected him. And liked him. Was that why it had felt so different? Was this what they really meant by “friends with benefits?” The benefit being that the friendship led to better sex?

If only she could talk to her mother about Kevin.

But she couldn’t. Because the morning after that wild time in the ocean, she found a voice mail message from Mom, which she’d left sometime overnight.

“Cassie, my dear, dear daughter, I know this is going to sound strange. I need some time to myself. Maybe a couple of weeks, maybe a little bit longer. I can’t explain everything now, but Will can fill you in. Priscilla Reinhard has offered me the guesthouse on their property. It’s practically an armed fortress there, so you have no need to worry about me. I love you so much, chickadee. I want you to go out there and have lots of glorious fun. We’ll see each other soon.”

In a surreal state of shock, Cassie laced on her running shoes and went for a hard, pounding run down the country road where the farmhouse was located.

Time to herself? No need to worry? It made no sense.

It felt so strange, so disorienting, as if she’d gotten fired from a job she both loved and resented.

For the past twelve years, she’d been exceptionally close to her mother. They’d grieved for Robert Knight together. They’d traveled around the country together. Janine had thrown herself into helping Cassie graduate, then get her mechanic’s certification. In turn, Cassie had thrown herself into monitoring her mom’s mental state.

Was it a healthy relationship? Cassie had no idea. They fought sometimes just like other mothers and daughters. Her mom’s anxiety drove her nuts. So did her unwillingness to answer questions. But she was Mom, and Cassie would have thrown herself in front of a train if that would keep her safe.

After her run, she showered and hopped in her car. She had a light day at work, plenty of time to squeeze in a visit to her brother Will. Besides, she wasn’t quite ready to see Kevin yet. She had to chase all those hot memories from last night out of her brain first.

Will and Merry lived in a side-by-side duplex, with his office taking up one side. She knocked on the office door first, but when she got no answer, she hopped down the front steps and over to the other side.

Merry opened the door, a steaming mug of coffee in one hand. Her bright amber eyes widened with surprise.

“Cassie! Nice to see you. Come on in. Is Will expecting you?”

“Nope. This is an ambush.”

Merry’s eyes sparked with interest. As one of the top reporters at the Mercury News-Gazette, any hint of a good story could get her going. Which made for some entertaining family arguments between her and Will, who was all about law and order, with his deputy sheriff background. But obviously they worked it all out, because every time Cassie saw them, she picked up on the special energy that hummed around the couple.

“I’m not going to pester you for details, but that’s only because I know you’ll tell me everything when the time is right.”

“Absolutely.” Cassie smiled as they exchanged a quick hug.

Will, in the midst of tucking in his shirt, strolled into the living room. Tall and lean, with a kind of laconic drawling style, he’d always been on the reserved side—until he’d hooked up with Merry, who was all sparks and vibrant energy. “Hey, sis. You look like you’re on a mission.”

“I am. Can we talk next door?”

“That serious, huh? Sure, let me grab my coffee and we’ll get official.” He disappeared for a moment, then came back with a giant to-go mug with a picture of a monster truck on the side. He dropped a kiss on Merry’s halo of springy curls.

“See you later, babe. Love you.”

“Love you too.” They shared a hot, secret look that left no doubt about how they’d spent last night.

Cassie averted her eyes, not so much from embarrassment as from envy. Will and Merry had the perfect balance of passion and respect for each other. Would she ever be lucky enough to find something like that with a man?

To be honest, she’d never given herself a chance to. She’d never stuck with a relationship long enough to see if it was possible.

Kevin flashed into her mind so vividly, he could have been right beside her. They definitely had passion. Respect—absolutely.

But there were all those roadblocks between them. It was impossible. They couldn’t even have sex like normal people—on land.

Not that she was complaining about last night. Not at all. A smile tried to sneak across her face, but she reminded herself why she was here. For answers. Explanations.

She followed Will over to the office side of the building. It didn’t look much like her picture of a private investigator’s office, with its hardwood floors and comfortable seating arrangement of red-upholstered armchairs. He beckoned her to take a seat, but instead she perched on the wide sill of the bay window.

“What’s going on with Mom?” she burst out before Will had even finished lowering himself into his seat. “She left me a message that she wants some time alone. I don’t understand.”

“She wants to protect you. She feels that she’s put you through enough, living on the run all these years. Now you’re home and putting down roots and she doesn’t want to interfere with that.”

“That’s…ridiculous! Of course she isn’t interfering. With anything! And I’m not putting down roots. I’m not a root-putting person.” She jumped to her feet and paced back and forth in front of the pretty bay window, as if proving her lack of rootlessness right there on the spot.

Will sipped from his coffee and watched her. She couldn’t read the expression in his steady gray eyes, but it might have included amusement. “You know, Cassie, out of everyone in our family, I think you and I have the most in common.”

“Us? How do you figure that? You’re the steady one, the one who held down the fort while the rest of us took off. You’re the responsible one. The deputy sheriff keeping everything on track. You’re High Noon. I’m nothing like that. I’m more like…the tumbleweed rolling down Main Street during the big showdown.”

He burst out laughing. “Way to keep the metaphor going.”

She sketched a mock bow. “Thank you. I try.”

“But you have it all wrong, I’m sorry to say. A tumbleweed is something that drifts with the wind, that has no purpose. You’ve always had a purpose.”

She stared at him, her heart catching in her throat. Of all her brothers, she’d always looked up to Will the most, possibly because he was the oldest, or maybe because of his solid, reassuring nature. Hearing words of praise from him meant so much.

“Do you remember when I tracked you and Mom down in that commune in New Mexico?” he continued, taking advantage of her momentary speechlessness.

She nodded, since it wasn’t likely she’d ever forget that.

“I asked you what you wanted me to do, if you wanted me to step in and take charge of Mom. Get her to a hospital, bring you back home, put an end to the running. But you begged me not to. You said Mom was getting better and you were about to take your high school equivalency exam and you felt you could handle things okay.”

“I was probably insane,” she muttered. “I had no idea what I was doing.”

“Which is why I insisted you keep in regular touch and let me know if you needed anything.”

“I did.”

“Exactly. You took on just as much responsibility as I did. You held down your own fort. Okay, so it was a moving fort that changed locations every few months. But it was still a fort. You made a fort for Mom, and you defended it and kept her safe. For twelve years you did that.”

She crossed her arms over her chest and turned away from him so he couldn’t see her eyes fill with tears. He made it all sound so noble, and she didn’t think she deserved that. “You’re giving me too much credit,” she managed.

“No, I’m not. I call things as I see them, you know that. Mom…” He stopped to clear his throat. “Mom told me she might gone over the edge for good if you hadn’t been with her. And I believe her. Maybe it seems like she’s shutting you out right now, but that’s not her intention. I promise you. She’s trying to be more independent. She wants you to enjoy your life, focus on the shop, reconnect with all of us, and the rest of Jupiter Point.”

Cassie stared out at the street, a lovely residential block lined with graceful maple and oak trees. The kind of place that always made her mother antsy. Too exposed, not anonymous enough.

How was she supposed to reconnect with Jupiter Point when her automatic reflex was to run?

“Mom said something else in her message. She said you can fill me in. Is this about Matthew Dearborn? The investigation?”

Will got to his feet and crossed to a locked filing cabinet. “If I’d known you were coming, I would have gotten this ready for you. Give me a minute here.” He pulled out an accordion file stuffed with pieces of paper and envelopes. “It took a while, but Mom finally told me what’s been going on all these years. These letters are anonymous, but we’ve done some handwriting analysis and they’re definitely from Matthew Dearborn. It turns out he’s pretty good at tracking people. He managed to find you guys pretty much wherever you went.”

“What? He followed us?”

“No, no,” Will assured her quickly. “He never actually left Jupiter Point, as far as we can tell. But he wrote Mom letters. In every single one, he warned her not to contact the cops or tell anyone about the letters. He talked about his connections to the Jupiter Point PD.”

He handed her the folder. Horrified, she leafed through them, seeing words like “love” and “soul mate” jump out at her.

“He never confessed to killing Dad, but it seemed obvious to Mom that he had. She kept thinking that he would move on if she just stayed away long enough. And sometimes it seemed that he had. Time would pass, she wouldn’t get any more letters, and she’d start to relax. Then he’d catch up with her all over again. He terrorized her. Honestly, it’s amazing she isn’t more of a nervous wreck after dealing with this alone for all that time.”

“But why didn’t she tell me?” Cassie cried. “I would have gone straight to the police or the FBI or something. That’s crazy!”

“I think it’s safe to say she wasn’t thinking fully logically. She was scared. And he kept threatening her.”

“Oh my God.” Cassie buried her hands in her hair and slumped onto the window sill. “All that time, she never said a word to me. I just figured she didn’t like staying in one place. I feel like an idiot!”

“No, no.” Will got to his feet and in two quick strides was next to her. He put his arms around her and drew her close. “How could you know? She did everything possible to keep it a secret. She didn’t want you to know. She didn’t want you to worry, or to call the police, or do anything that might change the status quo. Don’t blame yourself for any of this, Cassie. Promise me.”

She made a snuffling noise against his chest that he could interpret any way he liked.

He laughed. “I know what you’re thinking, that it’s all your fault. I’d probably be thinking the same kind of things, but that’s because we’re so similar. Take it from your big brother, the one who should have handled all of this from the start, it is not your fault. Got it?”

Slowly, she nodded. Maybe it wasn’t her fault, exactly. But she should have figured it out. “What made her want to come back here? Isn’t he still a threat?”

“I think the fact that we were all back in Jupiter Point made her feel safer. But most of all, Mom was worried about you. She was worried that you were putting your life on hold for her, that you weren’t as happy as you could have been. She wanted you to be surrounded by family. Basically, she decided it was never going to be any safer than it is now. So she took a chance.”

“And she couldn’t tell me all that?”

Will’s strong arms surrounded her with brotherly comfort. “Not then. She wanted to put me in the picture first so I could set some precautions in place. Remember when you guys first came back and you were staying in that hotel? That was a test. She wanted to see what Dearborn would do, what he was up to. I wish she’d clued me in to her plans, but she didn’t. She really beat herself up over everything that happened after the Winter Ball. She blames herself for the whole thing, for Felix getting kidnapped, for Julie getting hurt, all of it.”

Cassie mentally ran through all the events of the past couple of months. It all made sense, now that she had the missing piece of the puzzle. “Is that why she didn’t go to the ball? Because she was afraid the killer would be there?”

“No, she intended to go. She thought it would be safe because so many people would be there, including all of us. But she had a last-minute panic attack and didn’t go. Apparently Dearborn knew she’d planned to go, because he was working security for the event. He lost it when she didn’t show up. And then all hell broke loose, but you know the rest of it.”

She moved away from him and drew in a shuddering breath. She ran her fingers through her hair, as if shaking out the stress of all these revelations. “I thought I knew. Turns out I was mostly clueless.” She took another step away.

“I’m sorry.” His deep voice followed her. “I’m sorry this is all hitting you now. And Cassie, I also need to thank you.”

“Thank me?” For what, being a blind-as-a-bat babysitter? “What the hell for?”

“The fact that I didn’t have to worry about you and Mom while I was raising Aiden. I did worry, don’t get me wrong. But I always knew that you had it covered. That I could trust you. And you never failed to keep in touch. Never. I mean, you were a kid, really. Most kids would have let it slide, forgotten now and then to pop a postcard in the mail. You never did. Not once. And the comfort that gave me, gave all of us, you just have no idea.”

The truth was, Cassie had loved sending those postcards. Reaching out to her brothers, keeping them up to date on her life, was something she looked forward to every couple of weeks. “It was no problem,” she managed.

“You have no idea how special you are, do you?”

At that, she spun around in surprise. “Excuse me?”

He grinned at the shocked expression on her face. “I knew it. You really don’t know how extraordinary you are. You kept Mom safe, you basically raised yourself, you got yourself educated, you found yourself a career. You’re a force to be reckoned with, Cassie, and don’t you ever think otherwise.”

A fiery blush flooded her cheeks. “You’re just being a big brother.”

“Yeah well, I’m proud to be your big brother, but that’s not why I’m saying this. It’s the truth, that’s all.” He took the accordion file of letters back from her. “So now, I’m hoping that you’ll let your big brother, who happens to be an ace private investigator, take things from here. This is my wheelhouse, sis. You did a fantastic job getting us this far. Dad would be so proud he’d be beating his damn medal-covered chest. Now it’s my turn, okay?”

Her heart seemed to be beating at triple speed. “Okay. I mean, you’re right, I don’t know anything about catching a murderer. But…” She trailed off, not sure how to put her finger on the wild tumult of emotions tumbling through her. “What should I do?”

“Enjoy yourself. Have fun. Whatever you choose, make it what you want. Not what you think is best for Mom,” Will said seriously. “Be free. Play. Do whatever you want. Build a life. If you want to roam the world, do that. If you want to stay here, please do that. Oh yeah, I nearly forgot. Do you feel like house-sitting for a few weeks? Hunter McGraw and Starly Minx are looking for someone to water their plants while she’s on tour. It’s a million-dollar home, so if I were you, I’d say yes.”

House-sitting…that would mean living by herself for the first time ever. Away from the farmhouse, away from Mom. Alone in a million-dollar home. “Okay.”

He nodded, then handed over a set of keys. “I was hoping you’d say that. They left a set of instructions on the kitchen counter.”

She traced the hard metal of the key. “Why didn’t you offer this to Mom? Or to us, before she decided to go solo?”

“I did. But she wanted you to have it. She thinks you’ll really enjoy it.” His smile faded. “Also, if Dearborn comes after her, she doesn’t want any more collateral damage. She’s struggling with a lot of guilt for letting you be part of her run-and-hide routine.”

That took some of the sting out of Cassie’s hurt and anger. But if she thought about it too much, she might get angry all over again—because she’d been in the dark about exactly what they’d been running from.

She inhaled a deep breath and let it out with a sigh. “Well, thanks for filling me in, Will. You’re going to find that guy, right?”

“Of course we are.” He gazed at her steadily. “You know something, Cassie…Dad’s murder affected all of us in different ways. It turned me from a law student into a surrogate parent. I didn’t allow myself to feel angry and search for his killer until Aiden was off to college. So maybe this, right now, is Mom graduating.”

She peered up at him, amusement filling her like helium. “You’re saying I’m an empty-nester?” She twisted her face into that of a crotchety old lady. “Kids these days, they get those crazy ideas in their heads from YouTube and SnappyChatty. Back in my day, we could entertain ourselves with a mop bucket if we had to.”

Will let out a deep rumbling laugh. “You still got it, kid. You used to make me roll on the floor with those voices of yours.”

She gave him one last impish smile, then, on impulse, stepped closer and threw her arms around him. “I remember how you used let me ride on your shoulders when we played badminton.”

“We tried just about every sport there is, didn’t we?”

“Yeah, that was Ben’s doing. He’d see some game set in a store and pester Mom until she bought it. How do you think we ended up with a croquet set?” She drew away. “Wait, do we still have that?”

“We do. We played last Christmas with the teens at the shelter.”

She kicked up her heels in a little dance of glee. “That was the only game I could ever beat you guys at. Oh, it’s on! I’m calling it right now. Big Knight family croquet challenge of doom.”

“Does that mean you’re staying?” he asked quickly.

She paused in her dance, frozen in a goofy position while she contemplated.

Finally, she shrugged lightly. “At least until I beat some Knight brother ass at croquet.”