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I took it, put on my jacket, and left the warmth of the bar into the frigid night. Carol knew. It wouldn’t be long before she told Jack. It was too much to expect a mother wouldn’t. The truth should come from me. I owed him that much at least. I had to tell him before it was too late.

By the time Luci got to her cabin, I’d worked myself into quite the angry frenzy, pacing around like a caged tiger.

She came in and shut the door behind her, but didn’t come to me as she usually would, staying put with her back to the door.

“You’re mad,” she said.

“Yep.”

“I’m sorry I told her, but she asked me and I can’t lie to her.”

Lie. The word remained there in the room between us.

I was the one who’d asked her to lie.

“I never asked you to lie to your mother,” I said, inwardly cringing. It was a cowardly thing to say and also not true. Before I could apologize, she moved slightly away from the door, pointing her finger at me.

“You did though. You’ve asked me to lie to everyone. My best friend. My mother. My brother. The woman he’s about to marry. This whole thing’s ridiculous. Us acting like we’re Romeo and Juliet or something. Like this is life or death if we tell Jack we’re in love. Can’t you see how stupid this is? So you don’t get to be angry with me. You just don’t.”

“Except your mother will tell Jack. There’s no way she won’t. She’s probably doing it as we speak.” I realized I was close to shouting and pulled back.

“Because you’re too scared to do it yourself.”

“We agreed to keep this between us. You agreed to it, so don’t make it sound like it’s just me.”

“But you know it is, Grant. You’re the only one in this room, heck, probably the entire ranch, who doesn’t see Jack for who he is. He’s going to be happy for us, and you can’t see it. Simply because you’re afraid. It’s not right.”

Her mother had said it was time for me to do right by her.

“Yeah, fine, you’re right,” I said. “I’m afraid. But if you had everything to lose, you would be too.” I raked a hand through my hair. “You heard him tonight. Telling me what a great guy I am when, meanwhile, I’m in bed with his sister. This is killing me.”

“Then do something about it. Be a man.”

That hurt like hell.

“I’m sorry,” she said, almost immediately. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

But she was right. “It’s not nice, but you’re correct. I’m acting like a little boy instead of a grown man.”

“You need help,” Luci said. “You need to work through this stuff with your parents. This is bigger than just you and me and Jack. You, mistakenly, think that your relationship with Jack isn’t strong enough to get through this. Those are the thoughts of a mentally unhealthy person.”

That also hurt. It was also true.

“I was alone all my life until Jack took me in,” I said, voice catching. “He and the boys are the only ones in my entire existence who make me feel like I belong somewhere.”

“What about me? Do I make you feel like you belong somewhere? Because it sure seems that way—behind closed doors. But the minute we’re outside of this room, you act as if I’m nothing to you. Do you know how much that hurts?”

“It’s not been easy for me either. I hate lying. It’s not who I am.”

“I do know that. But right now I really don’t care,” Luci said. “I’m done with this.”

“What does that mean?”

“Exactly what I said. I can’t be with someone who gets angry at me for talking to my mother, who, by the way, is all I have right now. I can’t talk to Holly or Rhett, obviously. I’m hiding how I feel about you every time Blake hauls out her camera, just in case she got something on film that gives me away. This was supposed to be a month where I could relax and enjoy myself. Instead, I’m hiding underground like a mole.” She started to cry, covering her eyes with her hand.

“I’m the one who had to hide in the bathroom,” I said.

“He’s my brother. The one person I’ve always told everything to, good and bad. And finally I have this wonderful thing in my life and I can’t tell him about it.” She shoved off from the door, ripping off her knit cap and jacket, tossing them on the back of a chair. “If you really wanted me, you’d do it. You’d tell him and risk it all. Because that’s what love is. It’s not hiding in a bathroom because my best friend comes by.”