My throat clogs.
“All of us,” he adds. “Whatever you need.”
“Yeah.” I follow that one word with a quick “thanks” and pray I’ll never need Ayden and the rest of my cousins the way he needed us.
* * *
Hours later, the six of us crash in the fishing cabin on the edge of Wild Ranch. Brayden’s grandfather built this cabin, and it’s rustic at best. No heat, but there is running water. We only come here when it’s warm enough, but even tonight, there’s a chill in the air. We gather around the stone fireplace with a couple of six-packs of beer that Brayden snuck out of his dad’s stash.
“Give me more than that,” Cameron complains as Brayden pops open a can and pours Cam half of it.
“You’re too fucking young,” Brayden grumbles. At eighteen, he’s determined to make sure none of us “screw up too badly.”
“What are you, my babysitter?” Cam says with a grin.
“You’ve always been a fucking troublemaker,” Dylan says to him. “You’re the youngest one here. You’re lucky we’re letting you have any.”
“Hey, all of us are under age,” Cam says, tugging at his dark head of hair. “You three Montana guys are just big talkers.”
His phone buzzes, and he ignores it.
“Don’t you want to talk to your girlfriend?” Ayden says with a smirk.
“Naw, not now. I’m hanging out with you guys,” Cam says casually.
“But things are good?” Jenson asks him. “You and Amy got serious fast.”
Cam shrugs. “She’s cool. We’ll see.”
His phone buzzes again.
“She seems pretty committed,” Jenson presses.
Cam’s eyes glint with mischief. “I told her I was off the grid for the weekend.”
Okay.
As the guys start fucking with Cam and how he’s the only one of us in a relationship when he’s the youngest, Jenson and I leave the cabin and go get wood to start the fire.
We pile the wood onto the wheelbarrow, and we’re nearly done when Jenson says to me, “I know you’ve got a lot on your mind.”
“I’m fine. Why, what’s up with you?”
“I’ve got something going on. Not anything big like what you’re dealing with.”
“Well, what is it?”
“I found out why my mom never wanted me to know the name of my birth father.”
“I thought that was because she didn’t know.”
“She knew. And now, so do I.”
His green eyes flash with anger.
“J, what the hell do you mean? Is it that bad?”
Before he can say more, my phone buzzes.
