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“I didn’t really give him a choice,” Jed said, and maybe he shouldn’t have, because Lily gave him a raised eyebrow and a look. But she didn’t comment, just hopped into the passenger seat and buckled herself in.

“Remy told me we’ve got a bit of a drive back to your place,” Lily said as Jed started the car and pulled away from the curb. “He said you’re up in the mountains?”

“A bit, yeah. The foothills, at least.”

“That’s so cool. I’ve never seen the Rockies.”

“Maybe we can take you out further into the mountains while you’re here,” Jed offered, before he remembered that he shouldn’t assume he was part of this—that Lily was here to visit Remy, and he and Remy weren’t anything yet except roommates. “If you don’t have plans, I guess. Remy didn’t mention what the two of you might be doing.”

“We don’t have plans yet,” Lily said, giving him side-eye that said she hadn’t missed the way he was calling him and Remy “we.” “I’m mostly here to check in on him, you know. But don’t tell him that. He thinks I’m here so that he can check in on me.”

“Hmm,” was all Jed had to say to that.

“I’m surprised he didn’t ride along,” she continued. “But I’m glad we have a chance to chat without him here.”

“Oh?”

“Yes.” Lily turned toward him. “There are a few things I need to say that he’d probably try to shut down.”

Jed glanced over at her. She looked more serious than he’d expected, and he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear what she had to say. He was, however, very sure this was exactly why Remy hadn’t wanted him to pick up Lily alone, so he found himself deflecting.

“You sound a lot more Canadian than your brother.”

“I am more Canadian than my brother. Our mom’s from Quebec, but she was living in Vermont when Remy was born, and we didn’t move back to Canada until I was a baby and Remy was seven.”

She gave him a considering look, as if weighing how much else to tell him. He stayed quiet, hoping she’d say more. He wanted to know about Remy’s past, even if he realized he should probably ask Remy about it himself.

“I suppose Remy hasn’t told you any of this, but our mom wasn’t exactly around a lot.”

“We haven’t talked about it,” Jed said. “But I noticed he never mentions her. Or your dad.”

“Dad or dads. We’re not really sure. But yeah. Remy’s basically, like, my real parent. And I’m his.”

“Ah.” That explained a few things about how close their relationship seemed to be.

“So as you can imagine, Remy doesn’t always expect what he should of people. Like, he doesn’t realize how well he deserves to be treated, you know?”

“Makes sense.” Jed felt queasy thinking about Remy undervaluing himself like that, and even queasier when he realized where Lily was probably headed.

“That makes it easy for people to take advantage of him. Especially people he thinks highly of.”

Yeah, now he felt like shit. Was that what he’d done? He thought Remy had seemed pretty fucking clear that he wanted Jed, but maybe it’d just been the heat of the moment. He needed to end this conversation now, before everything got all twisted up.

“I get why you’re concerned about your brother. But I don’t get why you’re telling me this.”

“Don’t you?” asked Lily, very pointedly. Too pointedly for Jed to miss what she was saying, that was for sure. She was warning him. What had Remy said about him, he wondered?

“Look.” Jed took a deep breath, because he hadn’t said this out loud to himself or anyone else. But Lily seemed to be asking his intentions, and that was fair enough. He might not know much about Remy’s past, but he knew about Mike and how that had messed Remy up, and here he was, another older guy who, from a certain perspective, also had some authority over Remy. And for some reason—you know the reason, said a voice in his head that sounded suspiciously like Hal’s—he wanted Lily to approve of him.

“Look, Remy’s . . . important to me.” Fuck, that was way too much. “Important to the team. I’m not going to do anything to make things harder for him.”

“No?”

“I mean, I’m trying to look out for him. I know a little about what happened in Montreal. I don’t want that to happen again,” Jed continued, since she seemed to expect him to say more.

“Remy doesn’t need someone to look out for him.” He glanced over and saw that Lily was frowning, like he’d failed her test. “Other than me, that is.”

“Maybe that was the wrong way to put it.” Jed struggled to put his feelings into words. “I meant, I don’t want to make things harder for him. I’d like him to be . . .” He trailed off, realizing that if he said he wanted Remy to be happy, Remy’s way-too-smart sister would probably tell Remy that Jed was completely fucking smitten the minute they got home. The fact that she wouldn’t be wrong only made it worse.