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“I said no.”

“But...but...you never say no!”

He pulled his hat off his head and ran his hand through his hair. He’d barely slept last night. He’d had a late-night conference call with a businessman in New Zealand who wanted to hire their services for some employees he was sending to the Congo. Then afterwards, he’d worked out for a while to try and exhaust his mind. His body had been begging for sleep by the time he’d showered. Only for him to toss and turn for hours. And when he did sleep the dreams...

Shit.

“Kent?” Eden’s voice was soft now. All anger and indignation were gone. “Are you okay? What’s going on? Is it something at work?”

“I’m fine,” he snapped. Then silently cursed as he saw the hurt look on her face. “Sorry, boo,” he said using the nickname for her that he’d had since they were kids. “I’m not sleeping well and it’s making me short-tempered.”

But this time it wasn’t nightmares plaguing him. They weren’t the thing that crept into mind when he least expected it.

Nope, that was a pair of hurt-filled hazel eyes, surrounded by the longest eyelashes he’d ever seen.

Eden stared at him worriedly. “Want to talk about it?”

He gave her a half-smile. “Don’t think that will help.”

“You’re always making me tell you about my shit.”

He raised his eyebrows at her language.

She shook her head. “I’m not a kid anymore, you know.”

“I know,” he replied quietly.

“Do you? Does Clint? I mean, really? Grounding me? I’m nearly twenty-six years old! I shouldn’t have to put up with this crap.”

“You know the way our family works, Eden,” he told her mildly. “Clint is just looking out for you. You gave both of us a hell of a fright the other night. You want to tell me what you were doing there?”

She pressed her lips together. Yeah, that’s what he’d thought. Stubborn. He shook his head. “I’ve created a bad habit by running interference for you with our big bro, but not this time. Because I agree with him. You could have ended up badly hurt, raped, murdered.” He crouched down in front of her, in much the same position as he’d been with Abby three nights ago. He winced. He wouldn’t think about that right now. “You mean the world to us, Eden. We don’t want anything bad happening to you.”

She let out a sound of frustration.

“It’s only because we love you.”

She snorted. Then she sighed. “I love you guys as well. But if I don’t get off this ranch soon, I’m gonna go freaking insane.”

“No, you won’t. There’s plenty to do here. Are you supposed to be wheeling yourself around with your sore ribs?”

“They feel better.” She bit her lip. “I wanted to go into town and check on Abby. I called her yesterday and she sounded funny.”

He stiffened. “She did? Funny, how?”

“I don’t know. Just weird. I just...I don’t think she has many people watching out for her. Macca told me you put a new lock on her door. Was she all right?”

All right? No, he wouldn’t say that.

“I just feel terrible about all the times I’ve essentially ignored her. I mean, I’ve never been rude or mean to her, of course. I’ve always shut anyone down when I’ve heard them say something mean.”

“Who says mean things to her?” he demanded. Fury filled him. How dare anyone be nasty to her?

“Well, mostly they say things behind her back. They call her mouse.”

He clenched his hands into fists. He wanted to teach her that she shouldn’t allow anyone to put her down.

“I just wish now I’d made more of an effort to get to know her. I just...I feel bad. She helped me when most people would have run the other way. Do you think you could go check on her?”