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kept his voice firm was one hell of a miracle.
    Aidan focused his attention on the road ahead and the way sunshine glinted off the pavement. Anything was better than doing something so dumb as to pull the truck off to the side and follow through on what his dick demanded.
    She worked for Ross and Associates. He might own a small business, but there were plenty of examples of sexual harassment suits in the news. He definitely wasn’t going to be a part of that mess.
    The truth it is.
    “Grant Phillips is my foster brother.”
    She frowned as if trying to process the thought. “What’s that like?”
    “You have brothers. What’s that like?”
    “Mostly a pain in the ass.”
    “Grant was a pain, too. Very shy. He’s better now, but there were some moments back then when I wondered.” Given his brother’s background, it was amazing the guy eventually came out of his shell.
    “Must’ve been something in the water.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “You’re not exactly Mr. Social yourself.”
    Why bother to deny it? Instead Aidan focused on the stretch of asphalt ahead, on the flow of traffic and keeping the truck in its lane.
    “Sorry,” she said. “That’s probably not the thing to say to your boss.”
    “Hard to learn to be social when you’re shuffled around from home to home.”
    Until Edward and Miriam Wilson took him in. Only then did he have a couple of years in one place with firm role models. Even then he’d never really outdistanced his past.
    “What?” Her voice was as surprised as the look he caught when he glanced her direction. “I thought maybe he came to live with you and your family.”
    He wished. “Nope.”
    “So you moved in with Grant’s family.”
    “Wrong again.”
    “Oh.”
    He waited for more, but thankfully, Delaney didn’t pry.
    “So you’ve got a special bond with Grant.” She reached for her Gatorade and gulped down a quick swallow.
    “We got into a few adventures together.”
    “You?” She let out a short laugh. “I find that hard to believe.”
    “Hey, it’s happened, you know.” And in his case, he was glad. Grant was his closest friend, would likely always be that way.
    “Oh? Like what?” She raised an eyebrow, clearly not believing him.
    “Like the time another kid was picking on Grant. We sneaked out of the house and stole his car.”
    “You what ?”
    “Don’t worry, we didn’t do anything more than park it in front of a known prostitute’s home.” It had been a perfectly executed plan, one that Harold had helped them concoct and that his sister never discovered. If she had, there was no doubt Miriam would’ve banned him from coming over again.
    For a brief moment, the strains of AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” were the only sounds that mixed with the rumble of the engine.
    “That’s really cool,” she said at last.
    Aidan heard the smile in her voice, and a slow, inexplicable warmth spread through him.
    “You’re obviously smart, you care about rescuing a lost dog—even if she did make you cry—”
    “You would bring that up.”
    She held up a hand to stop him. “Let me finish. And somewhere in your past you helped your foster brother get through some of the toughest parts of his life.” She smiled. “You’re a good man at heart, aren’t you, Aidan Ross?”
    Was he a good man? “The jury’s still out on that one.” He stepped down on the accelerator, and the truck immediately responded to his command.
    Too bad the rest of his life didn’t work that way. If it did, he’d find some way to quell the lonely days and even lonelier nights.
    For good.

Chapter Nine
    Aidan knew his truck, knew when something didn’t feel right. But truck problems in the middle of a relatively short road trip were something he didn’t plan on. Damn it.
    The truck pulled to the left, no matter how hard he tried to keep it between the lines. His head pounded right along with the realization there was a good chance they’d hit Seattle at the worst of the