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Alyssa…um…Alyssa Traynor. Met her on the job, actually.” Gavin ran a hand through his thick black hair. The two of them were about as far apart in looks and personality as fraternal twins could be. Gavin had their mother’s black Irish looks with hair as dark as night and bright blue eyes. Ian was green-eyed with wavy dark blond hair—that same hair that repeated itself on Jamie’s head and was in sore need of cutting. Kid could pass as a girl with his soft features and long hair. His mother nagged him nearly daily about it. Ian stopped musing, processed what his brother had said, then stared at him.
    “Traynor…as in Traynor Wholesale Company…as in our distribution partner…the one I want to fire because they suck?”
    “Uh, yeah.”
    “Wow.” Ian put down the clipboard and crossed his arms over his chest. “Nice one. Hope she’s worth it.”
    “Oh, I think she is.” Gavin raised an eyebrow and stuck his hands in his pockets. “And she has invited you over to dinner this weekend. She has a brother at home with her right now. He’s a Marine Corps vet, from Iraq, and a little messed up, at least physically, but she’s determined to take care of him until he can get settled.”
    “A brother,” Ian said, slowly finally realizing what was going on. “A wounded warrior brother. No, thanks, Gavin. I’ll take a pass.”
    “I’m not setting you up with the guy. Jesus. For the record, I still think you should stick with girls, but since you can’t seem to make up your mind…I just thought since you haven’t been out or anything in a while, and Alyssa said her brother was…your type. Although you should know, he is blind from a firefight that got him discharged with a Purple Heart and a Navy Cross. He has a service dog that he’s trying to get used to as well as a new job as an internet security consultant. The shit they can do with computers now—it’s as if his being blind makes no difference at all in that respect. His name is Nick.” Gavin shrugged.
    Ian gaped at his brother, his heart racing with something he could only identify as anger. “A blind, gay, pissed off, computer geek, ex-Marine? Thanks, Gavin. Sounds like fun. Maybe I’ll invite my son’s drug-addled mother along, you know, to complete the dysfunctional family portrait.” He turned away, aware he was being an ass about a guy he didn’t even know.
    “Sorry,” Gavin said.
    “Whatever. I’ll think about it. Can Jamie come over and stay with the boys and the nanny that night?”
    The thought of a man, any man, in his orbit startled him and made him a little tingly because he’d spent so much time and energy sublimating those feelings to his new responsibilities. He hardly drank anymore, didn’t touch cigarettes or pot, ran every day, and had not gotten laid in almost four years.
    Ian had always thought of himself as the sort of man who required physical connection. He’d never gone without sex for any extended period of time, so he’d never questioned it. Sex for a guy like him, given his innate flexibility when came to gender, was pretty easily arranged. He was not hard to look at, knew how to flirt, and what buttons to push for men and women. He was not ashamed in the slightest of being bi-sexual. He always thought of it as a bit of a bonus.
    But at that moment he’d never felt more alone, and the slight twinge of familiar horniness at the base of his spine at the thought of the faceless, wounded Nick Traynor made him want to punch something. Words to the contrary spilled out. “I’ll go,” he called to his brother’s retreating back. “I need to get out.”
    “I thought you might,” Gavin waved to him. “See you in the morning?”
    A shiver passed down Ian’s back. He was lucky. He had the job he wanted and family he loved. The support Gavin had given him in the last few years meant more to him than he could ever explain or repay. The Saturday morning pancake ritual with his Uncle Gavin was something Jamie