Lara watched Marcus approach Ava, Thomas’s and Daniel’s sister, after the service. She’d been planning to do exactly the same thing, but she hung back when she saw her friend had beat her to it. Ava was only twenty but she looked so much older, the stark anguish in her eyes aging her. Losing her two older brothers had taken a heavy toll on her, and Lara wasn’t sure she’d ever seen someone so weighed down by grief, except maybe her father.
With Greg at her side, his arm wrapped around her and lending her the strength she desperately needed, Lara took in the way Ava’s back straightened when she noticed Marcus walking toward her. The raven-haired woman pushed her shoulders back as if she were preparing for battle and her eyes became shuttered, any traces of vulnerability hidden behind the w
