"Ah, but little girls are their own brand of trouble," Connor countered with a grin. Boys would be boys, yes, that was true, and the band could be a bunch of little boys sometimes. "Especially once the teenage years arrive. Sometimes I think I need a shotgun just for Dana, and she's my cousin!" He chuckled. Dana would smack him upside the head if she heard him say that. He grinned more broadly at her, glad that she seemed more relaxed that before, and she was teasing him, and it was good fun.
"All of it is to be taken with a grain of salt. I don't like the gossip rags very much, because they have managed to muck things up quite well a few times for all of us." Not as much as most people since on the whole they weren't a wild bunch, barring a few notable exceptions. "Oh yes, there're more than a few stories," he admitted. "There was the time when Colby and I took two reporters following us on a wild goose chase through this one town, because Brett wanted to meet with his girlfriend, who also had a reputation. They didn't want front page news, so we were playing decoy."
He smiled gently at her, grateful for her touch and her sympathy. It wasn't easy, and it would hurt for quite some time, he suspected, if it ever quite quit. "Thank you," he told her quietly. He knew it probably seemed like he was obsessing, but it was still so fresh. "Don't let me drag things down, now," he said, but he reached over and laid his hand gently over hers, squeezing slightly in gratitude.