Clay gestures to the home. “Nicely, I’m assuming you’d ultimately wish to get your individual place, proper? I really like Mother and Dad, however I can’t think about nonetheless having to dwell with them.” He shudders in mock disgust.

“Oh, please.” I roll my eyes. “You reside on the identical property, and the way in which I hear it, you’re over right here mooching meals a number of instances every week.”

He laughs. “Yeah… nevertheless it’s good having my very own place to entertain my girl pals. My many, many, girl pals.”

“Nicely… entertaining anybody is low on my listing of priorities proper now.” I shake my head. “Very, very low.”

Clay rubs the again of his neck. “Regardless, when you’re desirous about getting your individual place ultimately, you’d want a job, proper?”

“I suppose,” I agree. “However Clayton, I’ve solely been again just a few days. I’ve quite a lot of stuff to determine proper now.”

“Let me take one factor off your plate then. While you’re prepared—and I don’t care how lengthy that takes—I may use just a little assist across the bar. I do know it’s not probably the most glamourous job, however—”

I attain up on my toes to tug him right into a hug, conscious of my sore shoulder. “Thanks, Clay.”

After he will get over the shock, he hugs me again. “You’re welcome, child.”

I scoff. “I’m hardly a child.”

He pulls again and musses my hair. “You’ll at all times be my child sister, irrespective of how outdated you get.” His blue eyes watch me rigorously. “What are you going to do about your husband, Pres?”

“I don’t know,” I admit. “I’m truthfully shocked he hasn’t tried contacting me but. It’s not like him to only settle for defeat. He’s not dumb; he has to know the place I’m.”

Clay scowls. “Nicely, he doesn’t actually have a fuckin’ alternative however to simply accept defeat on this case. If he comes sniffing round right here, Pres, I can’t promise you I gained’t do one thing about it. I’d say the identical applies to Dad.”

I draw circles within the gravel with my toe. “I kno—”

The roar of a truck engine cuts off my phrases. A number of seconds later, that outdated Ford comes rolling down the drive. I exploit my brother as a protect as I watch it drive away towards the highway. I launch a deep breath the second it’s out of sight.

“Yeah, so…” I jerk my head towards the home, feeling like an entire idiot for hiding behind Clay. “I assume I’ll so long then.”

I begin strolling again towards the porch when Clayton’s phrases cease me proper in my tracks. “He by no means gave up on you, Pres.”

“What?” I blink quickly, constructive I heard him incorrect.

Clay inclines his head within the path the truck simply went. “Beck. He’d kill me for saying this, however he by no means gave up on you. Whether or not he needs to confess it or not, he by no means stopped loving you.”

“I don’t…” I shake my head. “I imply… that’s unattainable. Isn’t he married?”

My brother’s laughter is so loud, it echoes by the wind. “He’d by no means let anybody get shut sufficient for that to occur. I feel he’s been holding out hope you’d come again sometime.”

I droop down on the highest step. “I don’t know what to say to that, Clayton. It doesn’t matter if he nonetheless has emotions for me—which I extremely doubt, by the way in which. I’m not the identical woman he fell in love with. I’ve been by a lot… it’s modified me.”

“You’re the identical the place it counts.” He shakes his head. “However simply so you already know, he’s not precisely the identical man both. He’s been by some actually tousled stuff. Issues that keep on with you for a lifetime.”

I tilt my head to the facet. “His dad dying?”

“That was simply the icing on the shitastic cake. He was gone for over six years, Pres. Loads occurred throughout that point.”

“Within the army?”

Clayton nods.

“However… I assumed the Navy was one of many most secure branches of the army.”

He scoffs. “Not while you’re a SEAL.”

My eyes widen. “He was a SEAL?!”

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