Chapter 5
A week later, at PT, Oz asked, “So, what’s up with you and Devyn?”
Lucky stopped mid sit-up. “What?”
“You and Devyn. Riley was talking to her the other night, and Devyn said that she’d been spending the last few evenings at your place. You want to tell us something?”
Glancing over at Grover, Lucky was relieved that the other man didn’t seem upset. He’d said that he was all right with him dating his sister, but when faced with the reality of the situation, he might’ve felt differently.
“You know I got Angel and Whiskers,” Lucky told his teammates.
“Well, I asked Devyn if she would help me socialize them. Angel was just about feral and needs a lot more human interaction. So she’s been coming over to hang out with us, to show them that not all humans are bad.
She’s not staying the night, if that’s what you were insinuating. ”
“I wasn’t insinuating anything,” Oz said with a smile. “Just wondering.”
“To answer what you didn’t ask, but I know you’re all dying to know, we’re dating,” Lucky told his friends.
“It’s about time!” Trigger exclaimed.
“Awesome!” Doc declared.
“Sweet!” Lefty said.
Grover merely smiled.
“Happy for you, man,” Brain told him. “You have to know we’ve all been rooting for you two.”
“She’s…awesome,” Lucky said with a small smile.
“She tell you any more about what’s bothering her?” Grover asked.
Lucky shook his head, turning to look at his friend. “No.”
“Damn.”
“We both know it’s something to do with your brother, Grover.
Have you talked to Spencer to see what the hell is going on?
” Lucky asked. “I get the impression that Devyn doesn’t want to upset your family.
She’s very concerned about not doing or saying anything that might hurt anyone.
Did you know she blames herself for your parents almost getting a divorce when she was sick? ”
Everyone had stopped working out, and they were listening intently to the back and forth between Grover and Lucky.
Grover ran a hand through his hair and sighed.
“I’ve tried to call him, but he never answers.
It’s frustrating, but short of driving my ass up to Missouri and forcing him to talk to me, there’s not much I can do.
And no, I didn’t know she blames herself, but it doesn’t surprise me.
Devyn acts tough on the outside, but I think she’s actually really sensitive.
She takes things very personally, and is hyperaware of what everyone else is saying or thinking. ”
“Exactly,” Lucky said with a nod. “And whatever is bothering her has to do with Spencer. Keep trying to call him. Tell him to lay off your sister.”
“I will,” Grover said. “She talk to you about her ex-boss?”
Lucky blinked at the abrupt change in topic. “Who?”
“The guy at the vet clinic where she was working in Missouri. You know, the one who pushed her around and put that bruise on her side? I know something’s up with Spencer, but I’m thinking this asshole might also be part of the issue.
She said he had the hots for her, and that’s why she quit. He could still be harassing her.”
Lucky frowned. “She hasn’t said anything about him to me. And if he’s been harassing her long distance, I haven’t seen any evidence of it. She hasn’t gotten any phone calls when she’s been over at my place, and her phone hasn’t been exploding with texts.”
“That doesn’t mean he’s not sending her emails or harassing her when you aren’t around,” Trigger said.
“True. But I don’t…I just don’t get the feeling that she’s afraid,” Lucky said. “I know that doesn’t make a lot of sense, but she’s not overly concerned about walking from my door to her car when it’s dark, and she seems pretty laid-back when we’re hanging out at my place.”
“I’d still like ten minutes alone with that asshole,” Grover muttered.
Lucky remembered Devyn mentioning her boss when they were helping her move into her apartment, and he’d asked about the bruise on her side.
He’d been plenty pissed off about it then, but she literally hadn’t mentioned the man since.
That didn’t mean he wasn’t still harassing her or anything, as Trigger suggested, but Lucky doubted it. Maybe he’d find a way to bring it up.
While he’d loved hanging out with Devyn during the last week, he wanted more.
A lot more. He loved how comfortable they were with each other, but somehow it felt as if their relationship so far was…
superficial? He’d learned a lot about her—her favorite color, how she hated bungee jumping but loved skydiving, that she loved reading thrillers, and she couldn’t stand green vegetables. But he didn’t know the deeper stuff.
How she felt about having, and beating, leukemia as a kid. Why she’d decided to work with animals. Why it seemed as if she was still holding a part of herself back from Gillian and the other women.
He wanted to know what made Devyn tick, and he wanted her to share things with him that she hadn’t shared with anyone else.
He knew she enjoyed their time together, but he wanted her to trust him enough to completely open up. To let him see all the parts of her, including the ones she thought were tarnished. Grover said she was sensitive, but Lucky hadn’t seen that part of her at all. And it bothered him.
“You guys ready to run this obstacle course?” Trigger asked.
Everyone agreed.
“I think we’ll do it with full packs this morning,” Trigger informed them with a smirk.
Everyone groaned. Their packs weighed upward of sixty pounds and were unwieldy at best. But no one complained otherwise.
There had been plenty of times in the past on their missions when they’d had to navigate tricky terrain and obstacles while wearing their packs, and there would be future missions where they’d need to do the same thing.
Lucky actually looked forward to the grueling training. It would take his mind off Devyn for a while. Maybe.
Devyn did her best not to squirm as she sat with Aspen, feeling the woman’s intense gaze on her. They’d gotten together for lunch, and Aspen was way too observant for Devyn’s liking. Out of all the women she’d gotten to know over the last year, Aspen was the hardest to get anything by.
“Want to tell me how you’re really doing?” Aspen asked.
Devyn inwardly sighed, but put on a bright smile and said, “I’m good.”
She hated the look of disappointment that flashed on Aspen’s face before she hid it.
“Right. You’re good. You’re always good, Dev, but it’s bullshit. Are you at least talking to someone about what’s going on with you? You can’t keep everything locked inside. It’s not healthy.”
Devyn was tempted to tell Aspen everything, but the woman had enough on her plate as it was.
She had about two months to go before her baby was born, and she’d just had to go on sick leave at her EMT job, which Devyn knew she didn’t want to do.
But she’d gotten to the point where her baby belly was getting in the way of her job.
Brain had been relieved when she’d conceded that she needed to stop working for now.
“It’s complicated,” she said softly. There was no chance anyone would overhear them in the crowded café they’d agreed on for lunch, but Devyn didn’t want to broadcast her troubles to anyone who might want to try.
“It always is,” Aspen said, leaning her elbows on the table.
“When Brain kicked me out of his hospital room after realizing he couldn’t remember any of the languages he’d learned, I thought I was going to die.
I wanted to die. I couldn’t believe the man I loved more than anything, the man I’d literally held in my arms in the nastiest water you can ever imagine, had figuratively spit in my face and told me to get out.
It hurt. And my first inclination was to hole up and not talk to anyone. ”
Devyn knew all about how Brain had gotten hurt, but she’d never really heard all the details about what had happened between him and Aspen afterward.
She knew they’d had a fight, but not what had brought it on.
She leaned toward her, not wanting to miss a word of the story. “Is that what you did?” she asked.
“No,” Aspen said, shaking her head. “I called Gillian and went off on Brain. I told her I hated him, and that he was an asshole and I never wanted to see him again. She listened to my rant and when she thought I was done, said, ‘Good riddance. Now you can find a man who appreciates you.’”
Devyn gasped. “She said that?”
“Yup. And my first reaction was basically horror.” She laughed.
“I laid into her, insisting that Brain did appreciate me. That he was hurt and not thinking straight. That she didn’t know the entire story about what had happened.
Then I heard her laughing. She knew I just needed to get my frustration and hurt out before I could plan what to do next. ”
Devyn wasn’t sure what Aspen was trying to say. Her furrowed brow must’ve communicated her confusion, because Aspen went on.
“My point is that Gillian helped me look at the situation in a different way. She let me rant and rave, then provided me the push I needed to get my shit together. We’re all here for you, Devyn.
We don’t know what’s going on with you, but we’re happy to listen when you’re ready to talk things through.
We might be able to provide a perspective you haven’t thought of before. You can trust us.”
Devyn swallowed hard. This was why she hadn’t left Killeen.
She’d come because Grover was here, but she’d stayed because she knew deep down that she’d found a group of friends who liked her just the way she was.
They hadn’t known her as the sickly kid she’d been long ago, so they didn’t treat her with kid gloves.
They’d come to enjoy being around her for who she was now.
“I know,” she said softly.