28. Sabre
Sabre
It’s late by the time we wind up our ride.
It has also been one of the best days I can remember.
Cory and I took the backroads and scenic byways, stopped to eat at a roadside diner, opting for the picnic tables outside.
We stopped at some small shops and just talked about our lives.
It wasn’t awkward, it was easy, free, and calming.
We laughed, we talked, and we kissed. Damn, that woman can kiss.
I’ve never known anyone like her before in my life.
She’s comfortable in her own skin and totally at ease with life.
She also manages to light up the whole room.
“You want a beer, Sabre?” she asks, making me smile.
“Actually, I’d like coffee. I’ve had enough alcohol, Cory. I don’t want to go back to that person,” she reaches up and kisses me quick on the lips—pulling back before I can deepen it.
“Go sit, kick off those boots and hang up your cut. I’ll bring us some coffee. I think I have some of Daphne’s banana bread in there.”
“I’ll find us a movie,” I offer, making her laugh. “As long as it’s not frozen. Cammie has watched that one so many times, I know what the characters are going to say before they even open their cute, animated mouths.”
“I was thinking more along the lines of Dirty Harry.”
“Oh, cool Clint Eastwood was hot when he was younger,” she purrs.
“No television. Got it,” I joke, making her laugh.
She comes in a few minutes later, immediately curling up on the sofa beside me. You wouldn’t believe this is the first time we’ve been out. Hell, I don’t believe it myself. It’s that easy between us.
“Everything okay? You seem like you’re thinking way too hard?” she asks.
I pick her up, causing her to cry out. I shift us around so I’m lying down, she’s against the back of the couch, she’s watching me as she’s pressed tightly against me, our legs tangling together.
“That’s better. I wanted you in my arms, but I needed to see your face while we talked.”
“That sounds ominous. I’m going to warn you, Sabre. This has been a really good first date. It might possibly be the best in my life, which is saying something. So, don’t screw it up.”
I laugh. “You got it, Cory.”
“Good boy. Now speak,” she quips with a challenge in her eye as she bites her lip to keep from laughing.
“I’m not a damn dog,” I mutter, shaking my head.
“Seriously, what are you thinking about?” she asks, and I can tell she’s worried about me. Other than my daughter, I can’t remember that happening since … Since before I went missing, and Latch and Annie decided … I shake those thoughts aside.
“That right there is something you aren’t allowed. Let me in on those thoughts,” she says, proving she’s intuitive and scary at knowing what’s going on with me.
“I think you get that I like you a lot, Cory.”
“We’re on kiss number four hundred tonight. So, I’m getting an inkling.”
“Are you counting?” I challenge, knowing she’s exaggerating, but I’m not sure it’s by much. I can’t get enough of her.
“Nah, just categorizing them. I’m an accountant. You had to know it would happen.”
“It’s nothing heavy. I was just thinking I haven’t felt this drawn to someone in years. Probably since my military days.”
“You mean Latch.”
I nod.
“Not even Annie? Something had to draw you to her to begin with, Sabre. Despite the pain of the past, you need to appreciate what you had before.”
“I loved her. She was sweet, innocent, na?ve and it fed my damn ego.”
“A man with an ego,” she sighs, kissing my chest. “Imagine that.”
“It wasn’t as deep as I loved Latch, but it was there. Latch and I had history. We fought side by side. We were brothers and I knew he loved me the same.”
“That’s beautiful and kind of sad. I mean, I imagine if you could have found satisfaction in each other’s arms things would have turned out differently for you both.”
“I’ve thought about that a lot over the years. Sometimes I even resented Annie. If I hadn’t met her though, I wouldn’t have Drew, Daphne or Cammie. Plus, Annie needed saving. So, I wouldn’t take anything back.”
“Then, why is it so heavy on your mind now?”
“If I tell you, it might make you run and that’s the last thing I want.”
“I’m too old to run, Sabre. I have a bad hip you’re safe.”
“I had an accident. I was missing for a while. Most everyone presumed I was dead—including Latch and Annie.”
“Okay …,” she says.
“When I got back home, I thought everything would go back to normal.”
“It didn’t?”
“Latch and Annie confessed that they loved one another. Annie said she didn’t feel comfortable sleeping with me, when it was only Latch that she wanted.
I can remember I was hurt, but not bad. I just kept looking at Latch and asked him how he felt.
He wouldn’t look me in the eye and fuck, that hurt.
He told me he loved Annie and if she didn’t want us all three to be together anymore, that’s what he wanted to. ”
“It felt like betrayal.”
“Because it was,” she says at once, but I shake my head.
“No. We were a unit the three of us. Neither of them brought in someone to replace me, they just didn’t want me anymore.”
“That’s not it and you know it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Just because there were three of you, it doesn’t mean that cutting you out wasn’t a betrayal, Sabre.
You told me the three of you had one rule.
After everyone was solid in what your relationship was, it was never just you and Annie, or Latch and Annie.
It was always supposed to be three of you.
You felt betrayal. I understand it, and you were right to feel it and be angry.
It’s one thing if they were finding solace in one another because they thought you died.
It’s quite another for them to determine they didn’t want you back.
I can’t imagine the devastation brought you. ”
“It did. I said a bunch of shit, that I can’t even remember.
I hurt Latch, because his betrayal cut me the most. I told him he betrayed me with my wife, that he wouldn’t even have been chosen by Annie or in her bed if it wasn’t for me.
I told him I’d never forgive him. I left that night, but I never expected he’d sign back up in the military and leave both me and Annie. ”
“Did you hear from him again?”
“He wrote Annie. Told her he couldn’t be with her anymore.
That he couldn’t handle the fact that he betrayed me and asked her to put her marriage back together.
We both tried. I think. It just wasn’t the same.
Annie began showing traits that I didn’t like.
The distance between us widened and I would have left, but she found out she was pregnant with Latch’s child.
We wrote him a letter, but he was out on a top-secret mission.
He never got it. His helicopter crashed before he got back to base. ”
“Does Daphne know she’s not your biological child?”
“Hell, no. She never will. I failed her a lot, but I’m going to make up for it. I’m getting better. I can be a good man for you, Cory.”
“You already are a good man, Sabre. I’m warning you though. I’m not into throuples or anything of the like. Not even just playing around. I’m too territorial.”
“Trust me, I learned my lesson. I should have done right by Annie and walked away instead of bringing her into a relationship and then introducing Latch into it when I discovered I couldn’t be happy without him.”
“They made their choices, too. You need to stop feeling guilty. You reacted as anyone would have. Latch made his choices to run away instead of talking to you—instead of staying. You need to give yourself some grace.”
“Cory, I should warn you, I’m going to move fast with you. I’m old, I’ve been through hell and back and I know how precious time is. I’m staking my claim on you loud and decisively right now.”
She laughs. “You’re in your fifties like me. That’s not old, Sabre. We’re just … well-seasoned.”
“I’m not so sure. I think I need to taste you before I can agree.”
“The bedroom is down the hall and the third door on the left,” she replies, shocking the hell out of me.
“Damn it, woman, you’re going to make me fall in love on our first date,” I growl standing up and throwing her over my shoulder as I stalk toward the bedroom.
“Dang, you discovered my plan,” she purrs, her hand going into the back of my pants and sliding against my ass.
She’s perfect.