Chapter 41
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE_
DECAF
It’s rare that Haz is awake and out of bed before me.
It’s even rarer that he wakes me with an offering of coffee.
Even when I was injured, I had to get my own damn coffee.
Which is why I know something’s up when I open my eyes and find him on his knees next to our bed with his hands cupped around a steaming mug of happiness.
“Am I dying?” I ask.
“Not yet,” he sings.
“But I will be later? Today … tomorrow … when? And why?” I nod toward the mug in his hands. “You’ve decided you don’t like Bali, so you’re poisoning me?”
“Not at all. I mean, look at this view. Why would I leave it?” He gestures to our balcony that overlooks our infinity pool and the leafy forest beyond it. “This is a peace offering.”
“I didn’t realize we were at war.”
His lips quirk. “Again, not yet.”
I sigh and sit up to reach for my coffee. “Is it a conscious decision to be vague until I have some caffeine?”
“It’s just smart.”
I drink half the mug in one go. “Okay, let me have it.”
“My mom arrives today, and I still haven’t told her we’re dating, and I’m going to go and let you sit with that.” He stands upright and slowly backs away, but he has a wide smile on his face. “I love you. If that counts for anything.”
I grit my teeth—for practice, because I know it’s going to be a long day of doing it—and force a smile. “I knew it was coming one day. I’m not worried.”
I’m fucking petrified. Not going to say that out loud, though. I’m going to play this as cool as I can until Sharryn stabs me to death. I wouldn’t fault her for it.
Haz narrows his eyes. “Okay, who are you, and where is my Decaf?”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m a chill guy.”
The smartass he is, looks around, like he can hear something that isn’t there. “Did you hear that? It’s the entire population of this island laughing at you.”
“Okay, fine. I’m not a chill guy.”
“What in the endless need for coffee are you talking about?”
I put the half-drunk coffee on the nightstand and reach for him to take my hand. He hesitantly steps forward, and as soon as our hands touch, I pull him down on top of me and roll us so he’s on his side and I’m sliding my thigh between his legs.
“I wouldn’t recommend we tell my mother about us in this way.”
I lift up on my elbow. “What? Is she here now?”
“No, but she will be soon. Her flight landed an hour ago, and she got a taxi.”
I scramble away from him and stand. “You didn’t offer to pick her up from the airport?”
“I figured buttering you up first was more important.”
I look for my pants, pulling them on while I teach my boyfriend about manners.
“You should have woken me up. Better yet, should’ve told me when you finally set solid plans for your mother visiting.
I knew this was coming, and I have a lot of groveling and asking for forgiveness to do before she will even accept I’m in your life, let alone … let alone …”
“If you can’t even say we’re a couple in front of me, I don’t have high hopes of you getting it out when Mom gets here.”
“I’m serious, Corey!”
“Oh no. You real named me. This is bad.” Yet, he’s still fucking smiling and finding amusement in stressing me out.
“Why is this funny? Is this a test? Is she not actually coming here?”
He steps toward me. “She is. But I thought it would be fun to let you think she doesn’t know about us. She does. She’s had a whole plane ride across the globe to get used to the idea.”
“Even more reason that we should’ve gone to pick her up. She wouldn’t have been able to bring a weapon on a plane. Now, she could’ve already bought one to end me.”
Haz laughs hard now. “She’s not going to end you. Interrogate you, maybe, but not end you.”
“You’re not making me feel any better about this at all.”
“Drink the rest of your coffee. I’m going to wait out the front for her.”
“I don’t think I can have coffee right now.” I rub my chest. “How fast is too fast when it comes to your heart rate?”
I can down seven coffees a day, and my heart rate stays even. The thought of facing my best friend’s wife again when our whole interaction in the last twenty years was me ratting out her son? The son I am now in a relationship with and planning to spend the rest of our lives together?
So this is what a heart attack feels like.
Interesting.
Haz cups my cheeks. “Everything is going to be fine. You know why?”
“Why?” I whisper, trying to take deep breaths.
“Because my mom trusts me, and once upon a time, she trusted you too.”
“And I fucked it up. She’s never going to be okay with this.”
He smiles again. “She is. Because she has to be. If she wants to see me again, even if she doesn’t approve, she has to act okay with it.”
“You wouldn’t threaten that … you couldn’t. You need her in your life.”
“I need you more,” he says, his voice low. “She did her job. I’m an adult—one who has a pretty good head on his shoulders—”
“Mm, that’s questionable, but keep going.”
He huffs. “She’s raised me. She’s done needing to protect me.
Now, she just has to respect me, and that includes respecting who I choose as my partner.
I don’t agree with what she did all those years ago, making you leave me, but I’m kinda glad she did.
If you had helped raise me, there is no way we’d be here now. Like this. Like my father had planned.”
“You still think your dad pulled some strings with fate or the universe?”
“No. But it’s a nice thought, right?”
Yeah, it is. One I’m going to cling to in the same way he is. Whether Jesse is still my wingman up in heaven or it’s the easiest way for Haz and me to move on from our grief and resentment, it doesn’t matter in the big scheme of things.
Our doorbell chimes.
“She’s here!” Haz sings and heads downstairs to the entry of our villa.
And this is where I die.
Moving to Bali was a mistake. There’s no one here to defend me against Haz’s mother. The closest person is Kevlar, who moved to New Zealand.
All of us in Mike Bravo scattered around the globe when we began our new lives.
Iris and Saint did end up moving to Switzerland, although last time I checked in with them, Iris is still a long way off becoming a snowboard instructor.
Saint was nice enough to send photos. Trav and Rogue are settled on their island off Montenegro.
Alphabet moved off Trav’s island but is still in Montenegro.
Ghost moved to Spain. Domino, Angel, and Proxy stayed with the Eleven crew, but the band moved to the UK to ensure the safety of the kids.
Zeus and his family are still in Ecuador, and then Scout was the last to leave Trav’s island.
After he was fully healed, he decided to live everywhere and nowhere.
He’s a traveling nomad and has plans to come see us in a few months.
We may be apart, but we’re still a team. We will always be family. We’re just … finding our new paths.
And all of my paths lead to Haz.
I will do anything for that man. Even grovel to his mother.
I head downstairs, my body rigid but my heart pounding, and I prepare for the worst kind of reception. I catch sight of them in an embrace. When she pulls back, she pats the dog tags hanging around his neck. Jesse’s tags.
I don’t want to interrupt the moment, but the damn creaky stair I’ve been meaning to fix rats me out.
Instead of yelling when she sees me, Sharryn steps forward, meeting me at the bottom of the stairs, and opens her arms. I flinch because I’m sure she has weapons in her hands, but no. She’s going in for a hug.
“Uh, eeh, ee ee.” I’m sure that’s English. The hug is so awkward. Like, where do I put my hands? Do I rub her back? Pat her like she’s a dog?
Before I can really do anything, she pulls out of my arms and looks me in the eye as she says the last thing I’m fucking expecting. “Thank you.”
Over her head, I can see Haz smiling.
“Thank you?” I croak.
“For being there for my son. For saving him. For loving him.”
That guilt over failing to do the same for her husband hits like a thousand needles to my heart. “I won’t fuck it up this time.”
She pats my cheek. “I know you won’t.”
“You do?”
With a smile that scares the crap out of me, she says, “Because if you do, I might have to kill you.”
“If I fuck it up, I give you permission.”
“Good man.” She walks past me, lugging her suitcase behind her as she heads for the stairs, and I know I should step in here and help her, be the good son-in-law…
I shudder at that notion. Son-in-law to someone my own age.
Fucking hell. But I’m frozen. Because I can’t be sure this is actually happening. “Oh, and one more thing…”
Here we go.
I turn to her.
“You didn’t fuck up with Jesse. You were just the closest thing I had to lash out at because fuck knows the military wouldn’t listen.
I’m sorry for the way I treated you, sorry for hating you for all those years so I didn’t hurt as much, and I’m sorry you thought you had to stay away from Corey as long as you did.
On the bright side, you have all the time in the world to make up for it now, so … you’re welcome?”
Like mother, like son, I guess. She sounds just like him. But that weight on my chest? Regret, despair, all those emotions Haz already tried to free me from? It didn’t actually happen until right this moment.
I’m free of it all.
Haz embraces me from behind. “See? I told you she was okay with it.”
“Did that really just happen?” I turn in his arms and pull him close.
“It did.”
“H-how? I mean … why now?”
He leans in, his lips barely brushing against mine. “Because you’ve given me everything I could’ve ever dreamed of, so I wanted to do the same for you. You deserve to let go of the past and be happy.”
I can’t stop the tears welling in my eyes, because I never thought I’d feel this way again: hopeful. Fulfilled. Whole.
And I owe it all to him.