Operation 20 Healing Ground #3
Fox turned the beer bottle slowly between his hands. “I’m not gonna tell you to forgive Furi. That ain’t my relationship, ain’t my bed, or my wound.”
Syn glanced at him.
Fox met his eyes. “He hurt you. You’re allowed to be hurt.”
The words landed with more force than Syn expected. His brother wasn’t lecturing him or pushing him. Just someone finally acknowledging his feelings were warranted and mattered.
Fox’s voice eased but stayed confident. “Furi made a bad choice with the best intentions. Then he followed you to Ro’s and stood there with his heart in his hands while you gave him your back.
I’m not judging it. But don’t mistake your hurt as proof that you shouldn’t forgive him… or that you don’t still love him.”
The sun slid lower, and the pasture turned a breathtaking bronze around the edges.
“Well, that’s all I got.” Fox stood, stretching his back. “Come on. I’m starving. Amelia makes the best pot roast you’ll ever eat, and Dale is a selfish bastard. He’ll be on thirds before you even lift your fork to your mouth, so we better not be late.”
Dinner at Fox and Bull’s table was the best time he’d had since his team had broken up.
Syn hadn’t expected that.
He’d expected food, small talk, maybe Bull’s family being careful of how they acted around company, pretending not to know why he was there.
Instead, the dining room turned into absolute mayhem with borderline offensive manners and award-winning gravy.
Fox and Bull sat at opposite heads of the long table. Amelia was in the seat nearest the kitchen, Bull’s father sat beside her, Dale and Rid took one side, and Syn sat across from them where he could see the whole loud mess.
A mostly devoured platter of pot roast sat in the center of the table, surrounded by bowls of mashed potatoes, roasted carrots, asparagus—that made Syn almost laugh out loud when he saw them—and hot rolls.
Dale and Rid seemed to find plenty to fuss at each other about. Bull’s father went on about the headlines he’d read in his newspaper, which everyone ignored. And Amelia told Syn twice that he looked like he needed more potatoes, as she continued to pile them high on his plate.
Better them, than those damn asparagus.
He ate…and ate…and ate.
Not to appease anyone, but because the food and the company were so good.
They let him laugh and listen to the noisy joy of a family.
At one point Rid leaned across Dale to ask him if he was interested in riding lessons. “Fox said Nimbus seemed to really like you.”
Syn almost said an immediate no but then lifted a brow. “I hadn’t thought about it. Um, maybe I’ll try it.”
Fox nodded, a wide grin spreading his lips. “Be down here at five-thirty. Breakfast is at six sharp, and lessons start at seven.”
“I don’t trust a man who don’t wake before dawn. What kinda lazy sap gets up at noon and just steps into his britches and boots like half the day ain’t already over?” Bull’s father said out of nowhere. “Just stay in the damn bed.”
It was so fucking random, Syn laughed until he had to look down at his plate.
Something in him loosened another notch.
After dinner, Syn showered in the guest bathroom and climbed into the comfortable bed beneath the worn-soft quilt.
The room was quiet. Not city quiet…real quiet. The only sound was crickets chirping and wind flowing.
Syn lay on his back for an hour listening to the nothing as Fox’s words continued to circle.
Furi made a bad choice, with the best intentions. Then he followed you to Ro’s and stood there with his heart in his hands while you gave him your back.
Syn closed his eyes.
He saw Furi standing at Ro’s patio door.
He’d heard the break in his voice when he apologized. Heard him say he’d hated that he gave strangers what was Syn’s. Heard him put his blood pressure pills, multivitamins, protein bars, and peppermint tea on Ro’s kitchen counter like some love-infused care package.
Syn pressed the heels of his palms to his eyes.
After another long hour, he reached for his phone on the nightstand.
He hovered his thumb over Furi’s contact, labeled My World, staring at the screen until his vision blurred.
“Fuck. I miss you so goddamn much,” he whispered into the silence.
He pressed call before his pain could talk him out of it.
The phone barely completed one rang.
“Corbin.”
Furi’s voice was hoarse and raw as if he hadn’t spoken in days.
Syn closed his eyes.
For a few seconds, neither of them said anything.
Furi inhaled softly. “Are you okay?”
Syn swallowed. “No.”
More silence.
“Ro told me where you are.”
Syn rolled his eyes. Of course he did.
He stared at the ceiling fan turning above him.
“I pray you’re finding peace out there.”
Syn’s throat tightened until it throbbed.
He turned his head on the pillow, staring out of the dark window.
“You’re my peace.”
Furi’s breathing was shallow. “Corbin. Please.”
Syn shut his eyes. “Don’t.”
No more apologizing, no more pleading. That wasn’t why he’d called.
Another long silence stretched between them, taut as wire.
Furi spoke first.
“I didn’t call because you asked for space.”
“I know.”
“I wanted to.”
“I know.”
“Every minute, of every day.”
Syn bit his bottom lip to keep it from trembling.
“Love,” Furi said softly.
Syn’s eyes burned as he turned onto his side, phone pressed tight to his ear. “I can’t promise I won’t be angry tomorrow.”
“I’ll still take tomorrow.”
“You can’t lie to me ever again.”
“I won’t.”
He could hear when Furi stopped breathing. Waiting. Holding himself still on the other end as though one wrong sound might scare him back into silence.
Before he knew it, his heart overruled his mind. “Come here.”
Furi gasped before he blurted, “I’ll be there in an hour.”
Syn nodded despite Furi not being able to see him. “Drive safe.”
There was another long pause, until he ended it by hanging up.
He laid with the phone against his chest, his heart hammering as if it was trying to escape.