Chapter 2 #2
“He can protect more than just trees, Holl. Combat training doesn’t really leave you just because you’re not actively serving in the military anymore.” I would know.
“Well, since he can’t make it over, can I count on you to be there or not?”
“What about hiring a whole team?” I asked. “I can come, but it seems like you’ll want more than just me there.”
“The art gallery where the party is being held is pretty big. It has its own standard security, kitchen, cameras, that kind of thing, but not the type of security team that I’m hoping you’ll provide.”
“The type that keeps this a massive secret from her?”
I already had Hollis on speaker, so I could start looking up flights.
“If I hire some big ol’ private security beefcake to follow her around at the party, she’ll definitely know something’s up. That’s why I need you.”
“Because I’m not some big ol’ private security beefcake following her around, raising red flags?”
She laughed. “You might own a security company now, but you can fly in under the radar as an old friend finally showing up to support her.” I opened my mouth, but I didn’t have an answer for that.
Or a comeback. Or a real reason why I hadn’t come along a long time ago, other than the fact that the last couple of years I’d been off deployment had been mostly taken up by putting myself back together, while cutting my teeth in the private security sector.
“You should have come to support her before this,” Hollis had added.
“So, let me get this straight. You want me to show up to this party as if I’m only coming to congratulate her as a friend? When I’m really there to protect her from some creep she knows nothing about? This is shady as hell, Holl.”
“Then go for both reasons, and keep the second one to yourself.”
Hollis was asking for both normalcy and secrecy from me, which goes against how I want to live now.
Ever since leaving the SEALS, I’ve split my life into two parts, making two timelines that rarely, if ever, overlap.
My life before I joined the SEALs. Normal in every way.
Back when I lived in a fantasy land about what being a Navy SEAL might be like.
And then there’s everything that came after that.
I already saw how disappointed my parents were once I left the SEALs and came back home, but that was nothing compared to my own disappointment.
Hollis, to her credit, has never treated me differently a day in my life, regardless of which timeline we’re in.
It’s one of the things I love the most about her, actually, even if she drives me a little crazy.
The way she and I can slide back into being the same, no matter what phase of life we’re living, has always been nice.
She even gave me a hard time when I first got back, telling me I could unwrap all my own gifts that Christmas without help, even though half my body was strung up in a sling.
But I’d loved her for it. Normalcy was what I needed the most while everyone else who knew me from before was acting completely different.
Axel is the only other exception because he gets it, too.
But not Bailey. Although, to be fair, I haven’t even tested those waters out yet. Not because I think she would, but because I couldn’t bear it if she did.
We both had nearly impossible dreams to chase when we were younger.
Statistically, the odds of Bailey becoming a published author and me making it into the SEALs were about one in a million each.
But then, we’d done it. We’d achieved the impossible.
And, immediately, we both fell short for each other.
She was pissed when I left for SEAL training, and I hadn’t been there to congratulate her in person when her first book was published.
Then her second.
Third.
Followed by a few more.
When I was finally back in the country for good, I was stuck doing physical therapy outside of Boston. And then, for lack of a better way to put it, I was fucked up. Mentally, physically, and in every other way after what happened.
I found reasons to be busy when Bailey offered to come see me.
Like when she tried to get the four of us to come back to Cedar Shores for a lakeside reunion.
And eventually, after enough time passed, whether I meant to or not, I had formally cemented her place in the part of my life that existed before the SEALs.
But tonight? Coming to this party? One part ruse and one part congratulations? It puts Bailey back inside my current timeline, and just the thought of that riles me up.
Picturing her in some type of trouble, I’d hit confirm on the flight and told Hollis it was done.
She’d cheered so loud that I was glad she was already on speaker and not right in my ear. “Love you! The party starts at seven this Friday.”
“Two days from now, yeah, I’m aware. I’d already told Bailey that I wasn’t going to make it.”
“Welp, guess you’re going to have to change your RSVP, brother. And I say this respectfully, but you really need to put a lot more fun back into your life. Like, whoa. Fighting me about attending a party full of women? What else do you have going on that could be more fun?”
I’d managed to laugh at that since the thought of it was as stupid as it sounded.
“Yeah, I’m sure I’ll fit right in at the romance party. No one will suspect a thing.”
Hollis sounded over the moon. “I wish I could be there to see it, but Titus’ tantrums are bad enough right now to get him kicked off the set if I’m not here every waking moment to walk him back in. Fucking dipshit actor from hell,” she’d mumbled.
“I’ve got it handled, Holl. But the same goes for you about fitting some fun back into your life. I thought your therapist told you to take a vacation?”
“That was at least three years ago,” she deadpanned.
“And have you?” I asked, fully knowing the answer.
“Of course not,” she said, as if the idea of a vacation was outrageous. “Okay, send me a selfie and give Bailey a big hug for me. I mean it. But not too much of a hug. You know? Like maybe a strong side-pat or something.”
Just to annoy her, I assured my sister that I’d do whatever felt right with Bailey that night when I saw her, side-hug or full-on, whatever, before hanging up.
Now that I’m here, scanning the crowd, no one seems out of place or frothing at the mouth over the books piled up in the center of the room.
Everyone seems completely at ease, which accomplishes one half of the reason I’m here, but I have yet to see Bailey and give her that congratulations to fulfill the other half.
I pick up a copy of her new book and flip it over, curious what made the superfan write the emails, or choose Bailey to obsess over instead of any of the other popular authors out there . . . when a familiar laugh cuts through the crowd.
The sound of it makes me freeze.
And before I can even read the first line of the back cover, I tuck the book under my elbow to go locate the origin of a sound I haven’t heard in far too long.