Page 166 of Major Love

“Yeah, little scoop,” Case murmurs. “I’m staying.”

Sunday’s shoulders shake as she presses the heels of her palms into her eyes.

And then she’s pulling back from her brother and blinking quickly up at him.

“How?” she asks breathlessly. “Did you get an honorary discharge? Did you quit?”

Case shakes his head, placing his free hand on her shoulder. “It’s been in the works for a while now. Knew I didn’t want to be away much longer.”

And then he carefully manoeuvres Tuck down from his shoulder, silently signifying exactly why Case thought it was time to leave.

Because he has a wife, and a kid, and he doesn’t want to let him grow up without his dad.

Casey went through that before Cash was in the picture and, even then, there was a lot of time without him. When you serve, it’s a way of life, and Case has been planning on leaving his post for a while now.

He was out there for a long time – he deserves to be with his family.

“You’ve been planning this?” Sunday asks, her eyes shimmering with hope as she looks up at him.

“For a couple years,” he rumbles quietly. “You know how long the procedures can be. Then this happened” – he gestures to his bandaged arm – “and, I mean, I guess the timing was prettyperfect. It was due to be my last mission anyway – why not get sent home a little early?”

“Casey,” Sunday sniffles, and Case smirks, pulling her in for another hug. “Is that why you bought yourself the bar?” she asks raspily. “Because you knew that you were going to leave the Army?”

Case looks down at her, searching her eyes.

“Kind of,” he says slowly. “I bought it because I knew I was leaving the Army. But you’ve got one detail wrong.”

“And what’s that?” Sunday giggles gently.

“I bought the bar for you.”

Sunday’s jaw drops to her boots and she lifts her hands to her cheeks, her eyes unblinking.

“You… you…what?!” she exclaims, carefully moving one of her palms to touch his bandaged arm – cautious enough that he doesn’t even wince, just accepting the support and familial affection.

“I knew that you were thinking about selling the place in Nashville,” Case admits, “and I thought getting this place might be a decent incentive for you coming here. To run this bar, and come home.” He shrugs his good shoulder. “But it’s up to you.”

Sunday’s eyes search her brother’s, an amazed smile tugging at her lips as she shakes her head.

“You bought me a bar?” she whispers up at him, disbelievingly.

“I mean, it’s yours if you want it,” Case rumbles quietly, and then an almost-smile touches his mouth before Sunday bursts into laughter and pulls him into another hug.

“Oh, wait! Wanna see the name sign?” Sunday asks him, stepping back and gesturing to a wrapped board leaning against one of the booths behind her.

Case glances toward it, before taking a quick inventory of the space around us – the rich wood, the warm string-lights, andthe smiling faces whose laughter is gently muffled beneath the country music from the speakers – and then he nods, leaning down for Tucker’s hand as they walk over to the table.

And before Sunday can try to lift it, I’m right behind her, heaving it up.

It’s fucking huge and the embossed timber weighs a tonne, and she spins around in the cage of my biceps, smiling teasingly up at me as I drop the large sign on top of the table.

I grunt quietly and wipe my palms down the sides of my jeans, before tugging her toward me and meeting her smile with mine.

“Enough of that,” Case says gruffly, but Sunday just laughs as she kisses my cheek.

“Open it,” Sunday says to him and, after hesitating a moment, he steps up to it.

He lifts Tuck onto the edge of the table and gestures for him to help him unwrap the paper, Tuck on the right side and Case working on the left.

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