Page 84 of Major Love

Casey stares at me blankly. “Sunday, he’s a guy.”

Apparently that’s the extent of his argument.

I bypass the fact that it was also my time of the month because it’s not a necessary detail to share with my brother. Instead, we talk about how Haven and Tuck are doing.

“We had a call two days ago,” Casey says softly, and I already know everything because Haven and I text all the time. But I snuggle down and listen, because I’m always grateful to hear Casey’s voice. “Tuck was doing real good. And Haven was almost a hundred-percent, too.”

“You missing them?” I ask gently.

His chest heaves. “All the time.”

Then come home, I want to tell him, but we’ve had this conversation before. I know my brother will only retire when he’s good and ready. When our step-father passed, Casey felt even stronger about continuing his legacy, and, now that I think about it, I guess I did, too.

Only, unlike my moving to Nashville, Casey’s duty is unbearably risky.

“How about you? You recovering?” he asks.

I nod, cuddling a pillow against my chest. “Yeah, I’m almost fully recovered.”

“And Jace… he’s looking after you?”

I have to smile at that. Now that Casey knows that Jason and I didn’t hook up while I was staying here, he’s been promoted back to ‘Jace’, rather than ‘Coleson’.

“Yeah,” I admit, my voice rasping a little. “He’s been way too good to me,” I add, wincing at the memory of last night.

I mean, it was freaking Valentine’s Day, and Jason still came back to take care of me – cooking me dinner and making me drinks when he probably wished he was on a date.

I have to admit, Jason did come home a lot later last night, making me think that maybe hehadactually been on a date. Plus, when he came home, he went up to his room for a hot minute, and his body language was a little tense when he came to see me before going to bed.

I don’t know if it’s because he was bummed about us missing the Valentine’s screening, or if he had a steamy date in town that he had to cut short, but either way I could tell that Jason was on edge – and honestly I’ve felt a little guilty about that all morning.

And I can’t help but blurt it all out as Casey watches me with his steady gaze.

“I think he might have had a date last night,” I say hoarsely, feeling a pang of envy. I mean, Jason is a totally gorgeous single guy in his thirties – of course he had a date on Valentine’s Day!

Casey’s frown deepens. “Jace?” he asks sceptically.

I peek up at him warily. “Why’re you saying it like that?”

Casey clasps his fist in his hand, watching it as he carefully chooses his words. “A date on Valentine’s Day is a pretty intense thing to do,” he says cautiously.

I drop my head to the pillow and groan. “Oh God, that’s exactly what I thought, too,” I whimper.

“Sunday, what I mean is… Jace wouldn’t do that. Whenever we were in town at the same time from our deployment breaks… he wasn’t settling down. He had no intentions of starting anything, not when he knew he’d be back on base a month later.”

“Casey, Jason isn’tinthe Army anymore,” I remind him.

“I know that, Sunday. But I just don’t think it’s something that he’d do.”

“And why exactly is that?”

“Because he’d only do that with you.”

I blink at him for a couple of moments, the only sound in the room coming from my little heater. The world outside the window is sparkling white and snow-silent.

“No way,” I say finally. “And you were just getting all growly about the idea of him being with me, anyway!”

“If y’all were just hooking up,” Casey rumbles. “But you’re talking about dating, Sunday. And that’s something that Jason would only wanna do with you.”

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