Page 42 of Tactical Lies

“Is it really too late?” Jax asked. “I saw how she was while she was here. She kept sneaking glances over at you like she needed to check you were still there.”

“Looked at you like she wanted to glue herself to your side,” Cole added.

“Wishful thinking there, bro,” Connor said, sure both were wrong. He’d asked Becca if she could give him another chance and she hadn't said she could or would. It was hard not to believe that what happened on the plane, her letting him comfort her, was anything but a fluke.

“I don’t think so,” Jax contradicted.

A weary sigh heaved its way out of his chest, and Connor let his head dip until it rested in his hands. It had taken everything left in him not to demand to be the one to drive Becca out to the cabin and spend that last little bit of time with her. But she hadn't asked him to, and she seemed comfortable with Susanna and Willow, so when the two women had offered to go along for the drive he hadn't spoken up.

Neither had Becca.

“Look, she told me she’d been engaged, okay? I think it’s pretty clear that she’s moved on, and honestly, I don’t deserve a second chance anyway.” It sucked saying that, but it was absolutely the truth.

“Did I deserve a chance with Susanna after how badly I treated her?” Cole asked. If there was one thing you could say about the Charleston brothers, it was that none of them shied away from admitting when they’d done the wrong thing.

“What Cole is saying is that love isn’t always logical,” Cooper said. “I fell for Willow quicker than I could ever have believed you could develop feelings for another person. But when it’s right, it’s right, and whatever obstacles get in the way, no matter how big and seemingly insurmountable they are, you can find a way over them, or through them.”

Normally he would agree with that.

But the obstacles he’d placed between himself and Becca were so big that he didn't believe there was space to squeeze anywhere around them, over them, beneath them, or even through them.

August 20th

8:54 A.M.

It was beautiful out there.

Becca knew she’d made the right choice in agreeing to stay at Cade’s cabin.

It would have been so easy to keep her distance from the entire Charleston Holloway family, to insist that while she agreed she might be in danger and needed protection, someone else could do it.

There wasn't a doubt in her mind that if she had insisted she wanted nothing to do with any of them, they would have set her up with someone else from Prey to play bodyguard. No one in the family would ever seek to control her or force her to do something she wasn't comfortable with.

But that was the thing.

Shewascomfortable with the family.

For most of her life, she’d thought that one day they would be her family.

It had always seemed like a foregone conclusion because she’d loved Connor, and he’d loved her back. Why wouldn't they wind up happily living out the rest of their lives side by side? There was no way she could have guessed what the future held for her.

Despite the … uneasiness … between her and Connor, as soon as she saw his brothers, it felt like no time had passed. They’d all slipped back so easily into the relationships they’d had back then. They were like more siblings, they made her life better, and she truly wished she hadn't cut them out of her life along with Connor.

Maybe at first, she’d needed the distance, but once the pain of betrayal had dulled she could have reached out and re-established contact. It wouldn't have been fair to Connor though. It would have been asking his own family to choose between the two of them, and she would never have done anything to take away his support system. He loved his family, and he’d needed them because even in the darkest days of her pain, she’d known that her rape had affected him, too. She’d had a support system, and he’d had his own. Back then, it had been best to keep them separate, but now …

Now she wasn't sure.

Now she didn't want to let any of those men go again. She wanted their friendship back and she already liked Willow, Susanna, and little Essie’s nanny, Gabriella. They were all women she could see herself being friends with, and they loved the Charleston Holloway family as much as she did.

Would it be fair to keep in contact with Connor’s family regardless of what happened between the two of them?

Did she even know what she wanted to happen?

Scooping up her cup of coffee, Becca stood and headed out the kitchen door to the wraparound porch. Immediately, warm air wrapped around her like a soothing blanket. It was the perfect temperature, not too hot, but cozily warm. Later this afternoon she might rethink that once the temperature heated up, but for now, it was lovely out.

A gentle breeze sent her loose hair fluttering around her face as she headed for a huge porch swing and cuddled into it. She tucked her legs up beneath her and looked out into the trees surrounding the cabin, birds chattered, and she’d spotted a deer while eating breakfast. Butterflies and dragonflies danced about, and she could see bees buzzing around the flowers that dotted the landscape, turning it into a colorful living painting.

Tears blurred her eyes.

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