Page 76 of My Fiancé's Brother 2

I could feel how upset he was. I thought about the little kid who moved between Ted and Harry and Irene’s place. The kid who got no love and no commitment from anyone. I was starting to gain a better understanding of who my husband was. He may not love me, but damn if I was going to be the next person in line to abandon him. My voice was quiet. “And you got home, and I wasn’t there.”

He didn’t answer. He just looked unbelievably intense. I had expressly promised Jackson that I'd be there when he got back. How was I supposed to know that he would be coming back after only two days?

“Chloe is at the dog sitter in Newport,” I said. “I'd never leave Chloe behind.”

His green gaze just bore into me. The corner of one of his eyes twitched, the only indication that he had heard me.

“Matt is squatting in the loft. With Julie. We have to extract them tomorrow.”

He let out a slow breath. “Chloe is in Newport?”

“Yes.”

“With a dog sitter?”

“She was too sick to travel with me. I'd never leave her behind, Jackson. You know that. I wasn’t running away. I just had to leave to take care of this mess here. I was coming back.”

He looked away from the camera for a long time and then looked back to me. He had pulled himself together. All emotion had been erased from his face. “Okay.”

I let out pent-up air from my lungs. “Sorry that you came home to find me gone.”

He looked down and took a deep breath. Then he raised his green eyes to mine. “Why don’t you tell me what’s going on with Matt.”

I explained the situation and how we were going to evict Matt in the morning.

Jackson looked grim. “I can’t leave the base since I’m on standby, but I can go get special leave. I can be there by tomorrow night.”

Guilt rushed through me. This man was always willing to drop everything to take care of me. “We'll be done taking care of this by tomorrow afternoon. I can be home by tomorrow night.”

He stared into the camera at me. “I don’t like it.”

“My lawyer is helping me. We have to get this done.”

He rubbed his face. “Emily.”

I nodded. “I can do this. Everything is organized.”

He stared at me, thinking. “You don’t want to wait until I get there?”

I chewed on my nail. I wanted to prove to him that I was a strong military wife. “I can handle this.”

“Do you want me to pick up Chloe?”

My eyes filled with tears. “She would love that. I’ll text you the address. You can’t let her out of your sight. She can’t eat anything off the ground. You can’t just let her out in the backyard. You have to watch her at all times.”

“Okay.”

We stared at each other for another long minute. “I’m sorry you got home, and I wasn’t there.”

He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter.”

My husband’s defense. I could tell that coming home to an empty house had upset him a great deal. I also knew that he'd never admit that it had bothered him. I was starting to understand him a bit better. “Okay. I will call you tomorrow when it is over.”

We stared at each other and then he nodded. “Okay.”

And then the screen went black.

CHAPTER 26

---