Page 10 of Caged

Joining the Marines gave me an opportunity to crawl out from under my brothers’ shadows and grow into who I was meant to be. I didn’t regret choosing the military over college or a pro football career. And when I was finally ready to earn my degree, the Marines paid for it.

Stuck in my own head, I’d missed most of the conversation but the doorbell, alerting us to the pizza being delivered, caught my attention.

“Of course that got your attention,” Jack said.

“Fuck you, Jack.” It wasn’t my fault I was always hungry; it took a lot of effort, and a lot of calories, to stay in top fighting condition. I couldn’t best my brothers in any category, so I prided myself on being the biggest.

That, and being able to kick both their asses.

I guess there’s one category I can best them, unarmed combat.

Jack raised an eyebrow. “Who pissed in your beer?”

“No one. What do I owe you?” I asked, pulling out my wallet.

“Twenty each,” Jamie answered. “You can give it to Em.”

“Hell yeah, we should plan a girl’s night out with Jamie’s money.” Ashley chimed in as she grabbed the twenty out of my hand.

“That’s my twenty,” I teased her.

“Not anymore,” she teased back.

Ashley was hot, but knowing she’d hooked up with AJ made her a no-go for me. That and I wasn’t looking for a relationship, so sleeping with her would get me in trouble.

But it’s fun flirting with her.

Chapter 5

Jay

Igot up early Monday to pick up coffee. “Hey Ma,” I said as I walked into Grannie’s, the coffee shop she owned. “Can I get eight coffees, make that seven and one decaf Mocha?”

I figured I owed everyone an apology after it had been pointed out to me, no less than four times over the weekend, that my behavior was excessive and uncalled for.

Guys from my Raider team thought it was cool I’d be working with my family when I returned to civilian life, but that’s because they’d never suffered through the same lecture from their father and two older brothers, who also happened to be their bosses.

As if that didn’t suck enough—Dad told Ma.

The only thing worse than having my father correct my behavior with a stern, yet concerned, heart-to-heart, was sitting across the table from my mother and having her peer into my soul as she said, “I’m disappointed in you.”

I wasn’t proud of my behavior or putting myself in a position where they all felt the need to lecture me. One of the things I’d promised myself when I signed on to work at SSI was that I wouldn’t fall back into my old, negative patterns.

Doing a bang up job of that, Sheppard.

At dinner, I admitted I’d gone into the training session feeling like I needed to prove myself, but I refused to talk about why I felt that way.The mat is the one place I don’t feel ‘less than’ my brothers.

Or why I’ve seemed angry since coming home.

Six months earlier than expected. It had nothing to do with my family.

I was fairly confident my dad knew I felt like I didn’t measure up, but he never mentioned it. Not directly. Instead, he constantly reminded me I didn’t have to prove myself.

I didn’t necessarily feel the need to apologize to everyone for kicking their asses, losing was part of training, but how I did it was over-the-top. The coffee was my olive branch.

“Want some pastries, too?”

“Sure. Can you include some blueberry muffins?” I’d already eaten breakfast, but couldn’t say no to my favorite fresh baked pastry.

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