Page 271 of Come Back to Me

“And then, you fall deeper for that person and you start to love them. Not the long-distance love that could be destroyed once the reality of life gets in the way, but honest to Godlove. Wouldn’t you be scared? Especially when that person looks at you the way you looked at her, and yet what you have together is a secret. A secret you asked for, but suddenly, it’s a curse and not a blessing.

“Suddenly, you regret keeping things quiet. You wish you’d ripped off the Band-Aid. But that person seemed so okay with keeping it a secret that you’re trapped... It’s a vicious cycle.

“And, at her heart, she’s still raw from the ‘Dear John’ letter. She wants to tell the world because her love is so big she doesn’t want to contain it anymore, but how do you rip off that Band-Aid when it’s been going on for weeks?—”

My throat bobs. “Almost two months.”

She tsks. “It’s natural that she’s scared.”

“When you put it like that...”

A soft laugh escapes her. “I’m not the wisest woman in the world, but if I can offer anything, it’s common sense.”

Before I can thank her, my cell buzzes. I grit my teeth when I see Bree’s name on my caller ID.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Pressing a kiss to the crown of her head, I murmur, “Thank you for helping, Mum.”

“Always here if you need me,” she says, tone wistful. “I used to dream about being the one you came to with girl troubles…”

“She’s the only girl who matters.”

“Good boy,” she praises.

“I have to take this.”

Her nose wrinkles, but she shrugs. “I’ll leave you to it, just don’t forget it’s your brother’s day.”

The urge to ignore the call is one I don’t want to fight.

The last thing I want is to miss Cole’s wedding or to leave Tee here when that conversation was so weird between us. I’d wanted to dance with her later, dammit, and tease Colt for drooling over Zee at the ceremony, as well as give Callan a Xanax to calm him down…

Just as the temptation to throw caution to the wind hits me, as the resentment at never being off-duty, at being needed even on my brother’s most special of days, Bree calls me again.

Dammit to hell.

“Report,” I bark as a greeting.

“A three-man team was found trying to breach the perimeter of one of the bunkhouses.”

“Where are they?”

“The detachment.”

“Shit.”

“No, it would have been shit if we hadn’t caught them,” she says wryly.

The tension in my shoulders doesn’t abate even if our security handled and neutralized the threat. “Do you know which woman they were after?”

“Not yet. Marty is waiting for you to talk to them.”

“Fuck.”

“Sorry to ruin the big day.”

“Least I got to see the goddamn nuptials.”

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