Page 12 of Long Hard Fall

They’d joked and chatted about everything from the food at the bar and grill to the cantankerous hotel owner who’d offered to introduce her to his grandson. Cash had gone to school with him and had regaled her with stories of their pranks. No personal topics had been touched on. Cash was an expert at that and she hadn’t seemed to mind.

The smile had been wiped off her face this morning and he missed it.

“I don’t mind meeting with her, if it’ll make her feel better,” Dillon said. “It’s the least I can do. I’ll always feel a little responsible.”

And Cash would always feel a whole lot responsible. The situation with Abbi had taken up way too much time this morning.

“Well,” Cash jumped off the tailgate, “the beans ain’t gonna thrash themselves.”

“Cash…”

He called over his shoulder. “Go home, clean up, spend some time with Elle.”

Dillon took care of everyone else first. Cash didn’t want to be the curse on another relationship.

Seriously, Abigail.

She scowled at her phone as she sat cross-legged on her bed in her hotel room. Ellis had texted the message after she’d hung up on him.

He chastised her behavior and he wasn’t even here. Why did he always think he was the measuring stick that everything should be compared to?

How had she tolerated it?

The answer came quickly. Her parents. They liked him so much, and they’d liked the change in her when she’d started dating him.

Abbi had liked Ellis and how grounded he’d made her feel. She was honest enough with herself to know she’d been growing out of control. Her partying was going to hurt her one day, and she’d needed to grow up.

So she’d settled into a relationship with the new man in her life. He’d accompanied her everywhere, probably because he didn’t trust her. The drinks and laughter would flow while he glowered at her and hinted it was time to get home. After a year of dating, her wild child was put into the corner for a timeout. She hadn’t seen near as much of her friends, and she and Ellis had spent all their time together.

Abbi recalled those suffocating days and the moment she’d resolved to break it off. She had just graduated from college and Ellis had “surprised” her with an apartment to move into together.

Living with Ellis. The idea had crashed reality down hard. Live the rest of her life feeling suppressed and under constant scrutiny? Nope. It had been time to break up with her handler.

Then her parents had called, and life had stopped on a dime.

Perry was gone.

Abbi blinked away tears. God, she still missed him. He hadn’t liked Ellis, thought he was too pretentious and had noticed Abbi wasn’t as happy as she used to be.

“He’s not right for you, Abs,” Perry had said after he’d met Ellis.

Oh, but her parents had loved him and how could Abbi shove Ellis away from them after they’d lost Perry?

The next three years hadn’t been bad. She’d been too devastated to care about what anyone thought, and she’d begrudgingly admit that Ellis had been a huge support. Too much time had lapsed and Ellis’s support had turned into a crutch. The longer she leaned on him, the more he thought she couldn’t adequately function without him.

But she’d been coming out of her fog, pushing back against Ellis and his wishes more and more. The weekend she’d spent going through Perry’s belongings before she’d decided on a trip to Moore had been more than cathartic. It’d brought up all the questions her parents had had over the years. The ones that had gone unanswered. No one from Perry’s old unit had ever stopped by to talk to them, having said their good-byes before Perry’s body came home.

A tear dripped onto her phone and she wiped it away.

Seriously, Abigail.

As serious as death, Ellis, she finally texted back.

She wanted to talk to the men Perry had been the closest to. Wanted to know if Perry had known his family loved and missed him. Wanted to know how Perry had been. He hadn’t sounded like her jovial brother the few times she’d gotten to talk on the phone with him when he was over there. His letters and emails had grown shorter and shorter and hinted at despondence.

Then the last phone call, he’d been Perry again. Told her to be true to herself. She’d asked him what that meant.

“Come on, Abs. You’ve become boring as fuck. Lose the jackass and have some fun. It’s all going to be all right.”

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