Page 51 of Crashing Waves

Dad assessed me with a curious eye, as if trying to figure me out. His gaze narrowed, but I stood stoic,unwavering, until he cleared his throat and nodded his chin once.

“You’ve done well,” he finally said, and before I could react, he turned on his heel to leave the room, entering the hallway that led to his office.

And I stood there, my jaw slack, pathetically on the verge of tears once again. But this time, they weren’t out of rejection or pain. No. This time, it was happiness.

Thrilledto have finally done somethingright.

***

My sisters and I met up with Ricky at a local burger joint.

At some point, he’d grown a beard and started to hit the gym in the mornings before he went to work at the local McDonald’s. He’d been made manager some months ago, and although I wasn’t sure if it was a position he’d intended to keep long-term, he was doing well, looked good, and I was happy for him for all of two minutes before I noticed the way Lucy looked at him when he approached the table.

“Hey,” he said, sitting beside her.

He smiled, allowing his eyes to linger on her for a moment too long before casting that grin across the table at Grace and me.

I narrowed my glare at him, suspicious of what exactly my best friend had been up to since I’d last been home. I knew he’d broken up with Molly at some point. I knew the split had been amicable, with no hard feelings between them, and I knew he’d grown pretty close with my sisters. I’d been okay with that. He’d been keeping aneye on them for years at my request, and naturally, they were bound to get, at the very least, friendly with each other. But suddenly, I was questioning justhowfriendly they’d become.

“Hey,” I replied, my tone cold and even.

“Damn, dude. You’re making me feel underdressed,” he said, gesturing toward my dress uniform. “I should’ve worn the suit I got for my granddad’s funeral.”

Despite my curiosity and skepticism, I found my laugh easily. “I didn’t have time to change.”

“Nah, man, it’s all good. I like it. Makes me feel special, like you got all dressed up for me.”

Grace laid a hand against my shoulder. “Doesn’t he look fancy?”

Lucy nodded, and it could’ve just been in my mind, but I thought I noticed her lean closer to Ricky.

“Veryhandsome, Max,” she agreed. “Even Daddy was impressed.”

The reminder was enough to set her closeness to my best friend on the back burner, and my chest puffed with a sense of pride I’d never felt before in my life. Ricky glanced at me, barely looking into my eye, and I thought I caught a hint of disapproval in his gaze.

We ordered our food—burgers and fries all around—and we started to talk about this and that when my cell phone began to ring. Few people had my number, outside of my sisters and Ricky, and I pulled it out of my breast pocket with the hope that it was Laura, only to find Sid’s name on the glowing screen of my Nokia.

“Who’s that?” Ricky asked, his brows waggling suggestively.

“Ooh, is that Laura? Tell her to come down,” Grace added.

I shook my head and tucked the phone back into my pocket. “It’s someone else. I can call back later—"

The phone began to ring again, and I groaned. It was just like Sid to call repeatedly until I finally answered, and I surveyed the table with an apology as I hit the button to accept the call.

“This is Sergeant Tailor,” I answered through gritted teeth, annoyed with him, but not entirely understanding why.

I guessed maybe I didn’t want my military life to infiltrate this rare time I had with the people from home.

Sid snorted on the other line. “So official, Sergeant. I’m gonna guess you’re still in uniform too.”

“What’s the reason for this call, Corporal?” I grumbled, glancing around the table and noticing the curious glances from my sisters and Ricky.

“I was just wondering if you had anything going on. My brother’s sick with some sniffly bullshit, my mom’s busy with … whatever the hell she’s doing, and my uncle is sleeping, so I’m kinda bored out of my damn mind.”

Sighing, I ran a hand over my hair. I had said we could hang out while I was at home—hell, Iwantedto. But I hadn’t expected it to happen the first night I was back. Still, I felt guilty, thinking about him on his own when he should’ve been spending time with people who cared that he was home.

“Give me a second,” I said, then held the phone to my shoulder as I asked the table, “Would you guys mind if I invited a friend of mine?”

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