Page 46 of If This is Love

Luke chewed his bottom lip and cast a glance in the same direction, but if he was thinking something about that, he didn’t let it show much. “Okay, bruh. I’ll bring you a plate later.”

I gave him a firm shoulder pat and turned to Chloe, fighting my foul-as-fuck mood to give her the nicest smile I was capable of. “I heard last night you qualified for sainthood.”

Chloe chortled and reached to squeeze the side of my arm. “I wouldn’t go that far, but yeah.” She held out her hand between us to show me the ring on her slender finger. Luke had done a stellar job choosing. It was a simple, traditional, round cut on a high quality stone, not ridiculously large but a respectable size. Smaller stones were inlaid all the way around the band, but because Luke was worried about it being too rough on her other fingers, he’d picked one that had them in smooth, polished setting. It was comfortable for her and classy as all hell. He’d done well. “Looks like you’re stuck with me now.”

I clasped my hand around hers and gave it as gentle a squeeze as possible. “I’d say we’re all better off for that.”

The tip of her nose went pink, and she gave me a misty smile. “Thanks, Gabe.”

“Yep.” I released her hand and held my palm low for Jackson. “Hey, my man. I heard you had an exciting night last night.”

He slapped my hand firmly. “Yeah!” He shoved his hand into his pocket and held up the sterling silver coin I gave Luke on the day he graduated boot camp. “Luke… I meanDadgave me this.” He looked at Chloe and Luke and beamed before looking at me again. “He’s gonna be my dad now. He’s already been acting like my dad, but I get to call him Dad now, so I’m still practicing.”

“Practicing is good.” I stooped low in front of him. “Did he tell you all aboutSemper Fidelis?”

“Always. Faithful,” he annunciated, nodding his head assertively with each of the words.

“That’s right. And that means all of us, right?” I prompted him. “This is a fam, and we take care of each other, right?”

“Yes!” He threw his hand to his brow in a salute that wasn’t too shabby. “I got your six, Uncle Gabe!”

OhJesus.

My eyes burned a little like they did the day I gave Luke that coin. Chloe made a noise like she was stifling a sob or a teary laugh, and I glanced up to see her press her face to the side of Luke’s neck while he wrapped his arm around her and smiled proudly down at Jackson.

Holy fuck, my slaphappy little brother was finally a grown-ass man who had a good woman and ason. He made me anuncleby stepping up and taking care of Chloe and shouldering serious responsibilities like I’d been trying to teach him to his whole life.

And honestly…that was all I really cared about anymore. The task of turning my baby brother into a man had fallen on my shoulders, and he’d arrived. My work here was done. And I didn’t need to be getting ambitious by thinking I was going to carve out a similar happy ending with Ruth. What just happened in the backyard was proof of that.

I didn’t smile at Jackson. What he’d said was too sacred for smiles. You didn’t smile about shit like that. It was downrightinsultingto smile about certain things, and that was one of them.

Instead, I stood up, backed up a few steps while still facing him, and gave him a salute worthy of this important moment in his young life—when he finally had the dad he always deserved; a dad like one I always wished I had.

Jackson immediately stood taller and straightened his posture and his hand like he was trying to mirror me, and he followed my lead as I lowered my hand.

I held out my hand to him, and he looked me square in the eye while we shook firmly. “You listen to your dad like he’s your commanding officer. They only tell you what to do for two reasons: to make you succeed at your mission, and to keep you safe. And he’s been around the block enough times to always steer you in the right direction. You follow, my man?”

He nodded as I slipped my hand away. “Yes,sir, Staff Sergeant Uncle Gabe.”

I had to smirk at that. Slapping Luke’s shoulder, I stepped past them and slipped out the front door with Gunner.

We were only to the sidewalk when I heard the door open and footsteps scamper down the steps. Liza suddenly appeared in front of me, theatrically tiptoeing a wide circle around me, and at the last second, she held out one of her usual cookie bags. “Congrats, Uncle Gabe.”

I took the bag from her and couldn’t say thank you past the boulder blocking my airway, but she was plenty accustomed to my asshole-ish tendencies. She didn’t seem to mind, and she gave my shoulder a quick rub as she did that dorky tiptoe back up the path.

Gunner and I continued up the street, and I lit up a cigarette. Today was beyond a lost cause anyway. I dragged in a lungful of smoke and nicotine and didn’t allow my eyes to betray me by looking back at the house or attempting to glance through the chain-link fence to see if Ruth was still in the backyard with Jax. I just stared at the sidewalk while Gunner and I plodded along and turned her words over in my mind.

I can’t kiss you. I’m married.

I’m married.

She was a widow, but she was so faithful and loyal that she still considered herself married to him even after death had separated them. Her husband had to have been the luckiest man who had ever lived. Ruth was a queen with a kind heart and a face like poetry, principled and virtuous, and she could probably have her pick of any man she looked at—but she’d already given her heart to one, and there it had stayed, even though he had left this earth.

Oh, to have married a woman like her.

But never-fucking-mindthat.

As Gunner and I approached the house, the sight of the flower bed instantly fouled my mood further.

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