Page 62 of Known By You
My brilliant decision to go home and watchYou’ve Got Mailand take a shot every time I heard the AOL dial up tones… woof.
My heart thudded around in my chest as the next memories came through—Liz arriving, me saying something I didn’t quite remember but definitely wasn’t appropriate, me crying in the kitchen and her hugging me, her feeding me, and forcing me to eat even more and drink water, and then tucking me into bed, wedging me onto my side.
Then deep in the night, a kiss to my forehead and whispered words.You’ll be okay. I promise you’ll be okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.
“Yep. Elizabeth let us know you had a day yesterday,” Cookie said, one brow raised.
I huffed a laugh and took a seat at the table. “Yeah, you could say that.”
“That why you didn’t show at Craic?” he asked.
I nodded. “I self-medicated in the dumbest way after a predictably upsetting interaction with my family and then made at least one pass at Liz before crying all over myself and letting her tuck me into bed.”
Stone’s eyes widened and Cookie’s closed slowly.
“So yeah, just nailing it on all fronts.”
“She’s fine. She wouldn’t have reached out to us or tucked you into bed if she was upset.”
Stone’s confidence would normally cheer me, but I wouldn’t know until I spoke to her—saw her.
“I hope so. I feel like an ass, but at the same time…” I sighed.
“At the same time, your family is the worst and you’re human. I know about families like that and I’m sorry,” Cookie supplied.
His words, so full of grace for me, made my throat tight. “Yeah. That.”
Also, he knew about families like mine? He’d rarely spoken about his family at all. I should’ve asked follow-up questions, but that might need to happen another day.
Stone unwrapped the two plates of food—one of delicious-looking omelets, and one full of what looked like homemade croissants.
“First, you eat. Then you talk. Then you check in with her.”
“I don’t know if I have an appetite,” I said, eying the food and knowing if I could stomach it, it’d be delicious.
Stone’s expression didn’t change. “First, you eat.”
Cookie looked out the window, but I could see the jerk’s grin. I could be a bit bossy when it came to taking care of my friends, so I supposed turnabout was fair play, but it didn’t mean he should get so much joy from it.
“Yessir.”
“None of that garbage,” Stone grumbled.
“Yes, Master Sergeant?” I asked, mouth full of one of the croissants, which were, I could now vouch, absolute perfection.
He growled.
I cackled. “Uh oh. Someone’s taking on Beast’s role.”
Cookie snickered and grabbed a croissant, and Stone glared. “No, I’m not. But we’re not in the military anymore.”
I acquiesced. There had been many months where that reality, the transition from active duty to civilian, had plagued the man. It was only because I knew how far he’d come, how well he was doing that I dared joke about such things.
“Fair enough. I’m just trying to sort out my crap internally before you guys start asking questions.” I chewedanother bite and tried to work through the messy haze of memory, the energy slowly returning to me with each swallow.
After a full five minutes, and helping themselves to the coffee that had brewed at eight o’clock despite my never setting it last night, they jumped in.
“So start with the family.”
