Page 7 of We Thought We Knew It All
“It’s me, Aunt Kat.” Jacks bounced nervously. “Can’t you tell?”
“Come here.” She pulled him into a hug, reaching her other arm out to snatch Liam into the hug as well. Liam didn’t know Kat quite as well as his brother because she hadn’t been out to California in a year or two, and he was almost too young to remember. But she’d win him over.
Declan toddled over. “The last time I saw Dec, he wasn’t even walking.”
“Hello there,” Declan said in his serious way.
Kat muffled a laugh and picked him up. “Hello, I’m your Auntie Kat.”
We walked inside to where Noah was preparing dinner and it was as if I’d never left.
3
Jamie
I never thought I’d be back in Gulf City. That first year gone, all I’d wanted was to come back and regain what I’d lost. My friends. My girl. Then I got used to being away. It became easier with each passing day until it lost its power over me.
I became a part of a new family. Had new friends. Even a new girl. My platoon. They were the ones I wanted to be with now, but they were back on base in Georgia, and I was here.
It was the first leave I’d taken where I’d gone home instead of on some trip. Now, I had no choice. There was a funeral and no matter how I felt about it, this was where I was supposed to be. And it wasn’t like I could go back. My hand cramped as if sending me a reminder. I massaged it until it loosened up.
The church was packed with mourners, but I paid little attention to any of them. They didn’t recognize me. They wouldn’t. My once scraggly blond hair was buzzed short. My lean frame had bulked up considerably. I wasn’t the Jamie Daniels they knew. This new Jamie had seen things, done things, that changed a person.
I kept my head up, catching the attention of quite a few people with my dress uniform, but managing not to be pulled to the front.
I watched as my brother, looking just as he always had, sat in the front pew. His mother, having had a service in Washington D.C. wasn’t there. Two people joined Jay, and I recognized them at once. Colby, dressed in a stylish suit, was greeted by each person he saw. His face had grown leaner, losing the softness of youth. Callie stood beside him, standing tall in her elegant black dress. Her hair was different - dyed dark chocolate and sitting just above her shoulders in soft layers. Gone was the simple long braid. This version of Callie was older, yet still mesmerizing.
The confidence I’d been cultivating for ten years slipped.
She put her arm around my brother and I wanted nothing more than to feel her touch, see her smile.
I slid out the back after the funeral, needing to drive around for a little while to regain control before I saw all of them.
Control. It got me through my missions. I became a Ranger because I wanted to do something big with my life. I was damn good at it. We ran into the situations everyone else ran from.
How did Florida feel more like a mine field than that?
He’s dead,I told myself. My dad was gone. So, why did the thought of him still make me feel so inadequate?
After a while, I pulled to the side of the road in front of a house that held too many memories and a street that was overflowing with cars. The place looked the same as it always had. That porch was the first place I’d ever gotten my heart broken when Cal and I recognized our different futures. My face had been broken by my father’s fist in that entryway. Hell, pretty much every room held a memory like that. His anger felt like it was seeped into the walls.
I stood by the open door, watching the people who only knew the face my father put on, not the real man.
A young boy sat on the bench by the door and I stopped, not quite ready to go in.
“Hello,” I said, stalling the inevitable.
He looked at me with wide eyes. “Are you a soldier?”
I laughed, the sound seeming foreign in this place. “I am. What’s your name?”
“Jackson.” He puffed out his chest. “You can call me Jacks. I’m nine!”
“Well, hello Jacks, I’m Jamie and nine is a very good age.”
“Jackson, your mother is looking for you” a familiar voice called, coming outside. Kat looked at me in astonishment. “Jamie Daniels.” A grin formed. “I didn’t know you were coming.”
I stood to give her a hug. “No one did.”
