Page 86 of Operation K-9 Brothers
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Jack came by today,” Mark said.
“Oh?”Nichole’s stupid heart needed to stop doing that bouncy thing at hearing his name.
“Yeah, he wanted to apologize for being an asshole.He wants to apologize to you, too.”
Well, he owed her that much, but it wouldn’t make any difference becauseshe didn’t matter.Although he didn’t specifically sayshedidn’t matter, he might as well have.She wasn’t sure there was anything he could say that could put those words to rest in her mind.
“Whatever.”She shrugged as if what Jack wanted meant nothing to her.She wished it didn’t, but there was still that bouncy heart thing going on, and worse, she hurt.Hurt like she never had before.
Her pain was even showing up in her pottery.Last night, she’d created what she thought of as sad fairy girls.She’d taken two of them to work with her today, and they’d both sold within an hour of opening.That was fine since those miserable fairies were all she felt like making.
“I think you should hear him out.”
“Why’s that?”She’d let Jack say his piece, but unless he had magic words that could sweep her mind clean of the ones that had ripped her heart out, he would be wasting his time.
“Because men are stupid?”
She couldn’t argue with that.“Was that a question?”
“Yeah.No.”He laughed when she raised a brow.“It’s true.We really can get dumb when our manhood is questioned.”
“I never doubted his manhood.”Not ever.
“No, but finding out he’ll never be fit to be a SEAL again was a hard pill to swallow.”
“I get that.The thing is, he as much as told me that all that mattered to him was returning to his team.There wasn’t one hint that I mattered to him.I would have been there for him if he’d let me, but he rejected every one of my attempts.If the situation had been reversed, I would have loved to have his support when I was at my lowest.”
“That’s because you think like a woman.”
“Okay, hit me up.How does a man think?”They were sitting on the sofa, and Rambo had his butt perched on the floor between them, his gaze swiveling between them like he was watching a tennis match.Since he was a male, he probably thought she was overreacting, too.
“Embarrassed.Inadequate.A failure.Want me to go on?”
“So what?It makes you guys feel better to be a jerk?”
“Not really, but sometimes we can’t help ourselves.Think about it.He was a SEAL for a long time, and he fully expected to still be one for who knows how long.Then he gets the worst news possible, and he didn’t know how to process that.But I think he has now.Just hear him out, okay?”
“I’ll think about it.”
Rachel had said men needed to crawl off and lick their wounds, which fit with what Mark was saying, that Jack was probably embarrassed and feeling like a failure.She got that, but it didn’t excuse the way he’d treated her.
She supposed she should consider the fact that he was drunk, but did that make it better or worse?Better because it really wasn’t Jack talking, or worse because his words were unfiltered, thus how he actually felt?
They’d been seeing each other long enough for her to know Jack wasn’t a heavy drinker.A beer or two seemed to be his limit, and not once until that night had she seen him drunk.His getting wasted was an anomaly, otherwise she’d have walked away before now.
She missed him to the depths of her soul, and then some more.Her mind, wanting to protect her from further hurt, said to be smart, that she didn’t need a man in her life who hadn’t wanted her by his side, supporting him, when he felt like his life was falling apart.Her heart, though...
“I’m going back to Florida tomorrow,” Mark said.
She jerked her face toward him.“What?Why?”
“Jack’s worried about what Lane will do when he finds out I recorded our conversation.We both think it’s best if I’m not here.”
So wrapped up in her misery, she hadn’t even thought of what Lane might do when he learned about the recording.She knew better than anyone what Lane was capable of, and she should have put Mark’s safety over her heartbreak.Yet Jack had considered Lane’s possible reaction and had somehow convinced her brother to return to Florida.
Just another thing to thank him for, and maybe all those things outweighed the one time he’d messed up.So she’d listen to what he had to say, and then she’d let her mind and her heart battle it out.
