Page 64 of Whispers of You
Maybereadywasn’t the right word. Nothing could have prepared me to face Wren again. But I had to be willing to live through all the pain for a chance to make things right.
Nash glanced over at me. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. You just made me think about something.”
He arched his brow in question as he guided his SUV up the mountain.
“I royally messed up with the way I left things. I was so sure I was doing the right thing, but I hurt so many people when I left.”
Nash turned onto a dirt road. “All any of us can do is what we think is right in the moment.”
I looked over at him. “And make amends when our actions miss the mark. I’m sorry, Nash. I know I haven’t been the best brother to you these last few years.”
“Shut up.”
I couldn’t hold in my bark of laughter. “I’m trying to make amends.”
“You don’t need to. So you didn’t want to come back to a place full of hard memories. Was your door always open to me?”
Nash had been to my place in Portland more times than I could count. And he’d used it as a crash pad whenever he needed some city time.
“Sure, but—”
“And did you always pick up the phone when I called?”
My mouth thinned. “I tried to—”
“I’m pretty sure you answered me on that sat phone in the middle of an op in Afghanistan. I heard gunfire. But there you were, asking ifIwas okay.” Nash pulled into a makeshift parking spot and leveled me with a stare. “You’ve got a messed-up idea of what kind of man you are.”
I opened my mouth, but Nash held up a hand to cut me off. “I’m not saying you’re perfect or that you haven’t hurt people. Don’t get me wrong, I would’ve loved to have you home more. But you aren’t abadperson, Holt. You’ve always had a heart of gold. So much so that you put way too much on your shoulders.”
His words hurt, but it was the good kind of pain, the kind I’d take time and time again.
“Am I allowed to talk yet?” I asked.
Nash huffed out a breath. “Not if you’re going to keep being an idiot.”
I grinned and then pulled him in for a hard hug. “Thank you. I love you, brother.”
He froze and then gave me a hard thump on the back. “You know Grae is going to give us so much shit if we get out of this SUV crying.”
I didn’t try to hold in my laughter as I released him. “Can’t give her an opening.”
“Damn straight.”
We climbed out of the vehicle, and I took in the twenty or so people milling around. The team had grown in the past ten years, but it was just as diverse as it had been before—men and women of a variety of ages. People you wouldn’t think at first glance could hike up a mountain for ten miles and carry someone down. Others who screamed: outdoorsperson.
I opened the back door of the SUV and grabbed Shadow’s leash. She hopped out and immediately began sniffing around.
Grae made a beeline for us, dropping to give Shadow a scratch. “Where’s Wren?”
“She’s working.”
Grae’s eyes widened. “And she let you take Shadow?”
“I have taken care of a dog before,” I muttered.
She chuckled. “It’s just that Shadow is her baby. It’s hard for Wren to leave her with anyone.”
