Page 66 of Clear Blue Sky

“That’s bullshit,” Nelson mumbled.

“No. It’s not.” Brandi took his hand. “The only way this doesn’t work is if I hadn’t gone back to Ethan over the holidays. All they need is for you to appear to be jealous. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t or never were. If I hadn’t done that, this plan falls apart.”

“You both need to stop beating yourselves up over this,” his mother said. “There are five contingency plans. This is just the one that played out.”

Nelson turned and gave his mom a weak smile. Dwelling on the past wasn’t going to solve the present problem. “What do you propose we do from here?”

“I’m glad you asked that question,” his mother said. “But you’re not going to like my suggestion.”

* * *

Brandi sat on the edge of Nelson’s bed and stared out the sliding glass door. Like the Fourth of July, the moon and stars lit up the dark sky. In the distance, she could see boat lights on the lake. Normally, a night like this would be calming.

Nelson eased onto the mattress and wrapped a loving arm around her waist and kissed her shoulder. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered.

“I’m the one who should be apologizing.” Tears burned the corners of her eyes. “Deep down, I knew getting back together with Ethan was a mistake. If I’m being honest, I did it because I was scared of what I was feeling for you.”

He took her chin with his thumb and forefinger. “We had no commitment to one another. You owed me nothing.”

“That’s not the point.” She pushed his hand away and stood. “Ethan constantly asked me about my love life. If there had been anyone special. If I had been seeing anyone. He even asked if someone was in Lake George.”

“But you never told him about me.”

“That almost makes it worse.” She tucked her hair behind her ears. “Maybe if I had, I might have realized sooner what you meant and I wouldn’t have let things go on as long as they did. I feel so foolish.”

“I understand.”

She glared. “Do you?”

He tilted his head. “I slept with a married woman using me to get pregnant, so she and her brother could use that against me. Of course, I do.”

She dropped her face into her hands, letting out a guttural sob. “You can’t make this shit up.”

“No. You can’t.” He tugged her to his chest, pressing his warm lips against her forehead. “What happened in the past is over. We can’t do anything to change it. All we can do is move forward and make sure we stop them from ever hurting anyone again.”

She lifted her gaze. “Do you really think this plan your mom has come up with will do that?”

“My mother runs some serious black ops for the government. Even my dad, the general, will admit she’s smarter than he is when it comes to planning and executing a mission. My mom wasn’t Special Forces in the military because she’s a woman.”

“That’s sexist and I can’t imagine she took that sitting down.”

He laughed. “She went through all the training that I did, but because of the way the armed forces are, they would never give her the chance to be a team leader the same way my father was, or I was. So, she used her unique skill set behind the scenes and my father helped her find government operations that would utilize her talents.”

“Your parents are pretty cool.”

“I tend to agree, only being their kid can be hard. Sometimes me and my brothers feel like we disappointed them when we left the military and came up here to run a restaurant.”

She palmed his cheek. “I spent all afternoon with your mother. She’s quite proud of you and everything you’ve done, including Blue Moon.”

“She said that?”

“Among other things.”

“Oh yeah? Like what?” He slid his hand up under her shirt, fiddling with the clasp on her bra.

“She told me that being in Delta Force had been your entire life and after the doctors told you that you’d never be able to go back to that life, she and your dad worried how it would affect you.”

“I did think my world was over.” He lifted her shirt over her head. “Phoenix felt the same way. His injury also pulled him out of the field.”

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