His brows knit together, and I can tell he’s not happy about the house.
“We don’t want the house, Ed. Jake left it to you. My family respect his wishes. It’s yours.”
He frowns and scribble something on the paper.
Even Amos?
“Yes. Even Amos. Amos only cares about one thing. Getting back to wherever the hell you guys were and getting the guys who killed our brother.”
Ed’s eyes darken, and it seems like he’d like to do the same thing. But instead he’s stuck here. In a house he doesn’t want surrounded by a dead man’s things.
“Do you want to have dinner tomorrow night?”
His eyes widen, and I realize what I’ve said sounds like I’m asking him out.
Heat creeps up my neck and I ramble on, not looking at him. “I mean, at our house. Mom’s cooking chicken pot pie, and we’d love to see you.”
I steal a glance, and he looks uncertain. “Mom would like to see you,” I blurt. Ed won’t turn down an invitation from Mom., It would be bad manners.
He nods once, and I let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding.
I tell myself it’s because I’m pleased he’s getting out of the house because he doesn’t have to grieve on his own. It’s not because my heart races whenever I see him, and my body turns to jelly at his touch.
9
ED
Itug at the bottom of my shirt, making sure it’s straight before raising my fist to the Monroes’ front door. In one hand is a bottle of wine, in the other is a bunch of flowers.
Shona smiles at me warmly when she opens the door, and I hand them over to her. They’re inadequate for what I’ve taken from her and my guilt has me lowering my gaze, unable to look Jake’s mom in the eye.
“Come on through,” she says. “The kids are in the living room.”
“The kids” are her huge Navy SEAL of a son and Avery.
Avery sits in an armchair across from Amos with a checkerboard between them. She leans forward and stares at the board. Her lips purse in concentration and her hair, usually tied up, falls loose over her shoulders.
Amos is leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and his fingers locked.
I pause in the doorway, enthralled by the tension between them. The board is worn at the edges, and I can imagine the battles between the siblings when they were kids, then whenever they were all home together.
Avery picks up a piece and moves it across the board, taking three of Amos’s pieces.
Her lips widen in a grin. “Gotcha!” She claps her hands together while her brother cusses under his breath.
“Watch your mouth,” admonishes Shona. “Our guest has arrived.”
They both look up, and Amos stands from his chair. “Good to see you, Ed.”
He offers a hand, and I take it and nod my greeting.
My gaze moves to Avery as she stands up, and heat sweeps over my body.
Last night I saw the vulnerable side of Avery Monroe. Last night, the grief of her loss overwhelmed her, and she wasn’t ashamed to let herself feel. Today, her smile warms my chest, reaching places I thought were locked up tight.
I’m furious at myself for not realizing the house would be a trigger for her. As soon as she left, I gathered up all of Jake’s personal belongings from around the house and dumped them in trash bags and threw them in his room.
Now all that remains is the furniture and ornaments and his books. I’ll get rid of those too if it stops Avery from feeling anymore pain.
