My daddy’s family. The words stabbed Arden straight through the heart, and yet they didn’t destroy it. She felt her heart crack open instead, like a fist that didn’t need to be clenched against the threat of pain anymore.
Kyle crouched to her eye level. “We are, sweetheart,” he said tenderly. He reached for Arden’s hand, steadying her like he always did. “You better believe we are.”
“What’s your name?” Arden asked her.
The little girl looked up at the woman—her mother? Wasthisthe mother of Sean’s daughter? She had to be—and the woman nodded back. The little girl returned her gaze to Arden.
“I’m Juniper Walsh. But you can call me Juni.”
Walsh. Not Volker.
Juni was holding a stuffed Snoopy doll and what looked like two little blankets for it, one fuzzy and brown and the other a printed piece of fabric. She clutched them as something drew her attention just past Arden. She followed Juni’s gaze.
Camo.
He had gone stock-still in the doorway. Arden knew every mood in that dog’s body—the manic wag when Kyle came home,the calm alertness when something moved or called outside at night, the contented sprawl in front of the fire.
She had never seen him look like this.
He stood with his head up and his wet, black nose working, his eyes fixed on Juni.
Then he took a step toward her, slow and deliberate with his neck stretched out.
Juni didn’t reach out. She just waited, watching him with those silver-gray eyes.
Camo stopped right in front of Juni. He lowered his head until his nose nearly touched Juni’s hand clutching the Snoopy stuffie. He sniffed her.
His tail wagged once. Then he made a low sound that Arden had only ever heard from him in his sleep, when she was pretty sure he was back at that river on his last mission—the one that introduced him to Sean and brought an end to Camo’s military career in the worst way imaginable.
He wouldn’t leave Sean’s body, not even at the funeral.
Juni smiled and reached for the dog, palm up.
Camo pressed his muzzle into her hand and closed his eyes. He sighed like he’d just come home.
Arden realized her own hand was over her mouth. It shook as she pulled it down. Kyle squeezed her other hand and she saw tears in his eyes.
Maren looked braced for a blow.
She thinks I’m going to come apart on her.
Arden took a breath. In, hold, out.
“I’m not angry at you,” she said, her voice cracking. “I want you to know that right now, before anything else.”
Maren’s eyes went glassy. “You might be, when you hear?—”
“Then I’ll deal with that then.” Arden looked at Juni, who had begun a careful examination of Camo’s ears while he submittedto it with the dignity of a dog who had decided this was his purpose.
Juniper. Juni.Arden felt her mouth curve despite everything. Sean would have loved that name. He would have been absolutely insufferable about it, calling her Junebug and Juniberry and whatever else he could think of until she told him to stop, and then he would have kept going anyway because that was exactly who he was.
Was.
She returned her attention to the woman. “And what’s your name?”
“Maren. Maren Walsh. I’m Juniper’s aunt. Her mother’s name was Mira. My twin.”
“Was?”
