Later.I’ll do it later,I promise myself, turning away.
With a plan in place, I stand, adding clothes to the washer, then grabbing my keys and phone and heading out the door.I decide to walk to the store since it’s only two blocks away, and I smile as I descend the steps to the sidewalk.
Then I look up and lock eyes with him.
Devon Hayes.
Devon Hayesis standing on the sidewalk right in front of me.
I blink, thinking I’m dreaming, but nope, he’s still there.
My mouth hangs open.I’m frozen in place as I stare at the man who has owned my heart for close to half my life.
Devon smiles as he pushes off his car—a police cruiser—and steps toward me.I watch in shock as he stops in front of me, his smile growing wider.
“Hey, Suri,” he says softly.
Perhaps I should have said yes when Rowan offered to tell me the news about Devon.
Because it seems he’s now living in Wolf Valley.
2
Devon
I joinedthe Army to serve and protect, to make a difference, and also to get the hell away from my father and the house I grew up in.
My mother left when I was six, and it only took me a few months to see why.My father was a monster.He lived to put me down, to exert his control over me.Not a day went by when he didn’t remind me that I was useless, worthless, a burden.So, I did what I could to survive.I kept my head down, tried to stay out of his way, and planned my way out.
The military was always my escape plan.I knew it was the quickest way to get out of my hometown.I knew it would be good for me.When I got to bootcamp, I thought I had it all figured out.I thought I was finally free.I thought I finally had everything I wanted in life.
Until that first letter arrived.
Every week like clockwork a new letter would show up, all of them from a woman who refused to tell me her name or anything specific—anything that could help me identify her.
It was obvious from the first letter that she knew me.This wasn’t some pen pal assignment for school or something.I tried to get her to tell me how we knew each other, but she would never answer that question.She refused to meet me, to send photos, anything.She was driving me crazy.She had me wrapped around her finger, and I had no idea how to find out who she was or how to convince her to let me in.
It was frustrating as hell.
I tried to let that go because I needed my girl.I needed those letters.Over the years, her letters were what held me together.Her words kept me alive in the darkest of places.Her kindness saved me when I didn’t want to be saved.Suri became everything to me.She was the first person in my life who didn’t expect anything from me.She was so sweet.She cared about me.
And now she’s standing in front of me.
My eyes devour the sight of Suri, drinking in her curves, her shoulder-length brown hair, her wide blue eyes.God, she’s fucking gorgeous.
As soon as she told me her name, I looked her up.She’s not big on social media, but there were a few photos of her.I’ve saved every single one to my phone and looked at them about a million times a day since that final letter.
It couldn’t have come at a worse time.I had been injured on my last deployment, and it took weeks for the letter to bounce from the base overseas in Germany—where I was airlifted for medical treatment—to the base in Colorado, where I was sent to recover.When it finally reached me and I read her words, I wanted to jump out of my hospital bed and track down my girl.
Suri was crazy if she thought I would let her go.She’d become the most important person in the world to me.I fell in love with her words, her sweetness, kindness, and her outlook on life.I fell in love withher, and I wasn’t about to let her say goodbye and disappear.
Unfortunately, it took a few months for me to fully heal and track down where Suri had moved.Ironically, my best friend, Grant, was married to her best friend, Rowan.It took some convincing, but I was finally able to get them to give me her new address.
Once I had that, I made a plan.
I got discharged from the military, found a job with the Wolf Valley police, and packed up my shit to follow my girl to Oregon.Now that I’m here, the plan is to get Suri and me on the same page, to get a ring on her finger, and have her sleeping next to me every night.
I thought it would be easy, but now I’m here, I’m not so sure.She still hasn’t said anything.I don’t think she’s even blinked since she spotted me.It’s not the reaction I expected after years of sharing everything with each other.
