Page 22 of Hidden Ink

Holly was Jake’s girlfriend. Serious girlfriend it seemed. Maya and Jake were best friends, though the whole world thought they were something more. Apparently, everybody was wrong, and Maya was doing her best to bring Holly into the fold. Only, sweet and adorable Holly didn’t quite fit in—not that they’d let her feel like that. The Montgomerys and crew weren’t assholes.

Though Hailey wanted to know more about what was going on in that corner, she knew she had to think about something else. She’d asked the girls—Sierra, Callie, Maya, Holly, Miranda, Meghan, Autumn, and Tabby—to meet up so she could tell them what she should have told them long ago. Autumn was new to her circle, as she’d just recently found love with Griffin Montgomery, and Holly had sort of just shown up since she’d been hanging out with Maya at the time, but Hailey didn’t mind that they were there. They’d all gathered at Maya’s since that was where they usually met—there or at Taboo. Maya didn’t have children, and she had a large living room with tons of space to sit. Plus, she had a kick-ass blender.

“Okay, now that we’ve made Maya feel bad about the sad state of her sex life, why don’t you tell us why you wanted us to meet?” Callie asked.

Hailey let out a breath. “It’s like you read my mind. I already told Sloane this, but I wanted to tell you as well. All of you. It’s something I should have told you way before this.”

Miranda leaned close. “What is it?”

“Seven years ago I was diagnosed with breast cancer.” She told them the story as she’d told Sloane, straight and to the point. Yet this time it didn’t seem as hard, as if once she’d said it aloud it became easier.

The others cried and moved to hold her close. She let the tears fall as well, the women in this room her family by choice, not by blood. She’d lost everyone else close to her, but at least she had these women—and the men who loved them.

She had Sloane as well, and she had to remember that. As long as they didn’t mess up the friendship they had, she could do this. She could.

When Meghan cupped her face and kissed her cheek, it brought Hailey out of her thoughts of Sloane and into the present.

“Why didn’t you tell us before?” the other woman asked. “Why did you carry this burden yourself?”

Hailey pressed her lips together. “I don’t know. At first I was getting to know all of you, and then it was hard to bring up. But I didn’t want to hide it anymore.” She blew out a breath when Meghan stepped away. “But since I’m talking about it, do your self-exams, ladies. It saved my life. If you feel a lump, you get it biopsied. You do something. Your doctors might not know everything right away, so you ask the hard questions. Get me?”

The others nodded then did a group hug that brought Hailey peace.

“I love you ladies. Just saying.” Hailey hiccupped a laugh then stood back to wipe her tears. “And on that note, I think I’m going to go home and take a long, hot bath. I really just wanted you all in one place to tell you. I know you all have families and work to go home to. But, yeah…”

She said her good-byes as the group broke up and wiped their tears. It had been harder, a hell of a lot harder, to tell Sloane, but she was glad she’d told the others. They would tell their men, tell the Montgomerys, and then she wouldn’t have those secrets anymore.

She was free.

Free to go home alone and figure out what the hell she was going to do with Sloane. Ten minutes later, she stepped inside her house and stood in her living room, a little too lost for comfort. What if she messed everything up? What if he did? Why was she so scared of what could happen with him. He liked her for her, but what if they made a mistake. What if this ruined what she had with him before…with the Montgomerys. What if…

She cursed at herself.

She was putting herself in a corner when she didn’t need to be. This was so unlike her that she hated it.

The knock on her door surprised her, and she looked through the peephole. As soon as she saw Sloane’s large form she relaxed, even as her body warmed at the thought of him.

“Hey,” she said once she’d opened the door.

He had a six-pack of beer in one hand, a pizza in the other, and a smile on his face. “I heard your girls’ night ended early. What do you say about a movie?”

She stepped back and ran her hand down the hardness of his stomach as he passed. “Okay,” she said simply.

Okay. They would be okay. If she didn’t think so hard, they would be okay.

They had to be.

* * * *

The heat from the bomb flayed his skin and he screamed. He couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. The weight of part of the Humvee pushed at his chest and he placed his hands on the edges, growling as it burned his flesh.

He turned to the side, his body going still at the sight of what shouldn’t have been.

The five other men at his side stared at him with dead eyes, their mouths hanging open, their jaws unhinging as they screamed a soundless scream. They reached for him, clawing at his body as he tried to break free.

But he could never be free.

The chains of memory, of guilt for living and finding the happiness he was never supposed to find, tightened around his chest, his neck, his gut. He started to suffocate. The five bodies shifted back to their whole forms, young men with no hope in their gazes, only death. They’d been too young to drink but old enough to die in his arms.