Page 44 of Chasing Honor

“And?”

“It’s a little too soon.”

“Do you remember the stories the uncles told about meeting their women?”

“How could I forget?”

My uncles told those stories any chance they could. There was a lesson about bravery, family, and love in each union.

“So then you know it is not too soon. Ethan, the fact she’s here, and you allow her and Carson to spend time together tells me you already know. If you’d get out of your own head for two seconds, you’d see it. Mom and Dad do. I do.”

“You met her for like two seconds,” I reminded him.

“That’s all it took. Two seconds and I knew.”

I wondered if he was talking about him or me. He’d been in love with Delaney Walker for nearly ten years. I understood why he hadn’t said anything when he was seventeen and she was fourteen, but now? He refused to believe the family would accept it. His excuse being she was our cousin. But she wasn’t—not really. Not by blood. Just because we grew up with Jasper, Clark, and Levi as our honorary uncles didn’t mean we were related in any way. And he was crazy if he thought we all didn’t know she returned his feelings.

“You know she loves you, right?”

“We’re not talking about me,” he deflected.

“Why not? You never want to talk about you. It’s time we do.”

Over the years there’d been a lot that had changed about my brother, one of those things was his carefree personality and another was he’d perfected my father’s glare. He could bring a man low with just a look.

“I’m leaving in a few days,” he told me.

“Fuck. Where?”

“Back to Africa.”

“How long?”

“At least six months.”

Fuck. The news was going to kill my mom.

“Mom?”

“I haven’t told her yet. Dad knows. I’m sure he’s told the uncles. But I wanted Mom to have her day before I dropped the bomb.”

“And Delaney?”

“She knows, too.”

So, Carter was still in contact with her, more so than he wanted me to know.

“How is she?”

“Same as she always is when I leave. Scared, upset, crying.” Carter faced me and for the first time he tore his mask away and let me see his pain. “It fucking guts me. Every. Single. Time. Now do you understand why I can’t have her? I want her happy and smiling every day. Not worried if her man is coming home or waiting for months to hear from me. She deserves better.”

“That’s her choice, Carter. She’s loved you since she was fourteen. And I can’t think of a better man for her.”

“Wrong. It’s my choice. I told her yesterday it was time to move on. She needs to stop wasting her life waiting on something that’s never going to happen.”

“Wait. Have the two of you . . .”

I wasn’t sure how to phrase my question with sounding crude.