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“Great,” he said. “If you’re not busy after, come in and have some lunch.”
He was going to say no but figured why not? Zane and his family had done so much for him that it’d be hard to say no.
“Sure,” he said.
They both loaded up their guns, put their earbuds in and spent the next thirty minutes trying to outshoot the other.
“I don’t know why I bothered trying to keep up with you,” Zane said. “You were always a better shot. That’s why I wanted you on my team.”
“What?” he asked, taking his gun apart and putting it back in the case. “It wasn’t my glowing personality?”
“That too,” Zane said. “But I needed someone with ice in their veins when the time came for it.”
“Most men have it in our positions,” he said.
“Not in the same dosages,” Zane said. “You know that. Just like not everyone is meant to lead though I told you you had what it took.”
“Not what I wanted,” he said. He probably could have been a commander, but the truth was, he was better off not calling the shots.
Tell him what to do and when and he’d give it two hundred percent. But carrying the weight on his shoulders and being responsible for others wasn’t what he wanted.
He knew he’d always be a worker bee and was fine with that. Not everyone had to strive for more.
Shit, he was better off in his life than he ever thought he’d be when he was fourteen pulling a gun on someone in an alley that was giving him a hard time. A gang member wanted him to join and thought they could force the issue.
They found out otherwise. He was lucky he didn’t get more than jumped and the shit beat out of him days later for that.
Then once he recovered, his father beat the shit out of him for stealing the gun. It felt like he was a punching bag that year and was thrilled when his father ended up in prison, but not after he was told that his father took care of the kids who’d done that to him.
He hadn’t asked what was done and didn’t want to know though he’d heard rumors.
He’d moved shortly after, back in with his mother and didn’t have to deal with that again. He just had to deal with more things like it, but never pulled a gun out.
Then he was in foster care and the cycle turned around and around until he was eighteen and got the hell out and swore to never go back.
The fact his mother somehow found him weeks ago and called felt like he was being pulled back into that hole of misery.
He didn’t return her call. She’d left a message she needed help and was in trouble. She didn’t know he wasn’t in the service anymore, so not returning the call seemed the best thing to do. He wouldn’t have been able to help her if he was in another country any more than he was going to do it now being in the US.
“We don’t always get what we want in life,” Zane said. “Sometimes for the good and others for the bad. Just need to deal with what they are.”
“That’s all I’ve ever done,” he said.
They climbed on the four-wheeler and went back to the house for some food.
Lily was in the kitchen pulling out sandwich meat for Willow, Ryder sitting in his high chair with some food in front of him and feeding himself.
“When do you find out for sure where you’re stationed?” Lily asked. “Zane said it was down to three locations and all forty minutes or less away?”
“Yeah,” he said. “I should know more in a week or so. Not much longer. I’m thrilled I’m able to stay close by.”
It meant not having to try to find another place to live. Not commuting all that much in his eyes. And reaching out to Heather and seeing where that might lead.
The last was probably the thing he was most excited about but wouldn’t share that with anyone.
“We are happy to have you close too,” Lily said. “Zane loves having you here. He’s got his brothers-in-law to have a beer with, but I know it’s not the same. They aren’t the same in his eyes.”
He laughed over that. Zane almost looked embarrassed. As if he was annoyed that his wife knew him so well.
