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And what?
He was just supposed to leave?
That had been the agreement.
But things were different now. He was different. The things he wanted were different.
He sighed and dropped his head into his hands.
He heard someone sit down beside him, and he was surprised when he looked up and saw it was Ford. His brother had been glued to Chrissy’s hip since putting a ring on it.
"What’s wrong?" His brother's words came out more as a demand than a question.
Ford had stepped up to raise him and Seb after their dad passed away. Ford had been the one to show him how to shave. Taught him how to drive stick. How to hit a ball. He’d been the one to cook their dinners, do their laundry, and even clean the house since their mom had two, sometimes three, jobs in order to keep a roof over their heads and clothes on their backs.
Ford hadn’t been in a very good mood most of the time; he’d actually seemed pissed off ninety percent of the time, but that didn’t change the fact that Ford always showed up. He always made sure that Knox, Keaton, and Seb were taken care of.
His brother, for better or worse, had been the man who raised Knox before Ford was even a man himself. As much as he hated to admit it, he was the only father figure, besides his granddad, who was gone, that Knox had.
"I just have a lot on my mind."
"You can cut the shit. I know this is about Laura."
Knox was quiet.
"You love her."
Knox didn’t try to deny it.
"So what? She doesn’t feel the same."
"She wants things that I don’t want." He was lying. He hadn’t wanted kids and a family for so long—all his life, really—and now he couldn’t see a future without Laura and their babies in it.
"You justthinkyou don’t want those things. But you do."
"What?"
"You’re talking about getting married and having kids, right?"
"Yeah."
"You do want those things."
Knox was quiet. Had Ford been reading his internal diary? How in the fuck did he know he wanted those things?
"You’re just scared. You’re scared that if you have those things, you’ll end up like Dad. That you’ll let your family down. One day you’ll be here, and the next you’ll be gone."
Knox sat quietly. Was that the reason he’d always been so adamant about not having a family?
"You love kids. You love being in a relationship. You’ve always wanted a family; it was just easier to live in denial when you had the Navy to distract you. When your life wasn’t your own because you had no say over where you’d be next month, much less next year. Now, it’s all up to you. You get to decide what you do, where you go, and who you’re with. Just don’t fuck it up because you’re scared."
With that blunt advice, Ford stood and walked back to his wife.
Knox sat and looked around at the family that Ford had created. If anyone could be soured on love and commitment, it would be his brother. His first wife Trisha, had cheated, lied, and basically held the twins as leverage so that she could extort money from him.
He’d never imagined that his brother would let another woman into his life. But he had, because it was the right woman.
Just like Laura was the right woman for him.
