AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Are you sure I can’t prepare you something a little more interesting?” Sam asked as he looked down to my untouched sandwich.
“Oh no, this is great, thanks,” I assured him. “I…I’m not a big eater. I do, however, have a huge soft spot for anything that involves chocolate,” I admitted as I swiped a finger through the cream on the hot chocolate.
“I can work with that, dear,” he told me with a smile.
“Sam’s the most amazing cook, and his baking is next level. He’ll be fattening you up before you know it,” Kai laughed.
I picked up the huge mug, trying to keep it steady in my shaking hands and took a gulp of the delicious chocolatey goodness, cream covering my top lip in the process. I hurried to wipe it away before anyone noticed.
“Try to eat something too, baby. You’ve barely had a thing all day,” Hunter urged as he pushed the sandwich towards me again.
“You have to stop that,” I spoke up nervously.
“Stop what?” Hunter asked.
“The names. Baby,” I looked to Hunter, “And sunshine,” I looked to Kai. “We’re not there anymore. I told you I’m here for Willow. Maybe we can get things back to where they used to be, but it…it’s going to take time. Whether you meant to or not, you guys destroyed me when you left me,” I admitted as I stared down at the cup, unable to meet their eyes.
“We never meant to, Maddie. We thought we were doing what was best for you. We thought you were okay with Clive and Julia,” Kai sighed.
“I can’t talk about this now,” I squeaked, knowing I was seconds away from tears. I needed to feel stronger before we discussed everything.
“We will make it up to you, and we will get back to where we were, We love you, Maddie,” Hunter told me, and a whimper slipped from me as I fought to hold back a sob at the words I had longed to hear for so long. They had never told me they loved me when we were kids. I wasn’t sure any of us really knew what love was back then, but they were all I had and whether I said it or not, I loved them. My love for them was different from the sisterly type of love they seemed to have for me, but I never voiced that. I didn’t really care how they felt about me as long as I had them in my life.
Then they were gone and I knew, as time passed, just how much I had truly loved them; how much they had all meant to me. Now there they sat, telling me they loved me, and I didn’t even care in which way they meant it. I was just overwhelmed to hear the words. And that was totally terrifying because if they left me again after telling me they loved me, it could only hurt even more than the last time.
“We don’t have to worry about any of it tonight. Just try to eat something and you can get some more rest. We can talk tomorrow,” Kai suggested.
I nodded and grabbed the sandwich, taking a small bite. It was actually really good. The bread was soft on the inside with a crispy crust, and my guess was it was freshly baked that day. I took another bite, surprised how much I was enjoying it, as the three of them just watched me.
I’d just picked up my hot chocolate for another drink when the glass doors behind me made a noise. I turned to look just as Cameron walked through the door, followed by a playful little dog who hurried in and jumped up at Hunter’s feet.
I held my breath as I just stared at him, the cup frozen halfway to my mouth. Cameron had changed a lot since last I saw him. The only reason I really recognized him was those pale blue eyes that were locked on me, so unique and distinctive. Everett had blue eyes too, but his had been darker. It was the only difference between them, other than the slight difference in their builds. Cam had always liked to work out more than Ev, so he had bigger shoulders.
Now Cameron was huge! He had always been tall, but his body was rippling with hard muscle, built like a linebacker. His shoulders were so wide I knew there was no way my arms would ever go around him. There was corded muscle visible on his neck and down his arms, and his biceps were bulging under the sleeves of the black t-shirt he wore. He had on a pair of jeans which were splattered with paint, and they clung to his tree trunk wide thighs.
“Cam,” I whispered as I passed Hunter my cup and dropped to my feet. I smiled, but he didn’t return it as I took in his face. He looked exhausted, dark smudges under his eyes. He still had the same handsome bone structure and I knew if he’d just flash me his toothy smile that I used to love so much, a little dimple would appear in his right cheek.
But he didn’t smile. In fact he looked as though it had been a very long time since he smiled and it caused me physical pain to see how much he was hurting.
He ran a hand through his wild, sandy blonde hair as he looked away from me and down to the floor. His hair hung down over his ears, in desperate need of a cut and I could see sawdust and specks of paint in it.
I desperately wanted to run up and hug him, but the way he was holding himself so tensely deterred me.
“Th-thank you….for Willow’s room. She loved it and so did I. Your work is amazing,” I told him instead. It was lame, and definitely not what I wanted to say, but it was all I dare offer.
“No problem,” he uttered, his eyes still on the ground. “Glad you’re safe,” he added, then he stalked from the room without even looking up again. His little dog, who had been getting attention from Hunter, scampered off after him.
I listened to his boots pound up the stairs before I allowed my tears to fall.
“It’s so wrong,” I whimpered. “Seeing him w-without Ev. It’s all wrong.”
“We know. Believe us, we know,” Kai sighed as he pulled me into his arms and held me tightly.
“What happened? How d-did he die?” I asked as I clung to him.
“We were on a mission,” Hunter began. I sat up and looked to him, but Kai kept his arm around me supportively. “There were two Humvees and we were in the second one. The first one hit an IED. It took out both of the cars, but we took less of the impact. Kai and I got out pretty clean, but Ev had fucked up his right arm in the crash and Cam was unconscious. We got them out and tried to help the others, but it was an ambush. We were pinned down and air support took too fucking long.”
“We were outnumbered and we had no real cover. We did all we could to hold them back and cover the others, but it was fucking useless. Hunter got hit first, two in his right side and one in his leg. When air support came and took the bastards out, I had two in my back and could barely move. By the time we got back to Cam and Ev, Cam was awake again and he was cradling Ev in his arms, dead. He took a shot to his thigh, and he bled out.”
