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He looks at me and shakes his head. “I don’t want to leave. My dad and Goldie are here. We can make a good life here together.”
I nod, relieved. “I don’t really want to leave either. But sometimes running away sounds good.”
“No running.” He brings my hand to his mouth and kisses my wrist down my arm. He turns and covers my body and kisses me by my ear, and I melt into the bed and into him.
“SJ…” I whimper.
“I’m going to show you that I’m never leaving you again,” he whispers into my ear, and I sigh with relief.
He kisses down my neck, and my shirt is up and over my head before I can even move.
I pull him closer and trace my fingers over the muscles of his back and kiss him deeper.
This man and I have a past, and now we have a present. But can we get past what’s trying to keep us from having a future?
thirty
SJ
Then
I knowwhat I need to do, and it’s destroying me. I can’t eat or sleep. I lie awake at night thinking about whether I can live with myself if Callie doesn’t become the one thing she’s ever dreamed of, and it’s killing me. I just worry constantly whether I’m doing the right thing, but I know I have to do something. I will crush my own heart if it means saving the girl I love. The part that Hamilton said that stuck with me was that Callie won’t be able to chase her dreams with me dragging her down. Hamilton’s not wrong in that. What am I going to do, go to college with her and get in her way? College isn’t for me right now. At least not the college where she’s going. And I don’t want to live in New York City. But damn if breaking her heart isn’t going to crush us.
I park and look up at the recruiting office. I had a long talk with Evan about the Marines, and I’m going to do it. If I can get out of the way and let Callie become who she’s supposed to be, maybe she can forgive me someday. But I can’t live with myself if I hold her back from her dreams. She already has her parents on her back enough. She doesn’t need me weighing her down. I know that if I stay in Freedom Valley, she might stay too. I need her to go and be free.
“Are you coming in to talk to someone?” asks a guy in uniform with a coffee cup in his hand, holding the door.
“Yeah, the Marines,” I say as I step inside a long hallway with offices of all the branches of the military displayed above the doors. I look at his uniform, and it says U.S. Army.
He looks me over and grins. “Come with me.”
“I don’t know…” I glance over at the Marines door.
“The Marines don’t have what you need. I’ll take care of you.” He nods confidently to the Army office.
“I guess we could talk.” I shrug. I’m nervous, but I am curious about what he has to say.
He hands me a cold bottle of water from a small drink fridge. “Alright, let’s talk. Why do you want to join the military?”
“My buddy just joined up, so I was thinking I could, too,” I say, realizing it probably sounds dumb.
“Let’s get some information and get you in for the test to see where you’re at. Can you take it today?” He turns his wrist over to glance at his watch.
I nod. “I guess. What’s better about the Army?”
“Bonuses. I can get you a sign-on bonus and, depending upon your test score, your choice of jobs.”
“That would be good. How soon could I leave for basic training?” I ask.
“A week if I had to guess?” he offers. “Is that too soon?”
“That’ll work, actually.”
now
We just had a private meeting with Dr. Douche. I wish I could be a fly on the wall when the cops arrive. In fact, in about ten minutes, the cops will be in the driveway of his gated community where his wrecked car sits in his garage with the doors wide open. His signed confession is on his kitchen counter, and he’s still tied up in his kitchen chair. We also found all of his drugs and laid them out for the cops to see, too. I would be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy taking this asshole down. But it’s done, and he’s handled. A copy of that confession and a video of him confessing have already been anonymously emailed to the hospital human resources director and the local news stations. He knows that if he talks about anything that went down tonight, the club is coming for him next. And judging by the way he was scared, he won’t be talking.
“Give it a week. This house will be on the market, and he’ll be relocating,” Evan hedges as we walk through the woods, almost to where we parked my truck on the other side of Dr. Douche’s property. “Or the club will help relocate him,” I say with a grin.
