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I’d love to know who burned him. Everything is always so melodramatic.
“She’s with us,” Ty snaps. “If we’re bringing her in, she’sin. Christ, she’s his fucking wife.”
Ty is best-friend-for-life material, which would make Celeste turn fifty shades of green, but we’ll cross that bridge when she’s done mountingthingshalfway across the globe.
Wells quietly studies them all before locking on to me. “We were Navy SEALs.”
“Wow,” I say, noting how quiet they’ve all become, like I’ve unlocked some mysterious treasure.
It certainly explains a lot. The way they silently communicate and bounce off one another. The power and authority they all seem to drip. While I don’t know much about the Navy SEALs, I know they’re hard-core. Maybe that’s the source of the burn marks and scars Wells refuses to talk about.
“So, you’re all from different parts of the US?” I ask.
Liam nods with a wink, unfazed by my questions, and yet the air feels thick. Although since they’re allowing me to pry, I don’t see why I should stop yet.
“And family? Your families must be all over then? Missing you.”
Gage huffs. “Wrong. Assumptions brought about by the cushy life others have sacrificed to give you.”
He’s obviously in one of his moods. Makes me wish I had a brownie to shove down his tonsils, but I won’t let his tantrum goad me.
My irritation splashes into guilt, but I’m not even sure for what. It’s not really me he’s mad at—can’t be—but I’ve certainly poured salt into an unhealed wound. Turning toward Wells, I cock a questioning brow.
He, again, looks them all over before acknowledging me. “No family.”
It takes a good ten seconds for my mind to latch on to that. When it does, there’s no stopping the gasp that falls from me, slicing through the quiet like the thwack of a fallen tree. “None of you … have anyone? I don’t understand.”
“Part of how we came together in the Navy,” Ty supplies, and while I don’t know quite what that means, he’s likely not referring to an orphan support group.
The somber mood of the table has me anxious. It’s as though they’re waiting—waiting to see if I pity them or dig deeper than they’re willing to let me go. But if they’re truly accepting me, letting me become the family they lack,I’m going to make it the easiest decision they’ve ever made.
I snatch another piece of pizza from the box with a sigh. “Well, thank God. That’ll make Thanksgiving a lot fucking easier.”
Ty and Liam immediately burst into laughter, which has Wells chuckling too. But while Gage is smirking, he seems unsure, so I test the waters.
“Especially yours, Big Guy. If genetics are any indication, one of you is more than enough. I can only bake so many pies.”
He nods with a faint grin, and while I don’t think that means he suddenly trusts me with his past, he’s more at ease.
Dinner continues with our usual light banter, but once it ends, I chase Wells down in the library. He’s lounging in the reading chair he likes with a scotch in hand, some symphony I don’t recognize rumbling quietly in the background.
I slide myself onto the arm, planting my feet in his lap and sweeping my fingers through his hair. “What happened to your family?”
His emeralds dance all over my face while he sips his drink. “They were killed in a tornado when I was sixteen. I was at a friend’s house, the next town over.”
My heart cracks wide open, but I fight the emotion, for fear it will close him off. “Your mom and dad?”
He nods. “And my younger brother.”
I clutch my chest, tears brimming my eyes, barely able to hold it in. “Jesus, Wells, that’s awful.”
He sets down his drink and drags me onto his lap, so I’m curled in his arms. “It was another lifetime. I’m okay. I have you.”
Another lifetime. Like the tattoos.
“Don’t do that—gloss over it and shut me out. Don’t you miss them?”
“Of course, but holding on to the past won’t bring them back.” His fingers string through my hair, and I lose myself to his pacifying touch for a few moments—until a baffling connection jolts me alert.
