Chapter One
Jake
“Man, you look like shit.” I dropped a hand onto my buddy Kade’s shoulder as I overtook him in the hall of the building where we worked. “Isn’t that kid sleeping yet?”
Kade shot me a narrow-eyed glare. “Yeah, Jake. She’s been sleeping solid for two weeks, but you know, Leah and I just party so much that we’re still staying up all night.” Sarcasm dripped from his exhausted words. “No, asshole, she’s still getting up three times a night.”
“Hey, hey.” I lifted my hands. “Don’t jump on me. I’m not the one who thought having a wife and baby would be a good idea.”
“Jake, you know what? Sometimes you can be a real douche.” He shook his head. “I wouldn’t change one fucking thing. Leah and Emma are the best two things that ever happened to me. I might not have planned for either of them, but, God, I can’t imagine living without them. Theyaremy life now.”
A twinge of something uneasy slithered through my chest, but I ignored it. I was happy for Kade—even when I teased him, I knew he was on the level, and Leah and the baby really did make him deliriously content—but I also knew firsthand that shit like that could go bad fast, turning on a dime. I wasn’t going to share that with him, though. Between the sleep deprivation and his knee-jerk defensiveness about his new ready-made family, the dude just might drop me here and now.
Instead, I smiled at him. “Glad to hear it. Not every guy who goes on TDY and comes back with a wife and kiddo on the way ends up like you.”
“Don’t think I don’t know it,” he returned. “As a matter of fact, I was just getting ready to leave, so I can go home and relieve Leah. She needs a little break by this time of the afternoon.”
“You’re a good daddy.” I glanced at my watch. “I was about to head out, too. And I don’t even have the excuse of helping out the wife.”
“Yeah.” Kade smirked. “Friday night, huh? You and the guys hitting the bar? Or are you driving up to Richmond?”
I shrugged. “I think we’re staying local. And as far as the guys, it’s just me and Owen, unless I can talk Mac into coming along, too. The rest of you losers all hooked up with girlfriends or wives, and now there’s just a few of us left standing.”
Kade frowned. “I was just going to ask you about Derek. Shaw’s really worried about him.”
Our friend and fellow company commander, Derek McTavis, had been critically injured in an accident at air assault school several months back. He was home again, but he hadn’t recovered completely yet.
“I was planning to go check on him right now and see if I can persuade him to come out tonight. I’m not optimistic, though. He’s been a homebody ever since he got back here from Campbell, and he doesn’t even have the hot girlfriend excuse the rest of you do.”
“Yeah. From what I hear, they won’t clear him to come back to work yet, but he’s not doing much to change that. I invited him to come over for dinner, and he refused. Shaw said he skipped some appointments and blew off his meeting with the therapist the Army is requiring him to see.” Kade sighed. “If he doesn’t pull his shit together, he’s going to fuck up his whole career.”
“I’m not going to let that happen. None of us are.” I spoke with more assurance than I felt. “I’ll rattle his cage today, and then maybe we could all try to go over there this weekend and cheer him up. You know, we could watch the game, have some beers, just hang out.”
“Sounds like a good idea. I’ll see if I can work it out. I might have to bring Emma with me, though. I don’t like to leave Leah alone with her on the weekends if I can help it, since she shoulders so much during the week.”
“Eh, the baby’s too young for us to corrupt her yet, so you’re probably safe to bring her along.” I winked at him. “Okay, family man, I’ll let you get home to the little women.”
“Let me know how it goes with Derek.” He paused. “Have fun tonight, but not so much that I have to deal with anything on Monday, got it?”
I grinned. “You know me. I’m the soul of sound decisions and good choices.”
Kade rolled his eyes. “That’s what scares me.”
* * *
Among our group of captains who commanded companies in the 94thID, about half of us lived in the barracks on post, and the others lived in homes off-post. I was in the first group; I didn’t have a need for my own space, and I liked the idea of banking the extra money the Army allotted us. Derek, though, had a townhouse about ten minutes from post in the city of Petersburg. I pulled up in front of his place a little while after I’d left Kade.
I frowned as I jogged up the walk that led to his door. We all teased Derek—or Mac, as we sometimes called him—about his beautiful landscaping. Keeping his grass trimmed and green, his flower beds weed-free and his mulch devoid of leaves or pine needles was almost an obsession with the guy, and more than once, he’d won the title ofBest Maintained Yardfrom the homeowners’ association.
But today, the lawn was patchy, with brown spots creeping into the areas of overgrown grass. The bushes were overgrown, and the flowers’ heads were drooping and dead. Piles of crunchy leaves covered the beds and even scattered onto his small front porch. It was damn sad-looking, that was what it was.
I leaned on the doorbell and then followed that up with a quick pounding of my fist. “Yo, McTavis! Get your ass out here.”
For a solid three minutes, I didn’t hear a sound. I wondered if I’d somehow managed to stop during one of his appointments or if he’d actually left the house for another reason. And then there was a loud bang from within, followed by a dragging sound. I winced, picturing him pulling his leg across the hallway. Derek had been so active and vibrant not so long ago, and it killed me to see him defeated.
The door swung open, and Derek stared out at me. His eyes were dull and bleary, and his hair was longer than I’d ever seen it. The shirt that was hanging on his shoulders had several stains on it, and there might have been a smell.
“Dude.” I wagged my head. “Did you just get off a bender or what? You look like hell.”
