You’re alive too, idiot.
I felt Patience’s hand touch the center of my back, and she began moving it in circles. Even through the barrier of fabric, her touch soothed me.
We stood outside the gates where she would come through, my stomach in knots, but it twisted painfully when Igot my first glimpse of her with the cane she was using and the prominent limp in her step.
When I pulled in a swift intake of breath, Patience moved her hand to mine and entwined our fingers.
“It’s okay,” she whispered, leaning in close to my ear and giving a gentle squeeze.
Dusty hadn’t seen us yet, and I worked to pull my shit together, pasting on a happy smile—a fake one, but I was trying.
I owed her that much. Fuck that; I owed her a lot more. It killed me to see her hurt at all, knowing that I couldn’t stop it from happening.
Lifting a hand in the air, I caught Dusty’s attention, and she made her way over to us. I should have gone to her, but I seemed to be frozen in place watching my friend, trying to judge how she felt and her mood.
I should have known what to expect.
Dusty may have let me hear a few seconds of vulnerability in her tone on the phone and admitted for a brief moment how she was feeling, but in the end, it wouldn’t last long. She didn’t usually dwell, called it like it was, and she also gave me more shit than any of the people I’d served with.
Her eyes lit up, then immediately narrowed when she moved in front of me. “Wipe that fake-ass smile off your face and stop the guilty bullshit running through your head.” She gave me a light punch to the arm. “I’m here for fun, not so we can drown ourselves in tears.”
Throwing my head back, I roared with laughter, and a genuine smile hit my face as Patience giggled.
“Wow, I love her already!” Patience said.
Dusty turned her attention to my wife and gave her a silly grin. “I don’t swing that way, but if I did you would be just my type. You're even more beautiful and adorable in person.”
Patience’s laughter was always magical, and it echoed likemusical notes through the whole airport as she blushed at the compliment, as well as her crazy comment. Dusty joined her, and watching the two of them bond like a flash of lightning was amazing.
Without thinking, I raised Patience’s and my joined hands so her ring sparkled in front of my friend’s eyes. “You’re too late; she’s already mine.” I wanted to addforeverbut I chickened out at the last second.
The blissful sigh at my acknowledgment from my wife didn’t go unnoticed, but Dusty’s reaction took precedence right then.
Smacking me upside the head with her free hand, her eyes darkened, and I knew I was busted. “You went and got married?” It was a rhetorical question, the answer clear, so she didn’t let me respond before carrying on. “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”
With how everything had come about, I wasn’t sure if telling her would be right. It all started out of convenience to help Patience and Griffin. When I let my wife go and moved on, the less people that knew, the better. And the less that would be mad at me.
But…
“It’s not real,” Patience whispered.
Gone was the laughter; sadness shone bright in her eyes. Fuck, I’d messed up again. Me not telling the one other friend I truly had outside our group seemed to speak volumes to the woman beside me. The misery on her face was soul-crushing.
Before I could do damage control or tell her that I was a fool and, of course it was real, Dusty jumped in.
She snatched Patience's hand out of mine. “Hogwash.” My friend looped her arm through my wife’s. “This fool has been wanting to marry you since the day he set eyes on you.”
Patience gasped, but Dusty was already pulling her awayfrom me. “Let’s go get my bag. You can tell me all about how my neanderthal friend managed to get everything he ever wanted but didn’t bother to tell me on the way.”
I followed, my wife’s gaze looking over her shoulder, a stunned look on her beautiful face. Dusty wasn’t wrong, but I didn’t have words, so living up to the neanderthal part, I just shrugged my shoulders.
What could I say? I was a dumbass.
I hoped one day I’d get my shit together.
For my wife’s sake.
My wife was enamored with Dusty, just as my friend was with her.
