“No, honey, I’m teasing you.”
“Oh, god, I need to learn.”
“You will,” he promised. “You sorted everything with him, yeah?”
I nodded. “Navy and I had a very enlightening conversation.”
“Oh? Care to share?”
“She said I was free to,” I said. “But I still feel like it’s private.”
“Well, then only tell me what you feel comfortable telling me.”
“I doubt it’s anything you’re not already aware of. She just said that Cade has abandonment issues and he’d picked a fight with her earlier because she was heading out of town for work, so he was already on edge, so the fact that his baby brother, the brother he loves most of all—”
“She said he loves me most of all?” he asked.
“She did,” I confirmed. “Anyway, she said that every time you take off, and he doesn’t know where you are, he gets this pit in his gut like he’s going to lose you. And then all the stuff with Diana and Devon—”
“Wait, what happened with Devon?”
Devon was Cameron’s nephew and apparently, Cade had been fighting with his ex, Diana, over custody for years. Diana didn’t actually want custody, she just wanted child support.
“Diana tried to file something with the court,citing some erroneous report with CPS that of course never existed, and it was a whole thing that Cade had to take time away to deal with, which he, of course, did not tell Navy about right away.”
He sighed. “She’s an attorney, for fuck’s sake.”
“Her point exactly,” I said. “Navy was able to step in and take care of it, but she said he tried to call you and you didn’t answer…”
“Because we were in Russia,” he deduced.
“Yes. So, Cade’s been very, ah, what did he say to Cricket? Navy used it about Cade.”
He smiled. “Extra.”
“Yes. He’s been extra. And then she told him she has to head out of town tomorrow, apparently, so with all of it, it all got to be a bit much.”
“Makes sense. He lost brothers in the Army, too, so he’s experienced a lot of loss.”
I squeezed his hand. “You all have.”
“Yeah, but Hatch and Cade sheltered us from a lot of it. And I honestly don’t give Cade enough credit.”
“Well, now you can fix that. Maybe go grab a beer when we get home.”
“You just said ‘home.’”
“Yeah, so?”
“Are you saying Portland’s gonna be home?” he asked.
“Bugs, I love my family, and I think you will too, but if I tried to drag you away from yours, I think they would individually hunt me down and torture me until I was dead.”
He laughed. “That is not a reason to give up yourlife here. Iamwilling to compromise.”
I shook my head. “I love your family and they fight with and for each other. I’m not saying mine doesn’t, but it’s different. I will not now, nor ever, ask you to give that up. I also love the idea of having a gaggle of kids, once it’s safe, of course, and have them grow up in the chaos of cousins. And especially with an aunt like Cricket.”
“I love you,” he said as we drove up my parents’ driveway.
