"What did you call me?"
"Sunshine," I murmur again, forehead pressed to hers. "You've been mine since the first damn time you smiled at me. I just didn't know what to do with it."
She swallows, lashes fluttering. "Then stop wasting time."
I step back, chest heaving, hands shaking. "Lucy, I'm leaving in five days. I don't want to start something I can't finish."
Her eyes don't waver. "Then finish it when you get back."
I shake my head. "Noah's going to lose his mind."
"Then let him. We're not kids. And this... this isn't some fling."
And damn it, she's actually right.
The last thing I expected before deployment was to fall headfirst into something I can't walk away from. But Lucy? She isn't a maybe. She's it.
"Okay," I say finally, voice rough. "But it's just us. No one else knows. Not until I'm back. Right now, I want to spend what little time I have with you."
Her smile breaks across her face like the promise of dawn. "Deal."
The next three days go by in a blur of sneaking glances, late-night texts, and drives down back roads where no one can see us.
We steal time like it's running out. Because it is.
Two days before I'm set to deploy, I'm at my older brother Jake's place helping him fix a broken hinge in the barn when we hear a car pull up the driveway. He glances at me, brows drawn, clearly not expecting anyone. I wipe my hands on a rag, instincts on alert. Then I hear it. That voice I haven't heard in too long.
"This place still smells like cow shit and sweat, or is that just Jake?"
Brentley.
Dropping the rag, I bolt through the barn door. He's standing there in the driveway, in boots and a dusty ball cap, grinning like he owns the world. My twin, and my shadow for most of our lives. I cross the gravel in three strides and pull him into a hug so hard it knocks the wind out of both of us.
"You son of a bitch," I mutter into his shoulder. "You didn't tell me you were coming."
He slaps my back, laughing. "Had to make a dramatic entrance, didn't I?"
Pulling back, I stare at him, scanning his face to confirm he's really here. He's alive, he’s here, fresh off his last deployment.
With his therapy dog Atticus in tow, Jake jogs up behind me. "You're early. You weren't supposed to…"
"Surprise," Brentley says, throwing his arms out.
Jake just shakes his head with a half-grin. "Mom's going to lose her mind when she sees you."
"Yeah, well," Brentley says, clapping Jake on the shoulder. "Figured I'd get my time in with my favorite brother before deployment round two takes you from us."
"Rude," I say.
"True," Brentley shoots back.
We fall into step toward the porch, the three of us side by side. I didn't realize how much I missed this.
"So," he says, leaning closer to me with a smirk, "how long have you been sneaking around with the blonde Carr girl?"
I stop walking.
He keeps going.
