“Well…” Cash lifts his hands and lets them fall. “Yeah.”
Her eyes narrow. He’s not giving her the whole story, and she knows it. “And after everything, you couldn’t have…oh, I don’t know…come andtoldme you were leaving? Instead, you left me sitting on Aunt Bea’s front porch holding a Dear Jane letter that said exactly seven words. ‘I’m sorry, Maggie. I have to go.’”
“How is Miss Bea?” he asks.
I’d never call him a coward, but he does have a rare gift when it comes to evasion.
“As poised and perfectly coiffed as ever,” Maggie says without missing a beat and then quickly adds, “How did you know where I live?”
Cash looks over at me. The flick of his fingers says without words,This is where you come in.
“Mom told me where we could find you,” I confess, feeling a niggle of discomfort admitting thatIwas instrumental in the planning of this ambush. “You’re friends with her on Facebook.”
To my great relief, Maggie’s expression doesn’t harden. Just the opposite. Her eyes soften at the corners. “She’s doing well up in Shreveport?” she asks.
Thinking of howwell my mother is doing makes me smile. “After I joined the army, she put herself through beauty school and opened her own salon. She says she enjoys it. But I think she likes the gossip and the girl time more than doing hair.”
“I’ve seen some of her posts about you. She’s so proud.” Maggie’s brow beetles. “But I always thought it was weird that she never posted where you were stationed or what you were up to. She hasn’t put up a picture of you in forever.”
“That’s because Luc and I have been Green Berets for the last eight years, and the spec-ops community frowns on putting photos of ourselves online for all the world to see,” Cash explains. “It’s safer for us if friends and family keep things on the DL. Foreign governments…agents…you understand.”
“I do?” Maggie blinks. “What’s spec-ops?”
“Special operations,” Cash explains.
“Shut the front door.” She looks to me for confirmation, and all I can do is shrug. “Okay… Well, that’s just…” She shakes her head. “Wow. I always knew you two were meant for great things. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised the US government felt the same.”
“The movies make it seem more exciting than it really is,” I tell her. Adulation of any kind, but especially the adulation of women who hear what we do and then look at us like we’re a couple of heroes, makes me want to crawl out of my skin.
Cash sends me a look. It says I’m full of horseshit. What we did waswaymore exciting (also far,farmore dangerous) than the silver screen will ever accurately portray. Still… Maggie doesn’t need to know that.
Quiet professionals.That’s what the Green Berets are known as. Emphasis on thequiet.
“And now?” she asks. “What are y’all doing back here?”
“We’re out,” Cash declares. “Civilians. Me because I took a blast to the head that made a slurry of my brains.” He points to the scar above his temple. “Luc because his contract expired, and I convinced him not to re-up. ‘Time to call it quits and go back home,’ I told him. So here we are.” He spreads his arms wide.
Her eyes skim over to the angry-looking half-moon wound, and alarm blooms over her face. “What do you mean you took a blast to the head that made a slurry of your brains?”
“Maybeslurryis a bit of an exaggeration. More like my noggin was given a vigorous jostle. Just enough to get me a disability discharge.”
She grabs her locket again, and my heart kicks over. “Are you…” She stops to swallow. “Are you okay?”
He laughs. “Was Ieverokay? I mean, really?”
“Cash, come on.” The impatience in her tone is so familiar I almost smile. This is how it always was. Her trying to be serious. Cash cutting up.
“I’m fine.” He bats away her worry. His head injury is a subject he tries to avoid like last week’s shrimp.
Feeling sorry for him, I’m quick to change the subject. “Cash used part of his savings and bought a house over on Orleans Avenue. He’s gonna fix it up.”
The pulse in her neck double-times it when she glances from him to me and back again. “That means y’all are here to stay, then?”
“Yep.”NowCash’s expression is serious. His eyes never flinch from her face.
I’m watching her closely too, trying to decide if the news makes her happy or wary. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the latter given the way we left things.
“And what about you, Luc?” she asks. “Did you buy a place too?”
