Karen’s expression turned serious. “Look, Dylan. You remember how she was when her dad left.” She looked away, regret clear in her expression. “She never got over the pain of being left behind by someone who was supposed to love her unconditionally. Then she lost you.”
Dylan’s chest panged painfully.
“I’m not saying that to upset you or make you feel bad. I know that she wasn’t fair to you either.” She reached out to him and squeezed his hand. “I want you to know that if she lets you back in and you hurt her again, you would destroy her. She’s done a lot to protect her heart over the past few years.”
He nodded, swallowing hard to give them both his truth. “Ifshe lets me back in, I don’t plan on ever leaving her again.”
They both smiled at him, yanking him down into a group hug.
“I know you’ll take good care of her, Dylan,” said Karen.
His throat was tight in the wake of her mom’s approval, and he had to clear it a few times before he felt confident speaking without his voice cracking. “Now”—he clapped his hands together—“point me in the direction of the grill. I heard I’m on barbecue duty today.”
* * *
After hours of flipping burgers and turning hot dogs for what felt like the entire town, Dylan finally finished cleaning the grease off the grill and shut the lid.
His attention had been split between the food and Kelsi the entire evening. She looked beautiful, dressed in a purple sundress. She’d been dancing to the music with her friend Abby, and his eyes followed her movements greedily. At one point, she’d laughed at something Sheridan said to her, and Dylan had stared so long at them he’d burned the burgers on the grill.
Now that his job was done, he was free to talk to her. He grabbed two cans of beer from a cooler nearby and made his way over to them. He saw Kelsi and Abby watch him as he grew closer. Abby leaned over to whisper something in Kelsi’s ear. Kelsi swatted at her friend with the back of her hand, but she kept her eyes locked on Dylan’s.
Abby left Kelsi’s side and passed him as they walked in opposite directions. He gulped, eyes wide, when she hissed, “Hurt her, Holloway? You’ll be missing your favorite appendage in the morning.” Her steps didn’t even falter as she kept walking, but he tripped over his feet and gawked after her, deciding in that moment that Kelsi’s friend was terrifying. No matter that she was one of the most petite women he’d ever seen.
He looked back to Kelsi, who smiled shyly and cocked her head in the direction of the dock, turning and walking toward it without waiting for him. From this angle, he could appreciate the way her sandals emphasized the lean muscles in her calves, and the way her hips swayed sensuously with her steps.
He followed her down to the end of the dock, handing her one of the beers he’d brought. Carefully, he lowered himself at her left side, bad leg first, until he was sitting beside her anddangling his feet over the water. He sat near enough to her that their thighs brushed.
Together, they watched the sun slowly sinking beneath the trees that took up the view on the western end of the creek. They drank their beers and enjoyed the company and the beautiful show that Mother Nature granted them.
In the fading light, so much felt unsaid between them, but they sat silently until the last of the pink had faded from the sky, and it changed to a deep violet, melding into a midnight blue the further east they looked.
Dylan studied her face in the gloomy light and thought she’d never looked more beautiful than she did then.
She peered down at his thigh, where his board shorts had ridden up, revealing the puckered tissue from his scar. Hesitantly, she reached across his lap and softly brushed a finger across the scar. He sucked in a harsh breath at the ghost of a touch against his marred skin. For once, instead of feeling only pain from that leg, he felt a pleasurable tingle of nerves.
She looked up at him from lowered lashes, shadows casting across her cheeks from the way they fanned out. Kelsi nibbled on her bottom lip before she asked, “Will you tell me about how you got this?”
He couldn’t contain his flinch at the question, his stomach clenching at the memory she invoked. When he closed his eyes at night, he could still picture the dust everywhere, hear the screams and smell the blood. “I will one day, but not today. Not yet.”
Her eyes were sad as she noted his reaction to her question, and she reached up to smooth the crease between his brows with her thumb. “Can I ask you something else, then?”
“You just did,” he joked, trying to lighten the mood.
It worked. She rolled her eyes and playfully shoved his shoulder.
“Of course,” he said, serious again.
“If you could reenlist, would you? I mean, if your leg was healed enough?”
He thought for only a second. “No. I know I can’t go back. Serving, like my dad did ...” He broke off, shaking his head. “It meant everything to me. I’d never thought about enlisting until the bar exam rolled around.” He let the other reason,her, go unsaid. “I made friendships that will last a lifetime, learned so much about the world, about myself, and about my dad. I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything. But I also lost someone else important to me, and I almost lost myself. When I came back stateside and saw my mom for the first time in the hospital, seeing her fear over losing me like we’d lost my dad, in that moment I knew that I couldn’t re-up even if my leg was fine. I couldn’t do that to her or to myself. So, I started looking for jobs in town or near here, and Banksy was nice enough to offer one.”
He peered over at her, and she was watching him, silently, taking it all in. He felt like he was flayed open and she could see everything, every part of himself that he’d kept locked away.
Finally, Kelsi spoke. “Nobody told me you had been hurt.”
It wasn’t a question, but he knew what she wanted to know.
“I asked them not to.”
