“Let’s eat,” he smiled, switching off the grill and motioning for me to move.
The thought of food going into my belly made me want to throw up, but I wasn’t about to tell Enoch after he had just cooked a meal for us.I took a seat at the island, and he pulled out potato salad and a platter with sliced vegetables and hummus from the fridge. I watched in silence while he plated us both and then moved to take the seat beside me.
“Would it be weird if I blessed the food?” He asked, his face scrunched up with something akin to nervousness.
“Um, no. That’s fine.”
I tried to focus on his short prayer of thanks and blessing of the food, but the last time I prayed before a meal was in Eden. As if I needed any more reminders of how much had fucking happened since we last saw each other.The prayer ended and Enoch shot me a smile before digging in. I picked at the chicken, seemingly the safest option for my unsettled stomach.
“So, what about you? What’s new?”
I was hoping that getting him to talk about himself would keep his attention off of me and the fact that I wasn’t really eating anything.
“Uh, well, nothing really. I mean, my life isn’t that exciting. If I’m not working, I’m at the gym or working on the house. Still settling in here, so I haven’t really been out much.”
“And is Jae living here permanently or…?”
“Oh,” he paused to chew and swallow before continuing. “Yeah, he’s living here as long as I’m stationed here, or longer I guess if he decides he wants to stay. Um, he’s opening up an MMA gym actually.”
“Wow. When’s that happening?”
“The contractor says six weeks. It was supposed to be open July first, but they’ve had issues with some shipments of materials.”
I nodded, nibbling on another bite of chicken.
“And what about the rest of your family. How’s everything with them?”
Enoch paused for a moment, leaning back in his chair as he looked at me.
“They’re good. Really good,” he said with more of a sad than happy smile. “Esty starts her senior year of high school in the fall. Eden and Sebastian are good. They’ve had another kid. A little boy—Benjamin, or Benji for short. He’s almost three now. And Ruthie will be six this fall.”
My heart ached for everything I missed and how I wished I could have been there for those happy moments with Sebastian.
“My parents sold the house and moved back East near my grandparents. Actually, ourentirefamily, Jae’s family, Sebastian and his mom and stepdad too…they all moved to Pennsylvania.”
“Were you in Florida by then?”
Enoch nodded slowly. “Yeah, I was in Florida. I didn’t even know that my family was moving until they had already sold thehouse. It sucked not being involved when they packed up the house and left, but I guess that’s the price you pay when you join the military.”
“Did Jae live with you in Florida, too?”
Enoch sighed, leaning back over his plate and moving his food around absentmindedly.
“Uh, not until the last few months. And then he decided to move with me when I got my next assignment, Anchorage.”
I hummed in thought, sipping my soda before speaking. “I guess we had that in common. Moving around without much control.”
“Where were you before Anchorage?”
“Tulsa. It was just temporary, long enough to…”
“To what?”
I licked my lips. “I had gotten sick, and I stayed there to finish healing. And then I made it to Anchorage.”
“Sick?”
I crossed my legs, vague memories of the helicopter ride to the hospital flashing in my mind. I didn’t think I was going to live long enough to ever figure out that it was in fact the FBI who had come to get me. I didn’t remember any of my time in the ICU, other than Carlos died and they wanted me out of Texas. I stayed in Tulsa for three weeks recovering from the hemorrhage. After losing nearly all of the blood in my body, I was too weak to do anything myself and Bradley took on the role of caretaker. It was the start of a bond that should have never happened, because it led him to going against protocol and giving me choices for my relocation. Something that had resulted in the very situation I found myself in.
