"How do you know?"
"Because she came all this way. That takes courage. She's not going to bail now."
I hope he's right.
At 6:02, there's a soft knock on the front door. My heart nearly stops.
"I'll get it," Tucker says, already moving toward the door with Emma still attached to him.
"Wait—" I start, but it's too late.
Tucker opens the door, and there's Claire. She's changed into a clean shirt and jeans, pulled her hair back into a neat ponytail.She looks terrified but determined, her hands clasped in front of her like she's trying to keep them from shaking.
"Hi," she says, her voice small. "I'm Claire. Sorry I'm a couple minutes late. I was trying to find the courage to walk over here."
Tucker's expression softens immediately. "No apologies necessary. Come in. I'm Tucker, and this is my daughter Emma."
"Hi, Emma," Claire says, and manages a genuine smile when Emma waves at her.
Then Tucker steps aside, and Claire walks into the house full of strangers who think they know her story. Her eyes find mine immediately, and I see the question in them: *Are we really doing this?*
I nod slightly. We're really doing this.
"Everyone," Tucker says, his voice carrying over the kitchen chaos. "This is Claire. Let's make her feel welcome."
And just like that, my entire world changes.
Because everyone stops what they're doing and turns to face her. Wade with his spoon still dripping chili. Sierra with plates in her hands. Colt with his mouth half-open mid-joke. Mason, Boone, Nicole, Harper, Marley, all of them looking at this woman who's supposed to be my old military friend but is actually a stranger I met on the internet.
The buzzing in my ear becomes deafening.
And Claire stands there, small and scared and so far out of her depth, and I realize with sudden, crushing clarity that I can't let her do this alone. I cross the room in three strides and stop beside her. Not touching, but close enough that she knows I'm there. Close enough that we're facing this together.
"Hey," I say, just for her. "You okay?"
She looks up at me, those blue eyes wide with panic. "No," she whispers. "But I'm here anyway."
"That's all that matters," I tell her.
And then I turn to face my family, the people who've known me since I was sixteen, who've seen me at my worst and loved me anyway, and I prepare to lie to them for Claire's sake.
For our sake.
Whatever the hell that means.
Chapter 4 - Claire
I've made a terrible mistake.
That's the only thought running through my head as I sit in the chair Rhett pulled out for me, my hands sweating so badly I have to wipe them on my jeans under the table. There are so many people here: nine adults plus a seven-year-old who keeps staring at me with curious eyes, and every single one of them thinks they know who I am.
An old military friend of Rhett's. Someone who served, who saw combat, who has a legitimate shared history with the man sitting next to me.
Except I've never been in the military. I've never even been on a military base. The closest I've come to anything military-related is watching *Top Gun* with my father when I was twelve.
This lie is insane. This whole situation is insane.
"So, Claire," says the guy Rhett introduced as Wade—tall, dark-haired, sitting next to a pretty woman with kind eyes named Sierra. "How do you like Blackwater Falls so far?"
