14
COLE
I make my way through the house to the side yard after promising Jenna I’d wait for her there so she can go to the bathroom to freshen up.
That woman is something else.
It amazes me how she can instantly lift my mood. Just her presence is all I need and somehow, I don’t knowhow,everything miraculously becomes all right. The rockin’ sex helps too, but it’s more than that. It’s … God, I don’t know. I’m not a poetic man, and although I wish I knew of a better way to put it, I can’t. I can say this, though: Whateverthisis happening between Jenna and me, it’sright. And Godhelpme I hope I never fuck it up.
The party is still full of life as I exit the house to the side yard. All of the guests are busy mingling, drinking, and dancing, so I go unnoticed as I stand here almost in the shadows as I wait for Jenna.
A low burp catches me by surprise, and as I turn behind me I see a man—nice—taking a piss on my mother’s rose bushes. He staggers as he takes the longest piss I’ve ever heard, and I watch him with disgust on my face.
I am so thankful I don’t drink anymore.
As the man finishes and turns my way, I return my focus to the party.
“Hey. Buddy. You got a light?”
Fucking hell.
Every muscle in my body tenses and my chest puffs as I turn around to glare at Mark. His eyes are glassy and red where there should be white. Damn, he must’ve been really slamming them back tonight.
“No fucking way,” Mark says. The cigarette hanging on his lips bounces with his words. “I thought I’d heard you were back, but, shit, I didn’t believe it.” He palms his jacket and his pockets, coming back with the lighter he’d asked me for not two seconds ago and lights his cigarette.
“Well, believe it,” I tell him as I try to cool down the anger boiling in my veins.
Mark takes a long drag, narrowing his eyes as he pulls, and blows smoke right in my face.
Mother. Fucker.
“What the fuck is your problem, Gentry?” I raise my voice and allow my rage toshowthrough.
“You are,asshole,” Mark says and takes a step at me. “Why’d you come back anyway? Huh? Did you think people would’ve forgotten? Time goes by, all is good in the world, and pussyboy Sullivan can finally come home.” His voice lowers as he scowls at me with menace. “Let me tell you something, fucker, I’ve never forgotten.” He jabs his finger into his chest as he tells me this. “You, me, and Adam were a team. Andyoufucking killed him.”
I’m seething and on the verge of bashing his head in, but I try to rein it in and control my emotions. I won’t ruin my mother’s birthday party over this piece of shit. “Go home, Mark. You’re drunk and delusional. Sober up and then we’ll talk about why I’m an asshole.” I hold his glare for a moment longer, driving my point home of don’t-mess-with-me, and walk past him back toward the house. Fuck if I’m staying out here with him any longer.
Mark never could get over the fact that Adam died while I was covering him. Of course, I didn’t find this out until I was discharged from the hospital. He never came to see me. Not once. I did my best to shrug it off, thinking maybe it was hard for him to see me like that, especially since we’d both just lost someone very close to us. But that wasn’t the case.
About a week or so after I got home, we ended up running into each other at a local bar and things just erupted from there. I was so fucking happy to finally see him, and he justlaidinto me—flinging insults and yelling at me about Adam. Needless to say, it caught be off guard. I mean, I’d been battling with my own thoughts and feelings about Adam’s death, but hearing it come from someone else just destroyed me. Mark thought I was careless and claimed it was all my fault that Adam got shot.Jesus, Adam was my fucking friend too. Did he honestly believe that I justletthat happen?
Things only got worse from there, and Mark’s viciousness and hostility toward me only escalated over the next couple of weeks. I’d not only lost one best friend, but then I’d lost another; one giving his life for his country, and the other givingin toutter hatred. That’s why I ditched town. I could only take so much of the arguments and the bitter comments before I started to wonder if everyone felt the same but just weren’t being as vocal about it as Mark was. Hell, if I’mgoingto be honest, a part of me still feels this way.
“Have you heard the good news yet?”
I close my eyes and keep walking as I take in a deep breath through my nose and release it slowly through my mouth.
“Jenna and I are getting married.”
That stops me. What the fuck did he just say? I turn my head to the side so he knows I’m listening.
“Been together long enough, finally decided ‘why the hell not?’”
Footsteps shuffle through the grass as he slowly approaches me.
“What? No ‘congratulations’?” he says. “Oh, wait a minute, that’s right. You have a thing for her, don’t you?”
I turn to face him, gritting my teeth so hard that pain shoots down my jaw.
