“He went to college on the GI Bill then served in the Army.”
Another pause.
“You want to know the man he really is?” Cari asked softly, answering without waiting. “When he finally had enough money, he moved his grandparents down here. They live in Fort Lauderdale now.”
The knot in Julia’s chest twisted harder. “He takes care of them?”
“Completely,” Cari said. “If you can’t find him on Sunday afternoons, that’s where he is.”
None of this matched people’s image of controlled, unreachable Leland Hale. But with a new perspective, she couldunderstand the truth behind it. The distance, the refusal to get close to anyone. It wasn’t cruelty. It was survival.
Cari’s voice gentled further. “There’s one other thing.”
Julia looked up, emotion tightening her throat. “There can’t be.”
“I’m afraid so.” Cari hesitated this time. “Dev didn’t give details. I don’t think even he knows all of it. Just that there was a mission that went bad before the FBI.”
Julia already knew. Could feel it coming.
“He and one other from his unit were the only ones who returned alive,” Cari finished quietly.
Julia stared at the screen, heart aching for Leland. Not once. Not twice. Again and again. Loss layered over loss until it became a belief that loving someone meant burying them.
Cari watched her carefully. “Are you okay?”
Julia shook her head faintly. “I should never have asked,” Julia whispered.
“You didn’t. I offered. Besides, you needed to know,” Cari said gently. “It makes sense why loving you scares the hell out of him.”
Julia closed her eyes briefly. Because now she was terrified too.
After the call ended, she sat there for a long time, staring at nothing.
The house felt different now. Not just quiet. Haunted by everything he carried alone. Every room held traces of a man who had spent most of his life surviving loss and somehow still got up every morning and kept going. Her chest ached with it.
She heard the shower start faintly downstairs. Julia stood before she could think better of it and walked downstairs. The bathroom door was ajar. Steam curled through the room when she stepped inside.
Leland looked up from beneath the spray, water running over broad shoulders and down hard muscle. He tensed the second he saw her.
“What happened?”
Nothing. Everything. Julia shook her head once.
She didn’t trust herself to speak. Instead, she pulled off her clothes and got into the shower with him. Leland’s hands settled automatically at her waist, steadying her as she moved closer.
Protective by instinct. Always.
She finally understood why. Not completely. Maybe she never fully would. But enough to see the weight he carried beneath all that control. Enough to realize he probably thought letting people close was the cruelest thing he could do to them.
She wrapped her arms around him without speaking and pressed her cheek against his chest.
For a second, he remained completely still. As if he didn’t know what to do with her. Then, slowly, carefully, his arms closed around her.
Tighter than usual. Not possessive. Not sexual. Just… holding on.
Julia shut her eyes. The water pounded around them, warm and soothing, but she still felt the tension in him. The constant vigilance.
One of his hands slid into her wet hair. Gentle. His chin rested briefly against the top of her head.
