Page 28 of Back To Our Beginning

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Beau and Drake just had one in front of them, along with muffins and glazed donuts. “Why did I make out?” I asked Beau.

“I’d already stopped at the diner before you called me. I’d gotten two cinnamon rolls for both of us, but with Drake here, I figured I’d share my second one. After all, he is here to give me shit. Right, big guy?”

Drake was in the middle of pouring himself a tall glass of milk.

“You’ve got it in one. You’re still enlisted, right?”

Beau nodded.

“How much more time are you going to be spending here in Jasper Creek before you have to go back to Pendleton?”

“Where is Camp Pendleton?” I asked.

“It’s in Southern California. About sixty miles north of me,” Drake answered.

“How do you know he’s stationed at Camp Pendleton?” I asked.

“You explain,” Drake said as he looked at Beau. Then he picked up his cinnamon roll and took a big bite.

“Marine Raiders are based out of Camp Pendleton,” Beau told me. “I’ve got a townhome near base.”

“How often are you in the States?” I questioned.

“Depends.” He took a bite out of his glazed donut. Not nearly as big as Drake’s bite.

“That isn’t an answer.”

“The longest I’ve been home was for three and a half months,” Beau admitted.

Beau was sometimes in the States for that long? I looked down at my plate. I was losing my taste for cinnamon rolls.

Drake looked over at me. “Aren’t you going to eat that?” he asked.

“No.”

He snatched one of the rolls off my plate.

Beau glared at Drake, then turned to me. “Maddie, I can explain.”

“Maybe later,” I whispered.

“You left her high and dry. You were a total prick.” Drake took a long sip of milk to wash down half of the cinnamon roll he’d stolen from me.

“There’s still stuff we need to talk about,” Beau said softly. “Come on, Maddie. Eat your cinnamon roll. You know you love them,” Beau coaxed.

I pushed my plate away and got up from the table. “Look, Beau. It’s water under the bridge,” I sighed. “We don’t need to discuss your time away. But I do think that maybe we’ve been going a little too fast.”

“You tell him, Maddie.” Drake grinned at me, then glared at Beau, who had stood up as well. “She’s kicking your ass to the curb. Are you hearing that, Beaumont?”

“Maddie, look at me.”

I put a smile on my face. I knew it didn’t reach my eyes, but at this moment, I didn’t have it in me to care. “Seriously, Beau. It’s all good. I’ll save my cinnamon roll for later. Right now, I want to catch up with my big brother. You don’t mind leaving, do you? It’s family time.”

“I’m coming back after he leaves.”

“I’m not leaving. Maddie has a guest room. I’m staying here for the duration. We have a lot of catching up to do. Consider yourself gone.” Drake didn’t even get up, but he was still menacing.