Page 68 of Her Summer Hope

“The fuck?!” Kyle said, disgusted. “Who does that?”

“I’m considering breaking both of Wyatt’s arms after this is over,” he said, crossing his arms.

“I won’t stop you,” Kyle said, mirroring Murdock’s posture. He paused a moment then spoke. “Cal…”

Murdock waited, but Kyle only sighed. “Never mind.”

“What?” Murdock insisted.

“Nothing.”

“Tell me now or I’ll call over your new friend,” he said, nodding toward the brunette who’d finally left him alone.

“You wouldn’t dare.”

“I dare anything,” Murdock said truthfully.

“I just wondered if what Madison told you had anything to do with her husband.”

Murdock leaned against the wall and let his breath out in a gust. “I told you, he doesn’t know and she won’t tell him. I can’t tell you any more than that.”

“So, she isn’t…leaving him?” Kyle murmured.

Murdock’s gaze shot to his face and he had to steel himself to keep his own expression impassive. “I just need to know if my employee will need more hours.”

Cal’s lips twitched. “That’s it, huh? You’re just being a good boss?” He snorted and Kyle waited. “She didn’t say that she was doing anything of the sort. What’s happened is…happening to her and not the other way around. I don’t think it has anything to do with her husband at all.”

“Then why won’t she tell me?!” Kyle exploded. “Something is bothering her and she won’t ask for help. She won’t tell me a damned thing!”

The others didn’t hear his outburst, but from the way John was watching him, he’d caught the volatile expressions on his face.

“Why do you care so much, Top? If you won’t let yourself take her, then you need to stay in your lane as her boss and her friend. She has no obligation to tell you anything,” Murdock reminded him.

Kyle scrubbed his face. He was right. He was right, damn it. He didn’t know why the situation was getting him so worked up. He’d known Madison for a few weeks and already things were getting all tangled up. It had all happened so fast.

Shit. He was just infatuated, that’s all it was. Once the newness and his weird obsession with his married cook wore off, things would go back to normal.

Plain, boring, lonely normal.

He found that he didn’t want that.

∞∞∞

He left the late summer garden, now stripped of most of its vegetables, and went back to the deck where Aiden was calling for everyone to come and eat.

His mastery of the grill had given him a confidence that he lacked most of the time.

Kyle thought more of that confidence was just under the surface. He was still the same man he’d been before the attack, a Green Beret like him, and that didn’t just go away. The skills were there, and so was the knowledge. He just needed time and understanding.

Jace…Jace was going to be harder.

The issues he was dealing with went way beyond physical. Where Aiden had a touch of PTSD like any man who’d been in combat or been wounded, Jace had enough for a whole damned platoon.

It was going to be a struggle for him to learn to adapt and not overcompensate for any outside stimuli that triggered him. The first step would be getting him to open up more and to be more comfortable in his surroundings.

“I do not understand how you guys can eat that much,” Pamela said, eyeing Murdock’s three cheeseburgers with horror.

“I’m not a fucking skeleton. I require actual food to live,” he rumbled, staring pointedly at her little pile of lettuce.

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