Page 2 of Forged By Sacrifice

ME: I know. I just wish I didn’t feel like I was letting people down by doing it.

BRAT: ** Whining GIF **

ME: Just for that, I may be late getting back to D.C.

BRAT: Did you miss the part about the hit man?

I was saved from further discussion about both my past and my future as Eli’s pickup turned onto the street.

ME: Gotta go. Eli’s here.

BRAT: Well, have fun for the both of us, and give Ava, Eli, and Truck hugs for me.

ME: Will do.

When Eli pulled up to the curb, I flung my bag into the bed before climbing into the air-conditioned cab.

“Mac!” Eli greeted, reaching across the console to give me a half-hug.

We were men. Military men. But we’d never been afraid to hug each other. We both had known, for a lot of years, that it could be the last time we were ever able to do it. Now that we had both lost our military titles—mine by choice, his by bad luck—we weren’t going to be changing how we greeted each other.

“Thought you’d never get here. F?forking humidity is enough to roll me over,” I said.

Eli smirked. “Forking?”

“Really trying hard to get this political lingo down.”

He laughed. I liked that he laughed so much these days. Since Eli and Ava had gotten together, he was almost jovial. It wasn’t the only change. He was still as muscled as he’d been in the Coast Guard, but he’d lost the buzz cut. Instead, his hair was almost always long enough to see the dark color that was just a shade lighter than mine.

Mine was all black. It made my blue eyes stand out, and that was okay by me. My looks had always helped me with the ladies. Not as many as most people thought I’d scored, but I’d definitely sown my wild oats. I was tired of sowing oats.

Eli put the truck in gear and headed out of town to the beach house he and Ava had been living in since they’d come back to Texas.

“When’s Truck getting here?” I asked.

“Friday,” Eli answered.

“Did he say whether he was signing his re-enlistment contract or not?”

“What’s with the twenty questions about Truck? You two not speaking or something?” Eli asked.

I chuckled. “No, asswipe. I’ve been on a boat in the middle of the ocean for two weeks. No signal.”

“The senator from Delaware was accused of using the word asswipe when speaking to his aide,” he said in a fake TV newscaster voice.

I flipped him off.

“I don’t think Truck will ever leave the Coast Guard as long as he has a choice,” Eli said.

That had been Eli’s plan, too. Never to leave. Until a harbor seal had crashed into him and his knee and changed everything he’d ever wanted. I crossed my fingers and begged my mom’s God that nothing like that ever crashed into my plans. I didn’t know what I’d do if I got sideswiped from my course of action.

“You all set to work for your grandfather?” Eli asked.

I nodded. Between Granddad and Dani, I had a job working in Senator Guy Matherton’s office. He was from my home state, and Granddad was his chief of staff. Dani had been working there since her own college days. It was going to be a challenge to prove it wasn’t pure nepotism that had gotten me the job.

“I haven’t signed on the dotted line yet because I’m waiting for the Navy paperwork to go through, but Granddad’s already got a desk for me next to Dani’s.”

Eli grinned. “That oughtta be fun.”

---