Page 22 of Forged By Sacrifice

“Lucky us.”

“Damn straight,” he teased. “So, how does it feel being a civilian again?”

“Honestly? It hasn’t really settled in yet. Nash has been giving me shit nonstop.”

Truck had been able to meet Nash and Darren when we’d all met up at my family’s house in Delaware a year or so ago. Nash wasn’t the easiest man to get along with, but Truck had gotten on his good side in that way that Truck did with everyone.

“Here’s to hoping you can be a better politician than you were a wingman.” He held up his beer, and I refused to tap it with my own.

“I’m a damn good wingman.”

“Until you set your sights on some unexpected lady yourself, then you abandon ship.”

I was abandoning ship now, too, but it wasn’t for a woman it was from a woman.

“If it takes you too long to close your own deal, and I get propositioned, you can’t expect me to say no,” I retorted, grinning over my beer.

“Hence, not being a good wingman.”

“I take it you won’t be voting for me come election day then?”

“That’s years in the future. And you’d have to be in the same state as I am.”

It sucked being spread all over the country from my closest friends, but it helped that I was tight with my family. Being away from my friends allowed me to focus on work in a way that I might not have been able to do if I was trying to balance all the portions of my life. The unexpected melancholy I felt at leaving the Navy hit me again, along with the agony of not being able to have a certain pair of pale-green eyes to call my own, and I ordered another beer to wash it away.

Georgie

CHURCH

“I need redemption

For sins I can't mention.”

Performed by Aly & AJ

Written by Coogan / Rothman / Michalka / Michalka

We ended up back at the house earlier than expected after Truck and Eli arrived at the bar, because Eli called in reinforcements. Andy and Lacey came in, took one look at Ava, and shooed her right out. She objected, and they stared her down like any good parent could. Lacey and Andy had their own sons somewhere, but they’d inherited Ava when she’d needed them most. I was pretty sure they were more like parents to her than her dad had ever been.

It still said a lot about how rotten she felt that Ava gave in. It said even more about it that, when we got back to the house, she went to her room and didn’t come out until morning. But once she was awake, she announced to us all that we were spending the day on the beach with a picnic, and none of us argued. It was the perfect way to spend part of Fourth of July.

I loved the Fourth almost as much as Christmas. They were both usually full of lazy days, food, and lights. The Fourth’s lights were in the sky, whereas Christmas’s lights were in the trees and on the houses. Plus, there was good music to go with both holidays.

I didn’t even realize I was humming aloud until Truck asked, “What is that?”

“Um, ‘Born in the U.S.A.’” I smirked, knowing I was pretty close to tone deaf, but not caring.

“I’m pretty sure that’s not what it sounds like.” Mac grinned at me, causing thunderbolts to jolt across my stomach.

I started humming “America,” and Truck burst out laughing. “What the hell is that one?”

“Are you American at all?” I asked.

“I’m American enough to know that isn’t any song our country wants to be known for.”

Ava came to my rescue by singing the first verse in her beautiful voice.

“That wasn’t what Georgie was singing,” Truck laughed.

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