Page 75 of Cohesion

Parker mimicked the face. “It’s not my fault that we didn’t get the telepathic thing when we lined up for special twin powers.”

“It’s what happens when you get in the wrong line,” Peyton said with a shrug.

“You were born first.Yougot in the wrong line. I just had to follow.”

“Being a sheep is not an excuse.”

“Baaaaa.”

“Should have eaten you in the womb,” Peyton muttered.

“But you didn’t. Mistakes were made. Regrets are hard.”

Peyton grunted and sipped at his coffee. Regretswerehard. Everyone had them. Peyton only had two, but they’d both made an impact on his life that he couldn’t take back. Sebastian and Quinn had them. Maybe even Will did, though if he had any, Peyton didn’t know about them. Jericho sounded like he’d had one hell of a start to life, so it was doubtless that he didn’t have any.

“That’s a serious face.”

“I’m thinking about the tragic reality of sharing the same face as you,” Peyton retorted.

“Good thing it’s a cute face.”

“I’ll take your word for it.”

“Wanna tell me what’s going on?”

There were so many things he wanted to talk to Parker about. So much had happened in just a few weeks, and he didn’t know how to get it all out.

“I miss being in the military,” Peyton confessed. “I miss… having a purpose?”

“Civilian life doesn’t suit you. I could have told you that.”

Might have already, for all Peyton knew. “I wouldn’t have listened.” All of his family had given him some form of advice when he’d left the military. He’d be hard-pressed to remember any of it. He hadn’t been willing to listen through the haze in his mind.

“You get that stubbornness from Riley.”

Peyton snorted. Their mum had always said that he and Riley were so alike, and it was why they butted heads so often. “Yeah.”

“You could go back?” Parker said tentatively. “You know they’d trip over themselves to get you to reenlist. Or you could fill out that paperwork that Riley gave you.”

Peyton had thought about it. Being a cop was almost a family legacy.Almost.Their grandfather had been. Their dad was. Now Riley. The difference was that none of them had done it because of obligation. They’d joined the force because it had been their dream. It just wasn’t Peyton’s. His had been to follow in the footsteps of his brother Danny, and Danny’s childhood best friend, Aidan. He’d looked up to them, wanted tobethem.

All it had done was show him how much he wasn’t them.

“I took a job offer I got from somewhere else. But it’s not exactly mainstream, on-the-level kind of work that would make Dad proud.”

“That sounds ominous.” Parker gathered their mugs and put them in the sink. When he came back, he didn’t get back in his own chair, instead sliding onto Peyton’s lap, wrapping his arms around his neck. “Santa, for Christmas I want—”

“Get off, youdork,” Peyton said, laughing.

Parker grinned. He did move but not far, hiking himself up on the table and resting his feet on the chair between Peyton’s legs. “What was the job offer?”

“Black ops,” Peyton admitted. “I think they are, anyway. Jericho has never actually come right out and said it. I just… inferred it, I suppose.”

“So maybe-black ops.” Parker tilted his head, studying Peyton. “Government-sanctioned wetwork; is that really what you want to do?”

“Maybe?” It was the most honest answer he could give. He wanted to say yes or no with any kind of certainty, but he couldn’t.

All he knew was that he wanted the nightmares to stop, and if this was how he did it, then he would jump in with both feet.

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