Page 153 of The Spider & the Storm

“Oh, what is he doing today?” Barbara asked.

“Older or younger?” Chris asked.

“Where does he live?” Barbara again. “Is he married?”

Why couldn't I have just taken my chances and lied?

I shook my head, unable to address any one person at the table, not even Stormy. “He, um … he's older, and n-not married, no. He, uh …”

“Charlie's brother is actually in prison right now, and he doesn't like talking about it,” Stormy interjected.

Dammit, I knew she had meant well. I knew she was trying to help. But all I could do was hold my breath, waiting to hear what they had to say. Waiting for another slew of unwanted questions about why and how long and whatever the fuck else.

Thankfully, they didn't come.

“Oh,” Barbara replied, clearly taken aback. “I'm sorry. I didn't mean—”

“It's okay,” I quickly said, lifting my eyes enough to meet her gaze. “It's just a touchy subject.”

“Of course,” Chris said, then cleared his throat awkwardly.

Then, Noah startled us all by saying, “Hey, Dad was in prison too. It's okay. None of us care about that kinda crap.”

It was a sweet sentiment and one I probably should've appreciated more. But at the mention of his father, I looked up at Soldier, and I found him staring right back at me. One brow lifted, hand gripping his fork, but not moving. I thought he might scold his son for saying something, for divulging a part of his past that maybe he hadn't wanted mentioned in a stranger's company.

Instead, he asked, “What prison is your brother in?”

I swallowed around a ball of lead and said, “Wayward.”

He released the fork in his hand and sat back in his chair. “What did you say your last name was?”

Soldier, Soldier, Soldier …

We stared each other down as I repeated his name in my head. Who the fuck named their kid Soldier? And why the hell did I feel like I knew it from somewhere? Why the hell did I feel like I'dheardit before? Not from Stormy, but … on the news? He'd been in prison, I knew that, so … whatever his crime, wasn't it possible I had …

Soldier, Soldier …

“… Soldier and I …”

My lips parted at the sound of Luke's voice ringing through my head. Remembering a time, a Sunday years ago, when I'd gone to the visitor center to bitch and moan about what a shit show life had turned into while my brother was living it up behind bars. Remembering a brief mention that had been so inconsequential at the time, so stupid and pointless, only for it to now feel so damning.

And Soldier remembered too.

The table went silent as he lifted his finger and wagged it at me. “Your brother … oh my God, yourbrother… we called him Zero.”

A torrent of emotions raced through my mind and heart at the sound of that nickname, at the realization that not only did he know my brother, but they werefriends. At the knowledge that I had somehow—by some stroke of misfortune or luck or fate or whatever the fuck you wanted to call it—managed to fall in love with a woman whose brother-in-law just so happened to have shared a prison dorm with my brother.

I simultaneously wanted to scream, cry, run away, and wrap this guy in a big fucking hug.

But because I couldn't manage any of those things, I huffed a laugh that was tight and constricted by the sadness and disbelief wedged inside my throat. “I always thought that was the stupidest nickname.”

“Holy shit,” he said, bewildered.

Ray looked from her husband to me to Stormy. “This is absolutely insane.”

“It's certainly a small world,” Barbara seemed to agree.

That it is, Barbara, I thought, unable to take my eyes from a man who'd spent more time with my brother in recent years than I'd been allowed. A man who, I realized, might know far more than I was willing to admit. One who could potentially have the power to ruin everything.It is a small, small, small fucking world.

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