Page 6 of Inked Obsession

I looked through the peephole and smiled even as I scowled. I wasn’t sure how it happened, but it did. I opened the door, and my eldest brother, Eli, and my closest-in-age brother, the baby brother of the Wilders, Elliot, stood there.

There were seven of us, and everyone had a name that started with an E. My parents loved to make things confusing.

I blinked at them. “What are you two doing here?”

“We’re here because we love you,” Eli said as he shouldered his way in. Elliot gave me a small smile, and I sighed.

“Please, come in. It’s not like it’s a workday and I have anything to do.”

Elliot cleared his throat. “We’re not going to stay for long, we just wanted to stop by.”

“I didn’t even know you two were in the state.”

“We have a TDY at the academy,” Elliot said as he kissed my cheek. “We figured it would be good for us to come up and see you.”

“I’m in Fort Collins. That’s not like a twenty-minute drive.”

“No, but it’s not like driving through Texas, either,” Elliot said with a wink.

We had all been born outside of San Antonio, our father being military, as well. We had lived all over the world, though our dad had been Army. My six brothers had joined the Air Force. All six of them. And I had married a military man, too. Apparently, the apple didn’t fall far from the tree, no matter that the tree seemed to be wilting a bit.

Thatwas an odd metaphor to think of.

“So, really. What are you doing here?” I asked. “Not that I don’t love you guys being here. I love seeing you since I rarely get to, but what’s going on?”

Eli shrugged. “As I said, we love you. If all six of us could have gotten here, we would have, but it’s hard to get us all pinned down.”

“Considering that I don’t remember the last time we were all in the same place, you’re right,” I said softly. I missed my brothers something fierce. With all of them being active military, on different rotations, and on different bases, it meant that I rarely got to see them in one place unless it was over a video call.

“We really just wanted to tell you that we love you,” Elliot echoed.

Eli cleared his throat. “And, well, we’re all getting out,” he added, and Elliot winced.

I blinked, my heart racing. I couldn’t have heard that correctly. “What?”

“We’re all getting out. We’re not re-upping,” Eli said.

“We’re done. We did our time—some more than others,” Elliot said as he looked at Eli.

My eldest brother shrugged. “We did the time we wanted. I don’t know. It feels different now.”

I looked between them. “Because Marshall’s gone?” I asked, tears in my throat.

“That’s part of it,” Eli said and sighed. “Not all of it.”

Elliot leaned forward. “We’re done, Eliza. And we are thinking about going home.”

I looked between them and frowned. “Home? Where’s home for a military brat?” I asked, the refrain common and a joke on my tongue.

“Home, down to Texas,” Eli said. “We’re all going to work down there.”

“Together?” I asked.

“We’re working on it,” Elliot said softly.

“We want you to come with us,” Eli added. “Come, be with family. You don’t need to stay here. Marshall’s gone, let us take care of you.”

I looked between them and sighed. And then went to make more coffee. This would be a long discussion, and one I didn’t want to have.

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