Page 70 of Everlasting Promises

I laugh softly. “That goes both ways. He’s an awesome kid.”

Her eyes go soft, and her smile widens as she tilts her head to the side a little. “Aww, so sweet. We all love him to pieces.” She studies me for a moment and nods. “So, how long have you been a cop?”

I tuck one hand in the pocket of my jeans. “Graduated from the Academy when I was twenty-one, so six years, give or take.”

Her eyebrows rise. “What made you want to become a cop?”

Hope sighs beside me and shuffles on her feet. “Clara,” she scolds. “This isn’t the time for an inquisition.”

I’d love to tug her into my side and tuck her under my arm, but it feels disrespectful to do anything like that in front of Wyatt’s family. I chuckle and get my head back into the conversation. “I don’t mind.” I lift and drop one shoulder. “I enjoy helping people. I like that every day, I get to work within the community and build relationships. I like having a positive impact on the people I come into contact with and I enjoy the unpredictability of my job. No two days are ever the same, and it keeps life interesting.”

Clara listens intently, then a slow grin tips up her lips. “Not so you can arrest all the people you don’t like and throw them in a cell?” She chuckles. “Because that’s what I’d do.”

“Oh, my god, Clara.” Hope rolls her eyes at her friend, then tugs me away. “I’m so sorry about my best friend.”

“Hey, I’ve thought about doing that.”

She knocks her shoulder into my arm. “You have not. You’re a good man, Ben Taylor.” I can’t explain the feeling that grows and spreads through my body with her words. Something like pride—pride that she thinks I’m a good man—wraps around me, and it makes me hopeful she’ll consider me as more than a friend someday.

I lean down and lower my voice. “I can be bad in the right situation.” Pulling away, I wink at her and watch the pink blush rise up her pale throat.

Without a word, she leads me over to the man I assume is Shane and clears her throat. “I want you to meet Wyatt’s best friend.” He’s standing with an attractive woman who’s holding the hand of a cute little girl, and a guy who must be in his mid-to-late forties. “Ben, these are Wyatt’s friends from the Army, Shane and Nix. And this is Shane’s fiancée, Violet, and her little girl, Jasmine.” The sweet little girl smiles up at me shyly, then shuffles behind her mother. So cute.

I dip my chin and hold out my hand, shaking Shane’s hand, then Nix’s. “Thank you for your sacrifice. Good to meet you both.”

The sacrifices these men have made for us blows my mind. Service men and women come home with no support and little public regard for what they’ve experienced, and the government expects them to return to their lives as though nothing’s changed for them. It’s unreal. And I know for a fact that these two men have survived something truly horrific.

Nix and Shane tilt their chins up, acknowledging my appreciation. “Thank you for yours,” Nix says. As if anything I do is remotely similar to what they’ve experienced.

“Nice to meet you, Violet.”

“You, too.” She dips her head with a smile, her eyes flicking to Hope.

I crouch, so I’m at eye level with Jasmine. “Hey, Jasmine.”

She burrows behind her mom’s leg, hiding her face, but not before I see her smile. Then she pops back out. “Hello.”

I glance up at her mom. “You have a cutie pie here.”

Violet chuckles. “Thank you.” She rests her hand on her daughter’s head and strokes her silky-looking hair.

Shane readjusts his grip on his crutches. “Thanks for helping with soccer practice, man.”

I stand to my full height. “No problem. Happy to help for as long as you need”—I nod to his crutches—“but I might ask for some tips from you, if you don’t mind.” I rub the back of my neck. “I’d never even watched a full game until Evan asked me to help.” I laugh softly. “Then I binged everything I could find on YouTube in an afternoon.”

Shane chuckles. “Yeah, sure. No problem. I was the same. It took me a while to find my feet,” he says, then takes a drink of his beer. “But Evan tells me you did a great job.”

Hope gently rests her hand between my shoulder blades, and it feels so good to have her touching me; I close my eyes briefly to soak up the sensation. “I’ll grab you a beer. Back in a minute.”

When I open my eyes, Shane’s watching me closely, and a slow smile tips up one side of his mouth. “Evan tells me you’re part of the K9 unit.”

I shake my mind clear and focus back on the conversation. “Uh, yeah. I’ve worked with Rex for about four years now. He was trained under another handler, but when he retired, I took over. We do a lot of searches for lost people or locating perpetrators on the run. It’s rewarding work.”

“I bet.” He pauses, watching me closely. “Hope was telling me Evan is quite taken with your dog, Rex.”

I laugh softly. “The feeling’s mutual. When Evan’s around, he and Rex are inseparable.”

Hope returns with an open beer, which I accept gratefully, and then she rushes off, mentioning something about getting the food out of the oven. Violet steps away to help, leaving me with Nix and Shane. My nerves ratchet up, so I take a drink of the cold beer for something to do. This feeling is completely foreign to me. I don’t usually worry what people think of me, but today, it’s all I’ve done.

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