Page 198 of California Wild

“Natalie’s my sister,” Heath continued. “She’s the only one of us who actually settled down like a functional adult. Her husband’s Air Force—stationed at North Island.”

Hayley frowned. “Wait. You’re all military?”

“Adam’s a SEAL too,” Natalie said. “Our older brother. And then there’s Heath. The glue of the family.” She smirked, nudging him. “Even if he acts like a cranky old man.”

Heath rolled his eyes, but Hayley barely heard them.

Her mind was spinning.

This was what the SEAL community was. Taking care of each other. Showing up when someone needed them. No questions. No hesitation.

Natalie walked into the kitchen, grabbing herself a coffee like she belonged there. Like she’d done this a hundred times before.

“I told Heath I’d check in on you,” she said, stirring in a splash of cream. “You’re staying here for a while, right?”

Hayley hesitated, glancing at Heath.

“Until we figure it out,” Heath answered for her.

There it was again. We.

Like she was suddenly part of some unspoken unit, something bigger than herself, something that had nothing to do with music or contracts or the life she’d been struggling to hold onto.

She lowered herself into the chair at the kitchen table, fingers curling around the warmth of the coffee mug in front of her.

“I don’t even know what ‘figuring it out’ means,” she muttered, voice tight.

Natalie sat across from her, folding her arms, her sharp blue eyes studying Hayley with the same no-nonsense focus that Heath had. “Well, let’s start with the basics. What’s actually going on?”

Hayley swallowed hard, blinking against the heat creeping into her eyes.

“Well, I love Jesse,” she said, voice barely above a whisper. “And he loves me.”

Natalie’s face softened.

Heath nodded, like he already knew.

Hayley exhaled, gripping the mug tighter. “But I can’t do this. I can’t live like this—waiting by the phone, wondering if he’s alive, putting everything on hold every time he disappears into another mission.”

Her voice wavered. She forced herself to keep talking.

“I spent three years trying to get over him, and now he’s back in my life, and I’m pregnant, and the band is imploding, and he just left again.” Her breath hitched. “Like he always does.”

Heath and Natalie exchanged a look.

Heath was the first to speak. “You’re scared.”

Natalie reached across the table, squeezing her wrist. “Hayley, you’re allowed to be.”

Heath exhaled, rubbing a hand over his jaw. “I get it. I do. I’ve seen what this life does to relationships. I’ve seen the wreckage it leaves behind.”

Hayley swallowed past the lump in her throat. “So what, then? I just accept it? Accept that I’ll never come first?”

Natalie tilted her head, watching her carefully. “You know how Jesse grew up, right?”

Hayley nodded slowly. “I know his dad was a nightmare. I know his mom tried but—”

“Jesse’s never had a real family, Hayley,” Heath finished for her, voice low but firm. “The SEALs? That’s his family. That’s where he learned how to trust people, how to rely on them, how to exist in a world that isn’t just him against everything.”

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