Page 42 of Remade

The others took their coffee black, and I felt bad for them. They had to lead sad lives.

“Can I ask something?” Ethan sat forward and rested his forearms on his thighs. “Did your ma never know anything about Jake? How to find him, I mean.”

Oof. Okay, so we were jumping right in.

I swallowed and set my mug on the coffee table. “She didn’t at first. She tried to track him down until I was like…eight or nine…? But she had too little to go on.” I’d never know for sure if she’d tried to go the Hillcroft route too. Like, if she’d been here and asked for him. I’d like to think she had, but considering the privacy at this place… “After that, she stumbled across the newspaper article about his death.”

Ryan nudged his knee against Ethan’s. “Do you remember before he shipped out the last time—he mentioned having met someone a few years back in DC?”

Ethan knitted his brows together, maybe thinking back. “It rings a bell. Wait—yeah, because Ma asked him if he was ever gonna settle down, and he said the only person who’d ever come close to making him want that was someone he’d…”

“A woman named Brynn,” Ryan finished.

“I don’t remember hearin’ a name,” Ethan went on pensively. “Fuck, it’s been too long.”

“Well, he told me about her,” Ryan replied. “He said he might go see her again.”

I chewed on my lip, studying the three brothers. Darius may be quiet, but he was taking things in, observing, paying attention. Flannel and jeans on the outside, the never-dying operator on the inside? Ethan was dressed a bit more stylishly, chinos and a fitted pullover, and Ryan was still in utility pants and a long-sleeved tee. Together, they were so clearly brothers, all while something set them apart from each other.

Darius shifted his gaze to me. “What kept your mother from reachin’ out once she had more information?”

Cowardice.

It evidently ran in the family on her side.

“She was afraid,” I muttered. “She left me a letter after she died—said she was afraid I’d follow in his footsteps.”

“A life lesson many parents have learned the hard way,” Ryan murmured.

I guessed so. In an attempt to shield and protect, they pushed the kids away.

Darius eyed me. “How long after did you enlist?”

“A few months,” I answered.

He tilted his head. “Army, I bet.”

“Yessir.”

His mouth twitched. “Leave the sir with Pop. I don’t need another nephew makin’ me feel ancient.”

Nephew. He called me nephew.

“In your defense, Ryan’s brood is wilder than anything I’ve ever seen,” Gray said and kissed Darius’s cheek.

Darius and Ethan cracked up at that, and Ryan straightened and mostly looked proud.

James smiled fondly too.

“You have abrood?” I questioned curiously.

How many kids was that?

Ryan grinned. “We’re expectin’ our fifth.”

Holy hell. Quinns were gonna Quinn? “Wow. Um, congratulations.”

“To be fair, you’re cheatin’,” James told him. “Your mother and I were alone. You’ll need at least three more since you have an extra parent.”

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