Page 7 of Come Back to Me

Eyes wide, I return, “That is the best name ever. You know what we have to do?”

Simultaneously, we cry, “CALL PARKER!”

Cody

Despite needing new eardrums after listening to that squeal, I can’t decide whether to laugh or cry now that I’ve heard Colt’s offer.

For three years, Christy ‘Tee’ MacFarlane and I were pen pals while I served in the Canadian Air Force.

For three years, in spite of growing up in the same town, neither of us knew the other’s true identity.

That is, until Colton held a family BBQ and Tee came home to visit with my new sister-in-law.

She’d received my last letter—the one where I wished her well. But, Jesus, she received it months later. How the fuck did it take it so goddamn long to get from Canada to their apartment in New York City?

I pinch the bridge of my nose, half-wishing the damn letter had never shown up, half-knowing that I’d been right to cut ties with her.

I wasn’t in the best place back then. Letting her go had helped the brewing rage that came as part and parcel of my convalescence. For a time, I’d clung to the belief that she’d think I was a washed-up pilot, fucked up from the war, broken and useless?—

Eavesdropping tells me I’ve known this woman for three years and as much as I’ve learned through her words, there’s still plenty to discover.

I’m so tempted to?—

What?

Get to know her?

Or is it the other way around?

She met the pilot on the page.

But I’m not a pilot anymore.

I’m a marshal.

I’m a Korhonen.

I’m the son of a murderer…

For all intents and purposes,I’ma murderer.

I cringe away from the thought, but I know it to be true.

Tee deserves better than me.

It’s why I cut ties.

So, I’ll keep to my lane, and she can stick to hers.

If those lanes coexist under the same roof now, she’s worth the sacrifice of having her close but not being mine.

If I can fight a war, I can fight myself—for her sake.

Letters

Soldier Boy,

You’re my fourth soldier. (In a non-gang bang way. [Is gang bang one or two words?] {I googled it but the internet’s unsure. Wiki says it’s two, but porn sites use one.})

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