Page 116 of Broken Dreams
“So, you’re with Addison?” Emmett’s deep voice, which I’m pretty sure he’s trying to make deeper and threatening, asks.
Instead of nerves, I feel anger towards these idiots who are like brothers to me. “Are you three kidding?” I ask.
I glare at Holden first because he’s the first who will crack. Which he does. His arms fall and he tilts his head. “Hi, Addy.”
I don’t reply, I move my eyes to the next jackass who will fall—Spencer. “Do you want me to kick you in the shin?” I ask. “Because I totally will.”
His arms drop and then I see him wince as his head dips forward. “Really, Brie? You hit me?”
She pushes through and slaps his chest. “No one can leave you three alone without you being fools. You’re lucky I didn’t do more. Hey, Addy! Grady, it’s great to see you again,” my sister-in-law says and then pulls me in for a hug, and then hugs Grady.
“This is Holden, Spencer, and Emmett,” I say to Grady.
Grady steps forward, extending his hand to Emmett, who still hasn’t moved. “I understand you were an Army Ranger? I was fortunate enough to get to know a few when I was on deployment.”
Instantly I see Emmett’s stance relax. “Were you army?”
“No, I was a fighter pilot in the navy. I got out a few months ago after my commission was done.”
Emmett shakes his hand. “I met a few pilots as well. Where were you stationed?”
The two of them keep talking and I swear I feel like I can breathe for the first time. Then Grady turns to Spencer, shaking his hand before finishing with Holden.
They all talk, very superficially, but the hostility is gone. Brie nudges me with a smile, her voice low so only I can hear. “Seems he even won over the guys in a matter of seconds.”
I shake my head in disbelief. “I’m shooketh.”
She laughs. “He’s a good guy and we all threatened castration.”
I let out a loud laugh and hook my arm in my sister’s. “Good plan.”
“All right, let’s all get inside where you can start the interrogation where we will all yell at you and then you guys will become friends,” Brie says while ushering them in.
And just like that, I relax because I know these people love me and will always have my back.
* * *
“Your friends are great,” Grady says as we are unpacking our things at the apartment that Brielle is letting us stay in. Instead of selling it when she married Spencer, they kept it and use it as a guest house when either Elodie and I or Judy come to visit.
“My friends are crazy and took all your money,” I note. Tonight was the boys’ weekly poker game and they, wanting to make their wives and me happy, asked Grady to play.
They fleeced him.
He comes up behind me, wrapping his arms around my middle, his scruff brushing against my neck. “Have I ever told you that I played poker almost every day when I was overseas?”
I grin, resting my head on his shoulder. “You didn’t.”
“Well, I did with a few of my buddies. By the end of the deployment, I was about five thousand dollars richer, and it wasn’t from bonus pay.”
I bite my lower lip as I laugh. “You let them beat you.”
“I let them think they beat me.”
“Is there a difference?” I ask, turning around to face him. My arms rest on his shoulders and I get lost in his green eyes.
Then a part of me is sad. This will end soon, we’ll go back to being friends who don’t have moments of touching. Friends who wave as we pass each other at school again or in the diner.
Friends who don’t kiss or share moments of intimacy again.
