Page 14 of Here and Now
“Nope, just Eloise. What about you?”
“Just my brother.”
“Ahh, yes, yourNavy SEALbrother. You didn’t mention that before.”
I grin. “Former. He’s retired now.”
My cone starts to drip a little, and I quickly bring it to mymouth, taking a bit of ice cream away so it doesn’t make a mess. I hear a quick intake of air and look up to see Miles’s eyes wide as he watches me. I pull the cone away, realizing what exactly it looks like as I’m licking the cone.
Then he reaches out and wipes at my nose. “Sorry, you had some ice cream.”
“Oh, right. Thanks.” I smile and shake my head.
“So your brother is a former SEAL. Are you guys close?” Miles asks.
“We are. Even though we don’t live near each other, I talk to him frequently.” Although it’s not nearly as much as either of us want. Our conversations are always based on pertinent information or warnings. This is the first time that Quinn has placed us this close to him. Hopefully that means we’ll get to see each other more.
“That’s good. I called Eloise every week when I was deployed and stationed in Colorado. We’ve always been close. Our mother died when we were just four days old, so we lived with our gran after my father took off. Gran still lives in town. You’ll meet her, God help you.”
“Why God help me?”
“That woman is the reason meddling exists. She probably knows your entire life story already. You tell one person one thing, Donna knows within minutes. She’s like the mayor.”
I highly doubt she knows anything about my life story, since nothing is true, but Donna sounds like an amazing woman if she raised her grandkids.
“I’m sorry to hear about your mom and I can’t wait to meet Donna.”
Miles chuckles. “You’ll regret that last one, but thank you. Eloise and I were lucky to have my gran. She’s really the best. What about your parents?”
My parents cut me off when I got pregnant and they’ve never met Kai. No matter how much Quinn has tried to defend me to them, in their eyes, I’m a sinner who is unrepentant.
Never mind that my brother got his wife pregnant before they were married. That’s Quinn—he’s perfect to them.
But I don’t tell Miles any of that. Instead, I settle for a portion of the truth.
“My parents aren’t around since I had Kai, so ...”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Penelope.”
I shrug. “It’s fine. At least I have my brother and please, call me Penny.”
He smiles and I feel a flutter in my belly. “You mentioned you grew up in North Carolina, but Kai was talking about how you guys moved from Tennessee.”
Thankfully, that’s probably the only place that Kai can remember we’ve lived. When I first left Chicago, we went to North Carolina, then to California for about three months before there was something that alerted my brother he needed to move us again.
After, Quinn moved us to a small town in Oregon called Rose Canyon. I had about two years there, loved it, and then made the mistake of sending a photo to an old friend. She sent me a text two days later, telling me that my ex’s business partner offered her $250,000 for any information on me. She was broke and needed the money. So she sold us out, but she let me know once she had the money, so I could get out.
Jackson, my brother’s boss, was at the house in six hours, and we were gone. That’s when we went to Texas, which I hated, so Quinn moved me to Tennessee. I stayed there for a year. It was fine, but ... somehow they found us again.
Now we’re here and I have no idea how long we’ll have before it’s time to run again.
“Yeah, we were there for about a year.”
“What did you do there?”
I know he’s only being polite and making conversation since we’re stuck at a table together, but a part of me can’t help but wonder ...
What if he knows who I am?
