Page 53 of A Very Titan Christmas
Bryce padded into the kitchen and started the coffee maker. Titan Group had carte blanche at the resort lobby’s coffee shop, but it was early, and he didn’t want to risk seeing any of the Porters.
The front door opened, and Roman walked in from a run. He pulled off his sweatshirt and wiped the sweat off his face with it, then gave Bryce a long, confused look. “I thought you were out with Rachel last night. What are you doing up this early?” His eyebrows rose, and he dropped his voice. “Is she here?”
“No.” Bryce scrubbed a hand over his face. “It wasn’t like that.”
Roman snorted. “Bullshit, brother. Don’t forget I was three feet away from you when you were finagling those dinner reservations.”
“I wasn’t finagling.”
“You were, and if it weren’t for some reservations being canceled in preparation for the turn in the weather, I’m pretty sure I would have seen you begging for a table.”
Bryce shrugged it off and tried to change the subject. “What were you doing?”
“What does it look like I was doing? I went for a run before the weather turns to shit.” Roman tossed his sweatshirt onto the hook by the front door. “It’s cold as hell and icy as shit out there. That wind isn’t messing around. Don’t recommend it. Why are you up?”
Bryce pulled the coffee carafe from the maker before it finished brewing and poured himself a mug. Coffee dripped and sizzled on the burner before he replaced it. The first sip scalded his tongue. “I don’t know. I couldn’t sleep.”
“So, you and Rachel used to date?” Roman asked, not changing the subject.
“Yeah, I told you that.”
“But not the specifics. Call me curious.”
“I could call you a lot of things,” Bryce grumbled.
Roman snickered. “You are touchy as shit about this. So explain.”
“We dated in high school.” He shrugged. “But, being the genius that I was, I broke up with her when my parents announced we were moving for the hundredth time. Sort of trying to keep from hurting her, but”—he shook his head—“that’s not how it worked out.”
“Genius move,” Roman agreed.
“Montana told me I was an idiot, but I didn’t listen.” He cupped his hands around the mug and embraced the burn. “Hindsight is twenty-twenty.”
Roman poured a cup of coffee and pulled up a chair. He tucked his chin to his chest as if he wasn’t ready to say whatever was about to come out of his mouth. “You know I almost didn’t go to Montana’s funeral.”
Bryce’s chin jerked up. When he’d died, Montana was assigned to a special training project with Titan Group. Bryce told his brother it was a small fuckin’ world when Montana called to say he was working with Roman and Cash. They allknew each other from assignments years before, and it had been surreal to see members of Titan at his little brother’s funeral.
“I had taken him under my wing, but he saved our asses in Mexico when an IED hit our vehicle.” Roman put down his mug and folded his hands in front of him. “I’m alive because of him, and that a car crash took him out—” He let out a pained breath. “I’m not you. I can’t say I know what it feels like, but it killed me.”
“Yeah.” Montana’s death had fuckin’ slaughtered him.
“He was a hell of a guy. Always brought the laughs.” Roman chuckled softly then sobered. “And I thought we’d work together for years to come. Shit, man. I don’t know how we haven’t talked about this.”
“I don’t know when we would have.” Bryce swallowed against the lump in his throat. “He was one hell of a brother.”
Roman nodded. “The kind of guy who didn’t flinch when things got messy.”
“He used to say life was a wild ride. Something like trying to tame a runaway horse. All you had to do was hold on like all hell. Don’t steer too much, and enjoy the ride.”
“That sounds like him.”
The back of his throat ached. “He got that from our dad, who never met a plan he didn’t run from. I think I’m the opposite of them.”
“Can’t plan for everything.”
“Our dad planned for nothing and hauled ass when the going got too hard.”
“That wasn’t Montana.”
