Page 27 of The Homecoming

Sure, he was in one piece, but something was off and Autumn couldn’t put her finger on it. Jason looked tired, but of course he was tired. He’d flown across several time zones in one day. His body was completely thrown off. She’d heard him walking around his room overnight. If she’d have seen Daniel when he first returned, it probably looked similar. By the time he’d stood in the door at her graduation party looking the part of a well-built badass, he’d acclimated back to the time zone. Their mother hadn’t given Jason long enough before throwing a party.

“So, Autumn,” Dee said. Autumn jumped, not noticing her cousin walk up. “Rumor has it that you and that hot Green Beret friend of your brothers played some tonsil hockey this summer.” Dee grinned at her own joke.

Autumn let out a small, fake laugh. “Don’t believe everything you hear.”

“Really,” she sounded disappointed. “I thought that was why you didn’t take the daycare job, so you’d have more time for smooching.” She laughed. “I hope you sunk your teeth into his ass. ‘Cause he was fine.”

“I took a job as assistant manager at Huntington Farms,” she replied.

“Out there with the fairies, huh?”

Autumn didn’t like the way Dee said that. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well…” Dee appeared flummoxed. “The guys opening it are gay, right?”

Autumn nodded. “Yeah, they’re good guys. They’re my friends and they just happen to be gay.”

“Okay,” she said, holding up her hands. “I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“They’re not fairies,” Autumn reiterated.

Dee nodded. “Fine… Geez…Sorry.”

Autumn decided to change the subject. “So, what have you been up to?”

“Working and raising kids, that’s it.” She paused. “That’s why I was hoping you were getting it on with the hot soldier. I need some vicarious excitement in my life.”

Once again, Autumn was saved from an unwanted conversation by Dee’s toddler belting out one of her infamous tantrums in the middle of the yard. Autumn made her way to her brother, who was staring down into his plate of food like it held the secrets of the universe. “Are you waiting on a prophecy from the mashed potatoes?” she asked.

“They said, go forth and return to bed,” he replied.

She smiled. “Still on Afghanistan time?”

He nodded. “Probably. Plus, I got a bitch of a headache.” He paused. “Excuse my French.”

She shrugged. “I’ll go get you some headache medicine.”

“Hey, grab me a real Coke, too? Not the generic stuff mom drags out here.”

She returned with Jason’s Coke and medicine to find a picnic table full of people asking him to talk about what he’d done in deployment. She squeezed in next to her brother.

“Yeah,” he said. He popped both pills and swallowed them with a gulp of Coke. “Thanks,” he said to Autumn before continuing with his story. “The vehicle I was in was blown up by an IED last month.”

“Oh my god,” Autumn said. Jason simply placed his hand on her arm. “It was armored, but still, part of it blew off. I woke up flat on my back about two hundred feet from the wreckage.”

“Did you know what it was when it happened?” Dee asked.

He shook his head. “I don’t remember the blast itself.”

“That’s crazy,” she said.

He nodded. Autumn reeled that her brother had been in an explosion and she was just finding out now.Thank god he was alive.He spoke about being in a bombed car like other people mention driving to the store for some milk. “Are you okay?” she managed to ask.

“I’m fine.”

“How do those IED’s work?” Uncle Fred asked.

“It’s a bomb with a remote detonator. They bury them, and someone hides nearby and waits. Three other vehicles went over it in our convoy. Bastard blew it on the last one.”

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