The Billionaire Op - Lori Ryan Page 0,8

and his mother had a tumultuous relationship. For several years she’d been so angry over his father leaving her, she’d lashed out at all of the people around her.

Oddly enough, Kelly’s marriage to Jack had helped her get over that and Chad was glad to have his mom back to her old self—overbearing and pushy, but now full of love instead of hate and spite.

Chad looked down as he scrubbed at the grill in Jack’s outdoor kitchen with a wire brush. The party had dwindled to close friends and family, and the cleanup had begun.

Mabry Thompson sidled up to her son and sipped her wine as she looked out over the few remaining family members and friends. She ran a hand up and down his back as if he were still five years old and she could soothe him that way.

“Is it hard to watch Jack and Andrew starting their own families?”

Chad knew his mother left off the part of the question she really wanted to ask. She wanted to ask if it bothered him to be left behind as his best friend and cousin moved forward.

He shrugged a shoulder at her. “It’s not like they’re leaving me, Mom. We still work together, hang out together, see each other everyday.”

Chad cringed as he felt his eyes travel to Jennie before he could school himself.

He’d been out of the military too long. His guard was slipping. Damn. I should know better.

Mabry didn’t miss the glance and she didn’t bother to pull punches with her son. “Do you ever wonder if you do it on purpose, Chad?”

Now his gaze shot to his mother and his hand stilled for a minute as he studied her. “Do what on purpose?”

“Choose women you can’t have. It’s safer that way. Lord knows, I get that. But, you won’t ever be happy if you continue to make the choices you do. Do you wonder sometimes if you’re sabotaging yourself on purpose? If you’ve made sure you haven’t found love and happiness and a family because if you do that, you’ll really have to deal with the guilt of coming home safe? Of being here when others aren’t?”

Chad stopped cleaning the grill and looked down at his mother. How this woman who was five feet, two inches had given birth to large man like him remained a mystery. “Clearly you do. What makes you think I would sabotage my own happiness, Mom?”

She looked at her son for a long time. Long enough to irritate the tar out of him, but he didn’t let her see that. He met her stare and waited, not speaking. Not squirming under her gaze.

Finally his mother spoke. “I know you think you don’t have the baggage that a lot of your friends came back with, but sometimes I wonder if that’s really true.”

Chad considered himself lucky. Damn lucky. He’d come home from three tours of duty with a few scars and, yes, with horrifying memories and dreams that sometimes haunted him. But, he hadn’t been seriously injured.

He didn’t suffer from post-traumatic stress, where the dreams followed you into the daylight, making you edgy and anxious and irritable. He was able to function normally most of the time.

And, most of all, he had his life. He had lived. That was more than a lot of the men he served with had.

When he first came home, he tried to isolate himself, unable to face being back in a world that functioned so differently from the one he’d known overseas.

But, Jack and Andrew hadn’t let him hide himself away. They were there day after day, pulling him back into the world. He knew he wouldn’t have found his way back without their support.

So Chad had seen a counselor and he now worked with other veterans, helping them adjust to life at home. It was with this in mind, that he narrowed his gaze at his mother, and challenged her preposterous assessment.

“That's ridiculous, Mom. You came up with this theory because I happen to like a woman who I’m not willing to date, for obvious reasons. That happens.”

As far as he was concerned, as an employee he supervised, Jennie was off limits for dating. His friends and family all knew that. It was common knowledge Chad wouldn’t act on the chemistry that was evident to anyone who spent time around the pair.

“Way off base, Mom.”

Chad turned back to the grill and began to scrape again. He felt his mother’s eyes watching him but he was finished talking