So little time left. He hated to share even a moment of it, but he needed a fellow deputy’s input and help, and Layla needed a place to decompress.
He held out his hand to her when she reached him. She linked her fingers with his and he led her into the house.
“How can I help?” Layla asked, watching as Rachel pulled the vegetables for a salad out of the fridge.
“Are you up for peeling a cucumber and chopping it up with some tomatoes?”
“Absolutely.”
After rinsing and prepping, Layla joined Rachel at the granitetop kitchen island. She smiled at the friendly blonde, whose short golden curls perfectly framed a lovely face and kind blue eyes.
“You have a lovely home,” Layla said, envying the other woman’s happy family.
“It’s not mine. Jack and I are still pretty new to each other. At least, in the romantic sense.”
“I never would have guessed.” Jack clearly doted on Rachel. In some ways, he reminded Layla of Brian. Both men were tough, no-nonsense guys ... who just happened to have a soft underbelly they exposed only to the women they loved. When Jack looked at Rachel, the tender heat was obvious.
“We’ve known each other for years. He was my late husband’s best friend and he’s my son’s godfather.”
“You and I have a lot in common,” Layla noted.
Rachel continued to shred a head of lettuce with her hands. “Jack gave me a brief rundown of why you’re here. I can’t imagine what you’re going through right now, yet you’re so pulled together and brave. You’re amazing. Jack says you’re from a military family?”
“Jack seems to know a lot about me.”
“I said the same thing.” Rachel laughed. “Apparently Brian talks about you a lot. It must be a relief to have him with you now.”
“Huge.” Layla began to dice the tomatoes. “It’s ironic. We broke up, in large part, because of his job. And now I couldn’t be more grateful that he does what he does and that he’s helping me get through this.”
“Jack ’s job got in the way for us, too. He felt like it was too dangerous for Riley and me, and that I’d eventually regret how often he’s away.”
“I never minded the separation so much,” Layla said, thinking about it. “Maybe because I grew up living with it. My problem was—still is—his need to sign up for the most dangerous jobs, situations, whatever. I mean he couldn’t just be a deputy U.S. marshal, right? He couldn’t just be a sailor in the Navy. He had to go Special Forces all the way.”
“It’s scary when they’re gone, I know.”
“It’s scarier when they don’t come back.”
Rachel paused, her gaze trained downward at the counter.
Exhaling in a rush, Layla stopped chopping. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
“It’s okay.” Rachel left the counter and grabbed a beer out of the fridge. She held one up for Layla, but Layla shook her head. “I had to think long and hard about that very possibility before I pursued Jack. I had to be sure I was truly committed, because I was risking putting Riley through losing a stepfather as well as his own dad.”
Layla set the knife down. “What made up your mind for you?”
“Jack. He deserves to be loved. He deserves to have someone to come home to. With all that he does for everyone else, he deserves something of his own.” Rachel took a long pull on her beer, then set it down and got back to work. “Jack was raised in foster care. It took me a while to understand it, but the men he works with are his family, the only one he’s ever had. I realized I have to look at his job the same way I would an unpleasant mother-in-law—it comes with the territory. I have to take him the way he is.”
Gripping the counter, Layla forced herself to breathe in an even tempo while her heart lurched in her chest.
Dear God.
Families were supposed to be comprised of people who cared for you, people who would do anything for you . . . even die for you. She’d been blessed with that, but like Jack, Brian hadn’t been. His mother was engrossed in the men in her life, losers who used her and eventually left her when the novelty wore off. Brian had no idea who his father was and no siblings he knew of.
So he’d chosen fields and jobs that would give him the support system of a family. Careers that provided him with people he trusted with his life. And hers.
She’d demanded he give that up for her. Coming from a young woman he feared might leave him at any moment, it must have seemed like an impossible request. He’d already lost Jacob.
Layla understood now why he hadn’t been able to let the job go. It wasn’t the job itself; it was the ties the job gave him. And she hadn’t offered him a dependable alternative to that loss.