Any Day Now - Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,24

Sam and Sam’s father, Silas, made their way over to us.

“Amelia,” Silas said as he came to a stop beside us. “Why are you running away when I asked you about this ‘someone’ you were talking about meeting?”

My eyes flicked from Amelia to Sam, to Silas and then back.

She was running away when she was talking about me?

I smothered my grin.

Then offered my hand to Silas, followed by Sam.

“Hey,” I rumbled. “Your girl’s trying to steal my dog.”

Sam’s lips twitched.

Silas rolled his eyes.

“Did you know that when she was fifteen, Amelia tried to steal a dog from the mayor of Benton because he refused to stop leaving her in a car when he’d run into the convenience store?” Sam asked, turning slightly to Silas.

Silas rolled his eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. She did steal it. She only put it back before the mayor got back to his car.”

Sam and Silas chuckled, as did my dad who I hadn’t realized had followed us.

My dad still had his arm around my mom, and he was watching the spectacle in front of him.

My mom, on the other hand, was watching me.

Me and Amelia.

Fuck.

I looked away, hoping whatever was showing on my face couldn’t be seen, and turned back to Amelia.

She was now holding my dog and sitting in the dirt.

Which was about the time that I saw my shirt.

I looked at my mother and realized at the same time that she knew it, too.

Fuck.

“Nice shirt,” my mother said softly.

I licked my lips and studied the sky.

There were no clouds.

Like none.

The sky was so fucking blue that it was kind of hard to look at.

“Oh,” Amelia said. “I, uh, found it.”

Yeah, on my bedroom floor.

Son of a bitch.

If my mother didn’t suspect something before, she sure the hell knew something now.

She’d bought me that shirt for my birthday when I was seventeen, and I’d worn it so much that it was worn out, had stress holes, and was to the point where it probably needed to be thrown away.

Yet, I’d never done it because I loved it.

And she’d stolen it, worn it here, and now my mother knew that we’d slept together.

“Adam has a shirt like that,” Dad said. “He got it for his seventeenth birthday and hasn’t taken it off since.”

“Adam, I don’t know if you remember Amelia or not,” Sam said as he introduced her. “But I won’t let her steal your dog. I know how much you love her.”

Yes, King was a her.

I wasn’t sure what possessed the kid to name the dog that, but when I’d gotten him from the military family that was unfortunately deployed overseas and couldn’t take their dog where they were going, I hadn’t had the heart to change King’s name.

“She’s so cute!” Amelia chimed in, her face flushed slightly. “I’ve always wanted a Corgi.”

I had, too.

And I wasn’t really sure why.

“I kind of remember,” I admitted to Sam. “It’s been a while.”

That last comment was directed at Amelia.

And it was meant in a multitude of ways.

As in, it’d been a while since I’d seen her here. It’d been a while since I’d seen her in my bed, too.

Amelia’s lips twitched.

“You remember me?” she asked. “I actually kind of forgot about you. I can’t place you.”

“Jack and Winter are my parents.” I hooked a thumb in their direction. “I’m the one that went into the Air Force at seventeen.”

Her eyes widened. “Oh!”

The holes were lining up, and things were starting to make sense with her.

When I’d turned seventeen, I’d begged my parents to sign the waiver allowing me to enter the military early. And they’d done so.

Pretty much, every fucking person in my life wasn’t very happy with me going into the military so early. Especially since I had to get my GED to do it.

And the top two non-supporters were my parents.

But… desperate times call for desperate measures.

Amelia turned to look at me, and I saw the moment she realized who, exactly, I was.

“Ahh, the child disappointment.” She teased. “The one that ruined his life by joining the military early.”

Her brother pushed her over with a not-so-gentle push of his knee to the side of her body.

King was protected by the fall. Amelia, however, using her entire body to protect her, went sprawling onto the ground in the dirt.

I couldn’t help it.

I laughed.

“On that note,” Mom said, “how about we go inside and grab a drink. Leave these two alone for a few minutes?”

I.e., leave them alone to allow me to explain