The Brothers Rule - Carolyn Faulkner Page 0,83

me, please and thank you?" He grabbed it quickly, kissing her on the cheek on the way back. Everyone was taking their seats as she stood next to Jace, who still sat at the head, and scanned the table, looking for anything she'd missed. "Oh. Duh. Salt and pepper. Be right back."

Nick hollered after her, "Would you bring some cayenne back with you when you come, please?"

She was shaking her head at the men in her life, who loved to cover everything they ate—well, she was extremely thankful that it wasn't actually everything—with red pepper!

Adam was just coming in the door, and he looked sad or somehow unhappy, which was unusual for him. He was almost always relatively happy and up.

"Bad day, my love?" she asked, forgetting about all of the spices she'd come in there for and going over to hug him.

"Yeah, kind of," he agreed, hugging her back in such a serious way that it made her immediately concerned.

When she drew back, he took her hand and tugged her down the hall. Laurie could hear the calls for the salt and both kinds of peppers, but she ignored them in favor of covering his hand with hers.

"Is everything all right?" she asked as he led her into her bedroom.

"It's, well, no."

It wasn't like any of the brothers to be hesitant about anything, so her worries were doubling and tripling as time went by.

"What's going on?"

He reached into his front pocket and handed her a letter.

It said it was a "Notification of Deployment."

"They're sending me—my unit—back to Afghanistan."

"Mo-ther-fuck-er!"

Adam chuffed at that, almost smiling. "I know I should turn you over my knee for that, but I just can't at the moment."

She threw herself into his arms and held on for all she was worth, wanting desperately to cry but not wanting to let herself, although she wasn't really sure why.

"Everything will be okay, I promise. I've been there before, so I know the drill."

He seemed to be reassuring her, when that's all she wanted to do for him. "Of course, it will! And I'll be waiting for you right here when you get back! Do you know how long you'll be gone?"

"Last time, it was eighteen months."

"I thought they were moving people out of there," she mentioned a bit forlornly.

"Not people with my MOS, though."

"Huh, what?"

"Military speak. Nothing for you to worry about. It's just that they need people with my particular skills over there, so they're sending us."

"Oh."

It was getting harder and harder to hold the tears back, and Adam, of course, noticed that, gathering her onto his lap and rocking them both as she held onto him as if he was the only solid thing in her world.

Although he certainly hated going—especially since they'd just gotten married, really—at least she was here, with his family, and he would know that she was being well taken care of. Even if they'd had a regular type of marriage, he might have asked her if she wanted to move here to the ranch while he was gone, if only to ease his mind about how she was doing. He knew his brothers would pick up the slack and not let her get depressed about him being gone.

And it wasn't like it was in the past, either. He'd be able to email and call and Skype her, so he wouldn't be too out of touch.

He held her for a while longer, until they heard a soft tapping on the door.

"You guys okay?"

It was Jace.

"Yeah, we'll be out shortly."

"Okay."

"We didn't want to interrupt. We just wanted to make sure you were all right." Ryan was with him.

"We are," he answered, stroking the hair away from her face. "We are," he reiterated to her, "and we always will be."

Laurie nodded eagerly, whispering as he bent to kiss her deeply, "Yes. Always."

Eventually, they wandered out to where everyone was eating and just stood there, looking downtrodden. All of the rambunctious conversation stopped, and they were quiet for a moment, then, without a word, everyone got up and just stood around them, and they had a group hug.

"When do you have to leave?"

"Thirty days."

"Well, that's more time than they gave you last time," Tanner said, giving his brother a hug. "I'm going to miss you while you're gone." He headed back to the dinner table, and Nick did much the same.

"Let me know if you need anything, huh? And show me all of your paperwork. I want to make sure Laurie's on everything as your