there honestly hadn’t been one I’d have wanted to miss. I would check the flights out later today, though.
Between her leaving anyway, the awkward situation with having to explain why my bride left the honeymoon before I did, and a possible phone call from the airline demanding to know when I’d be back, it was about time for me to look into options for getting home.
The knowledge that my time with her was so limited that the actual end was coming tomorrow settled in that pit of my stomach, joining the yet unnamed darkness and forming a heavy weight I couldn’t shake.
She’d told me a little more about her relationship with her ex—the fucknut who’d let her go—in the last few days, but our conversation when she’d mentioned her brother still hovered at the back of my mind.
If we were running out of time, I wanted to know everything I could about her.
“You know, you never told me,” she began, but I spoke at the same time.
“So, your brother is in the military too?” I cut myself off and gestured for her to go ahead, but she didn’t complete whatever was she’d been about to ask.
The sadness in her eyes grew darker, and for a second, I was afraid I’d pushed her too far by asking. But then she dragged in a deep breath and gave me a slight smile. “Yeah, he’s actually in the Air Force too. It’s a small world, huh?”
“How old is he? Any chance I knew him?”
She shook her head. “Nah, probably not. It depends on exactly when you left, but he’s only twenty-seven. He enlisted about four years ago.”
“Ahh, you’re probably right then.” I reached out and touched her hand, warmth spreading through me when her fingers closed around mine. “I’m sorry I asked. I just kept thinking about it and I was curious.”
“It’s okay.” She tightened her grip on my fingers, spearing another bite of her food with her free hand. She chewed with a thoughtful expression on her beautiful face, swallowing it down with a swig of the orange juice Big Mac had sent along. “Talking about him can just be hard sometimes. We didn’t leave things on the best foot.”
“You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.” I understood what it was like to have things you’d rather keep to yourself, but I also knew that sometimes bottling it all up made it even worse. “I can listen if you want to, though.”
She let out a soft sigh, her eyes darting back to the window as she nodded. “It’s been a really long time since I’ve spoken about him, but he’s not some deep, dark secret. I don’t want him to seem that way. He was just always a troubled kid, you know?”
“Troubled how?” My voice was cautious.
We’d made a lot of headway this week. I would hate to see it all crumble the day before she fucking left.
Lindsay didn’t even hesitate, though. She still didn’t meet my gaze and focused on the ocean with a wistful look in hers. “He was my best friend growing up. I loved him more than life itself. It was me and him against the world.”
“What happened?” I asked quietly.
She lifted her shoulder. “I don’t even really know. We were in our teens when he started growing distant. His school would call all the time to let us know he hadn’t shown up. I’d already graduated by then, but I knew some of the kids he’d started running with. They were a bad crowd.”
“Drugs?”
She shrugged again. “I think so. There were definitely rumors, but we never found anything on him, and he never seemed that out of it or anything like that.”
“You haven’t asked him?”
“No.” Closing her eyes, she took another deep breath. “He’d pretty much shut me out by then. When he left high school, he took a stab at a few different things but nothing ever panned out. I’m pretty sure my parents sent him off to the military, but they’ve never admitted it, and I haven’t heard from him since.”
“I’m sorry, Linds.” I stroked her knuckles. “I shouldn’t have brought it up. I still have a lot of contacts there if you want me to ask about him.”
“No. It’s okay. I don’t want to pry into his life. I just like to think that he’s doing well for himself now. It’s better this way. We’d have heard if he’d been discharged. Four years is longer than he’s lasted anywhere