Chapter One
Eli
Home iswhere the heart is. Or maybe just where you rest your boots after a long day. A long week. Hell, a long twenty years.
I wasn’t even forty years old yet, and here I was, retired. Or at least as retired as one could be after putting in twenty with the military. I had put my entire life and career towards one goal, and now I was out. There was no going back. I was never going to work for the military again as a civilian or get a GS—general scale—position. I was just me…in this house I was renting because I wasn’t sure where I wanted to live, but it was my home for now.
My boots were in the closet, scuffed and worn, and most likely headed towards the trash pile.
But I wore my new boots, ones that I was just now wearing in, getting to fit around my feet. And I had a roof over my head, and I suppose my heart was in it. Therefore, this was home.
I pinched the bridge of my nose and let out a breath. I clearly needed more coffee if I was going to pick apart a saying and add poetry of my own.
“Why did you ask us over here if you’re just going to growl at yourself the whole time?” Evan asked from the doorway into the kitchen, and I turned to see my brother standing there, his posture rigid, slight lines of pain around his eyes. He was still getting used to the new prosthetic, but with therapy and a whole shit-ton of doctors, Evan was able to stand here in my kitchen on his own accord, with a glare on his face. Of course, the glare had always been there, even before the IED.
“Seriously though, are you going to come in with the rest of us? We got the barbecue.”
“From Harmon’s?” I asked, my stomach rumbling.
“Of course we got it from Harmon’s,” Everett called out from the living room, and I snorted before grabbing the six-pack of beer I had for this occasion.
I followed Evan out of the kitchen and into the living room, where Everett, Elijah, East, and Elliot were already lounging. We could have sat in a dining room, but I didn’t have a large enough table for us. So we would be sprawling on my worn couch and used armchairs. I hadn’t been able to get furniture of my own all my life. Or at least my adult life. I had moved from place to place, starting out in the barracks, and then I used rented furniture from the military because I was either overseas or living on base. When I had moved off base, I had put most of my money away and hadn’t bothered with expensive furniture. Now I had furniture that I got from thrift stores and garage sales. Most guys I knew my age and rank had household items that didn’t look like they belonged to a young bachelor. But all of them were married and had families. I’d run from mine.
“What is with this couch?” Elijah asked, sitting nearly ramrod straight at the edge of it. “We’re adults now. Shouldn’t you have something that isn’t so brown and lumpy that you can sink into?”
Evan grunted as he sat into the armchair, resting his leg straight out in front of him. “This chair isn’t that bad, but it’s not good.”
I flipped them both off as I handed everybody a beer and took a seat on the floor. I may be the eldest here, but my brothers had already claimed the chairs, so I was stuck with this. “Honestly, I was just thinking that I needed new shit, but first, I need a house. One that’s not a rental.”
“It’s still a good time for the market,” Elliot put in, looking down at his phone. He bounced his foot quickly as he spoke, and I held back a snort at that.
“I know it’s a good time in the market.” That was a decent segue, so I let out a breath. “However, I don’t want to buy a house.”
East’s eyes widened. “What do you want to buy?”
I looked at my brothers, at the five of them that were my best friends. Between them and our youngest sister Eliza, there were seven of us. All named with an E, and all different in the same way. Somehow all six of us brothers had joined the Air Force and had rarely lived in the same place. It was hard enough to find a position that worked for you in the military for long, let alone finding a place that was near one of your siblings. It just didn’t work out that way. I had been on tour at the same time with at least one sibling, but we were never stationed in the same place. They did that on purpose, from back in the days when wars would take out entire squadrons, and therefore an entire set of siblings. But I still felt like it had been years since I’d really gotten to know my brothers. Now we were all in the same place,retired.
Evan didn’t want to be here, but I knew it wasn’t because of family. No, he had his own reasons for not wanting to move back to San Antonio. We had lived here before when we had been kids, the seven of us, and it felt like home when we’d been little. We could have moved out west to where our uncles had lived on the winery, but that hadn’t felt right. Now we were here in Texas trying to make our own home.
San Antonio had enough bases, so many military people retired in the area. It was gorgeous, decent weather if you liked the heat, and it was within driving distance of hill country, wine country, desert, city, and even the beach if you wanted to drive around five hours. It was a good area, and I was glad that this was where we were putting down our roots.
Although, Eliza wasn’t moving down with us. When the guys and I had all planned where we were going to retire, I had always assumed Eliza would come with us. And then she had lost her husband in an IED explosion, the catalyst for why all of us Wilders had gotten out when we had.
Between Evan’s accident, and Eliza’s husband’s, we hadn’t wanted to stay in anymore. I had reached my twenty while the others hadn’t, but we were all out. Though Eliza had found love again somehow and was up in Fort Collins with her husband’s family. I didn’t begrudge her for that, and I knew we would all be visiting our little sister often, but it was still odd that she wasn’t going to be with us.
Either way, though, we were here—the Wilder brothers. Evan was growly and not exactly pleasant at the moment. It had nothing to do with his pain, though, and all to do with his past.
Everett liked it here, at least from what I could tell. He was the quietest of us all, and sometimes it was hard for me to figure out exactly what he was thinking at all times.
Elijah was out of his depth and angry but always had a smile on his face. He was also the only one that actually liked wearing a suit, so maybe he would like what I had in store for us. I wasn’t sure, though.
East knew what he wanted, though he never told us. He was growly, a little abrasive, but considering what he used to do, it worked for him. But I knew he needed roots, needed to settle with us, and so that’s why we were here. To keep him safe. To keep all of us safe. Including Elliot, the youngest of the brothers, though still older than Eliza by a couple of years. He had gone out earlier than all of us for his own reasons. And I knew of all of them. He was going to click with what I had in mind more than the rest. At least, that’s what I hoped.
“Seriously? Why are we here?” Evan growled and then let out a sigh.
I figured I might as well tell them what my plans were, even if they felt insane. “I don’t plan on living in this house for long. It’s a rental, and I do want to buy. Just not a house.”
“You said that, but what do you mean?” Everett asked as he leaned forward over our meal.