“What do you mean?”
“One of us could be your boyfriend in public,” Foster explained. “If that’s what you wanted.”
Adrianne’s frown only grew deeper.Shit, not what I’d intended. “What? Would you draw straws or something?” She shook her head. “No, no. I could never ask any of you to do that.”
I put a finger under her chin and raised her eyes to mine. “We’re grownups,” I reminded her. “We can handle a little discomfort if it would mean things would be easier to handle, publicly-speaking.”
A part of me wanted her to disagree, but I also knew that optics were everything in her line of work. “I’d rather not,” she said finally. “I know you would all deal with it... but I don’t want to.”
Relief bubbled in my gut, and I could see the same all over Foster and Callan’s faces. “Okay,” I said. “Whatever you want, Princess.”
Adrianne raised her eyebrows at me in an exaggerated way. “Anything, huh?” She kissed me, quick and fleeting.
I snorted. “Starbucks or ice cream?” Adrianne had a sweet tooth, and it was becoming a thing to go get one or the other after whatever meal we got to eat around her table.
Foster perked up at that. “I’ll go pick up your Starbucks order,” he offered.
Callan snorted. “Yeah, just her order.” Foster punched him in the arm, which Callan tried to block. They ended up in a heap on the ground.
I stuck my fingers between my lips and whistled, sharp and short, and both men snapped to. “Youbothcan head out to Starbucks,” I said. “Adrianne will text her order.”
Foster waved me off and went for his keys on the counter. “I already know it.” As he passed her, he dropped a kiss on her upturned lips. “Be right back.”
Callan hadn’t moved. He looked like he was in the mood to argue, but Foster pushed him toward the front door. “Don’t be an ass,” he said.
We didn’t hear Callan’s reply because the front door shut just a little too hard behind them. Adrianne sighed. “Callan didn’t have to go,” she said.
“Yes, he did.”
She looked at me. “Because you told him to? You’re not in the SEALs anymore, Ethan.”
I shrugged. “It’s just how our dynamic is.”
Adrianne studied me like she was trying to solve a puzzle. “Is it hard for a military man to walk away from it all?”
Sweat pooled in the small of my back. “Nearly impossible,” I said. “But we had to.”
“Because of Laura?”
Hearing her name made my body tighten almost painfully. My hands suddenly itched with drying blood that I had long since washed away. I would never forget that day, the noise and the smell of burning flesh.
Laura had been crushed by a destroyed wall. I’d held her in my lap, murmuring soft, nonsensical words to her as the light drained out of her eyes.
The military had shipped her body back to her family, and we couldn’t even contact the family to give them our condolences.
“Yeah,” I breathed out. “Casualties happen in a warzone. Everyone who joins up knows the risks... but when we found out that we’d been involved in friendly fire, it was impossible to swallow.”
Adrianne stood up from the table and grabbed my hand. She pulled, and I followed her into the living room. She directed me to her couch, and when I had settled, she sat on my lap and looped her arms around my neck. Adrianne’s cheek rested against my jaw, and for a moment, we just breathed together.She’s holding me, I thought dumbly.
I patted her back. “I’m okay, Adrianne. It was a long time ago.”
She shook her head. “I can see how much talking about her hurts you all,” she said, voice low in my ear. “But I think it’s because you don’t talk about her at all. She’s haunting you.”
Adrianne wasn’t wrong. Laura had become a ghost that followed all of us, and we’d taken her on as some kind of burden to bear... but that burden was tainting all the good memories that we had of her.
“She was beautiful,” I told Adrianne. “Really smart and funny. Didn’t take any of our shit.” A smile curled the corner of my mouth. “She loved making these crazy bets. One time, she got Foster to streak through the base after he lost in a poker game.”
Adrianne scoffed. “Fosterdid that?”