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“I care deeply for Myra,” he heard himself say. “But it’s really complicated with our jobs and our backgrounds. A relationship isn’t easy for us.”
Beau nodded. “I hear you. Even if I could get Bermuda to trust me again, we were all over the place with both of our careers. Celebrity marriages aren’t highly successful.”
“Sorry, man.” Marriage. If only Ike dared. No. He couldn’t. “Military marriages are the same. I know I’ve retired, but with all the travel and protection details Myra and I are each committed to …” He shook his head. “I don’t know how we’d ever have a normal relationship.”
“Do you want normal?” Beau asked.
Ike should’ve questioned the very normal conversation he was having with a superstar athlete who’d never been faithful to anyone in his life. People assumed celebrities’ lives were a fairytale, but he could see the pain Beau was going through.
“It sounds great,” Ike said, “but it isn’t my path—a family, going to little league games, church on Sunday, settling down in a house in the country.” He shook his head. “Maybe when I’m sixty and can’t keep going out on security details.”
“I don’t think you should wait that long.”
Ike shrugged. Beau wouldn’t understand his upbringing, the pain of his losses, his lack of emotional connection.
Except with her. Ike looked back out the window. Myra was still pacing and talking.
“What about you?” Ike asked. “Do you want normal?”
“Yes. I want all of it,” Beau said. “I want to figure out how to make it work. But only with Bermuda as my wife.”
Ike had no response for that as it didn’t seem that Bermuda would ever forgive or trust Beau.
Beau stood and walked over to him. They stood shoulder to shoulder, watching Myra. Ike felt almost as close to Beau as some of the men he’d served with. Not as close as his brother, though. Nobody was like Aiden.
Beau nudged him. “She’s incredible.”
Ike growled at him, but mostly in jest. He knew Beau loved Bermuda. He wanted Beau to have ‘all of it’—a normal, happy life—but he didn’t know if it was possible for either of them.
“I’m not checking your girl out, but you two have been a little off the past couple days. Don’t mess things up with her just because you can’t see a clear path.”
“Beau.” Ike scrubbed at his beard. “I don’t know that either of us can make a relationship work.”
“You and Myra? Or you and me?”
He chuckled. “Myra and me. I’d never call the top quarterback in the NFL a failure.”
“Thanks, man. Truly, I don’t know much about relationships. My daddy deserted my mama when I was eight. Then he tried to come back when I got my first signing bonus.” He shook his head. “I don’t know that my mama trusts any man besides me and our preacher. I don’t really trust anybody except my coaches and teammates. It’s hard for me to even trust myself. It’s messed up. I’m messed up.”
“Sorry. Do you trust Bermuda?” He felt bad that he and Myra kept suspecting her, but they were just doing their jobs and trying to cover their bases.
“I do.”
Ike looked at him. His dark eyes were intense.
“I would trust Bermuda with anything. My life, my heart ...” His mouth twisted. “But I don’t know how to regain her trust. Over something I didn’t even do.”
“That sucks.” Ike would’ve probably thought a few days ago that Beau was a playboy who didn’t care. He’d been wrong. The superstar loved Bermuda deeply.
“Did you go through crap as a kid or in the military?” Beau asked.
Ike wasn’t one who shared, but Beau had opened up to him. “My mom was murdered while my dad was on a mission. I … I found her.”
“Ah, dude.”
Ike could only nod. “I finally let myself fall in love a couple years ago, and she was murdered while I was deployed.”
“No.” Beau’s voice was as somber as Ike had ever heard it. “I can’t … Wow. Sorry, man.”
