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When she spoke, her voice was barely a wisp of its normal strength, as if she was unsure if she should mention what just happened.
“Meadow told me that you were injured the same day that Forest died.”
“It’s true.” His voice sounded like a croak. How much did he share with her about the topic? How much did she already know—or want to know?
In the end, he didn’t tell her that Colton and Forest returned to a bombed-out village to find a woman with the intent to rescue her. That Forest died for his heroics. Or that a retaliatory strike came afterward and had killed so many of their brothers and laid out Hunter for months.
When he pulled in a deep breath to begin talking, he never expected the words that followed to come out of his mouth.
“I grew up in New Jersey. My father was a stockbroker in the Twin Towers.”
She had been smoothing her hand over his chest and stopped the movement.
“He was in the tower when it fell on 9-11.”
“My god, Hunter. I’m so sorry.”
“I was lucky to have him for the number of years I did. He was a great father too—always involved in my education and sports I enjoyed. We loved watching the Yankees together.”
“I’m glad you had that time with him.”
“The story goes downhill from there. What I didn’t know was my parents had been trying hard to have another child. With no Dad, it meant that dream died with him. And well…Mom kind of lost it. She killed herself six months later.”
“Oh god!”
In a rush, he told the rest of the story before he could reconsider sharing it. “I went to live with my grandparents on my mother’s side. They were stricken by the loss of my parents too, and they were already old when I went to live there. There was no money for college, so I went into the Navy after high school. I planned to finish out my years there until retirement—or die serving my country.”
She pushed off his chest to search his eyes. What he saw wasn’t pity—it was admiration.
“Forest went into the military to have that extra feeling of family that he’d lost here. I would guess that you did too.”
He gave a jerky nod. “I didn’t think about it at the time, but that’s exactly what I found. A brotherhood, a family I chose for myself.”
Then almost all of them were killed too.
He didn’t say what he was thinking, and neither did Ivy, but the sympathy in her face echoed it just the same.
“I know you think that I’m only a princess, but I do understand what you’ve sacrificed in the line of duty.”
“No. No. I was wrong. You’re way more than that, Ivy.”
She blinked rapidly. “I wasn’t fishing for compliments.”
“I know that, baby. My first impressions of people aren’t usually wrong—but I’m man enough to admit I was wrong about you.”
How did he ever miss the depth to this woman in his arms? Her eyes were that of a much older soul and filled with understanding and forgiveness for his slights against her.
She kissed him tenderly and then rested her cheek on his chest again. “Not entirely. Everyone protected me.”
“You’re lucky you had that. I didn’t. I have Colton. I had your brother. A few others I call my brothers who I haven’t seen in a long time. That’s it.”
She raised her head and stared into his eyes for a long minute. “You have me too.”
Chapter Twelve
Ivy neatly stacked the unpaid bills and set them on the corner of the desk. She stood back, staring at them. So much to worry about. Combined, the bills added up to a figure too astronomical for her to cover with the small nest egg built off her video blogging.
She picked up a painted rock sitting among her father’s scattered things. Years ago, she, Meadow and Forest had painted their names on it as a Father’s Day gift. She added the rock as a paperweight to the stack of bills and walked out of the room.
