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I tense when a hand grips my shoulder, hard. “I heard you’ve been fucking with my girl,” the deep voice behind me grits out. Before I have a chance to glance up, Cody’s chair scrapes across the floor as he stands tall.
“I suggest you take your hand—” I turn as I’m talking and stop as soon as I catch a glimpse of who’s behind me. A sly grin creeps up on his face morphing to a full out smile. I relax my shoulders and stand. “Parks, you want me to hit you, all you have to do is ask,” I joke, gripping his hand and pulling him into a hug.
“It’s great to see you, Nix,” he says, pulling back and looking at me.
“You too, brother. It's been too long. Landry Parks this is Cody, the other guy who was about to teach you a lesson in manners.” They both laugh and shake hands. “What the hell you doing here?” I grab a chair from a neighboring table and we all sit. The round bar top was okay for just me and Cody, but you add another large guy, our knees are touching.
“I’m on leave. Was driving through, headed up north to Mom’s house so I thought I’d swing by and look at what the hell you’ve been up to first.”
Seeing Parks makes me miss being with my SEAL team. We were in BUD/S together and we’ve been friends ever since. “How’d you find me here?”
He stares at me with a lift of his brow. “Seriously? I asked one person if they knew who you were. They told me to come here.” He slaps me on the shoulder. “You can’t hide, you’re like a celebrity.” My smile fades and I let out a heavy sigh, crossing my arms over my chest. His expression turns serious, and he shakes his head. “You’re still blaming yourself, aren’t you?” I glance over at Cody and he tilts his head in confusion. Ellie is the only one that knows how I feel about what happened. And the nightmares. “Goddamnit, Nixon. It wasn’t your fault. You did nothing wrong. We executed the plan to a fucking T.” He pokes his finger against the table as he grinds out the words.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
He reaches for my shoulder again, this time his squeeze is light. “We all mourn the loss of our brother and we all carry the guilt he died. But, let that shit go, Kase.”
I take a sharp inhale and let it out slowly. I hear him, but I can't figure out how to drop the weight of guilt though. The load has lightened since I’ve been here, but it’s there. I nod at him and down my beer.
“Enough talk about the past, what’s been going on with the guys?”
He updates me on our team and what they’ve been doing. The more he talks the more I miss it. When Cody gets up to go to the bathroom, he tells me about a mission they completed. I sit back, pissed I wasn’t part of it. We’ve been trying to catch that guy for a year. The dives they’ve done and the jumps. My blood pressure increases just hearing about them. I’ll need to jump out of a plane soon to relieve the pent-up adrenaline I’m getting just from talking about it.
“Can I get y’all anything?”
I peer up at Ellie and smile. I’m about to introduce her to Parks when he cuts me off and says, “You look familiar. Have we met?” Her eyes widen and she stands tall, panic floods her blue dilated eyes. Fuck!
“Um… I… uh, don’t think so.”
“No. I’m sure we’ve met. I never forget a face.” I kick his leg as hard as I can without bringing attention to anyone. He gets the hint and stops talking.
I snap my fingers. “I know where you’ve seen her. Ellie this is Parks. One of my best friends from the Navy. Remember dude, I told you about her and sent a picture of us.”
He nods slowly and points at me. “That’s right. Now I remember.” He looks over at her. “Nice to meet you, Ellie.” The way he says her name, I know he’s figured out where he knows her from. And he also knows her name isn’t Ellie.
She shakes his hand and manages a smile, but she’s rattled. Before turning to walk away, she glances at me so fast, I don’t have a chance to do or say anything.
Once she’s out of earshot, Parks looks at me. “What the hell is going on? That’s Everly.”
The problem with being perceptive, we don’t forget. Anything. Two years after I joined the military, Parks and I got trashed one night, happy we passed an important test. I spilled my guts about Everly. We formed a plan in our drunken state where Parks would find her when we were on leave to see if she still didn’t have her memory. The next morning, my skull felt like it had split in half and I remembered nothing from the night before. But Parks did.
I had saved his ass once, and he felt he needed to repay me, so he went on his own to track her down, unbeknownst to me. When he reported back that she never regained her memories, the hope she’d find me was crushed. It’s the day I laid to rest we’d ever be together again.
I lean forward on the table and he does too. “It is. But she still doesn’t have her memories.” I glance around the room before continuing. Cody nods, confirming I’m in the clear to continue. “It’s not until I moved here that I ran into her.” I give him the Cliff Notes before Ellie comes back. He eyes me, sitting back in his chair, internally debating what to say. There’s not judgement, but there’s uncertainty in his expression.
“Brother, you have to tell her.”
Cody settles back with a satisfied grin.
“I know I do. But you both just witnessed how she reacted when she thought you recognized her. She wants nothing to do with her past.”
“Why?” Parks asks flatly.
“Fuck if I know. She doesn’t talk about it.”
“Have you ever wondered why?” Hell yeah. It weighs on me as much as the secret I’m keeping. Why doesn’t she trust me enough to tell me?
All three of us stop talking when Cody clears his throat and Tori walks up and places the bottles on the table. “Hey guys.”
