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“We’re fine, Chase.”
Yeah. Fine without him. He was the outsider.
Shelby took care of Eliza on her own. He sent her child support while he served, and visited when he was stateside and had time off from base, a few days here, a week there over the past two years. Then he got out of the military, and everything in his life went to shit.
Actually, it happened years before he’d met Shelby and just got worse. Not because of her. She and Eliza were the only bright spot in his dark world.
After his mom’s death, his father banished him from their ranch. His mom asked Chase to promise to make his dad see reason and let Chase rebuild and repair the failing business. She wanted all of them to always have a home at Split Tree Ranch.
Their family tree had definitely split, leaving his branch broken on the ground while his father and brothers stood against him and kicked him off the ranch and out of their lives.
But he’d kept his promise to his mom and left them all with a business plan and the money to carry it out. The only way to get his hands on a chunk of money without putting them further in debt had been to join the army and take the big bonus they offered him at enlistment. He needed to escape their hatred and anger and find a place to go and a purpose. He got both, and a new kind of family with his brothers-in-arms. Knowing he wasn’t welcome at home but he was needed in the service, he reenlisted after his first term ended and sent the bonus he got for that to the ranch, too.
At the time, he thought his service and helping his family were his penance.
They turned out to be his undoing.
He’d served, and served well, but the battles left himscarred, battered, mentally unstable, and ultimately addicted to the very painkillers they gave him for the wounds that healed on his body but not in his mind. That kind of pain never ceased.
“Chase. You okay?”
He shook himself out of his thoughts. “I’m getting there.”
She’d put away the nozzle and took the receipt from the pump. “Then let’s head out.”
He hated that she’d paid for the gas and snacks, but it was her silent way of telling him she knew he was broke. How did she know? Because he was behind on paying his child support.
The guilt piled up quick in his world.
Shelby told him before he left for rehab that he didn’t need to pay her until he was back on his feet.
Shelby had the biggest heart of anyone he knew.
He didn’t deserve her. That didn’t stop him from wanting her.
They climbed into the truck. Shelby had to move the seat way up to touch the pedals.
It made him smile. “You sure you want to drive this thing? It’s a lot bigger than your SUV.”
She looked like a dwarf behind the steering wheel. “I’ve got it. No problem.”
Nothing ever seemed to faze her.
He pushed his seat back as far as it would go to accommodate his long legs and ease the ever-present ache in his back. He settled in the seat and left her to it. They didn’t talk as she negotiated the streets in town and hit the highway.
Without the distraction of driving, he found himself fidgeting, folding his arms over his chest, then droppingthem again, his mind spinning out with thoughts about the war, Juliana, Shelby, what the hell he was going to do, and where he was going to live.
“Chase.”
He glanced over at her profile. “Yeah?”
She met his gaze. “Relax. Everything will work out.”
He still couldn’t believe she was here with him. He had so many things he wanted to say. He went with what needed to be said. “I’m sorry.”
“For what? You don’t owe me an apology.”
“Yeah, I do. I lost it when I came home. I wasn’t there for you and Eliza. In fact, I made things worse.”
