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“Only because there were five of us out there with towels and in our running shorts pretending to be… where was it again?”
“Bermuda.”
“Oh yeah,” X-Ray cracked up laughing at the memory. “Inferno, Paradox, Firefly, and Armadillo were out there…”
“Remember ‘Dilla was wearing his stupid boots because he was leaving the next week, claiming he needed to ‘break them in again’?”
All three men burst out laughing – shaking their heads at the memories, before Firefly smiled easily, scooping up Betsy and holding her close as they walked into the jewelry store together.
“C’mon,” Firefly invited. “Miss Betsy is getting her little ears pierced immediately before I lose my nerve. Melody hasn’t done it yet because she’ll cry, so I told her I would take our girl.”
“Melody?”
“Shut up,” Firefly admonished as the two men laughed. “I’m not telling you to rush into things or even suggesting you take the next step. I’m saying that I don’t want you to change and I’m really happy to see you.”
“Just be ready if the moment comes – and if it doesn’t? That’s okay too, because you will always have a home and family with us.”
“Thanks guys,” Austin said gruffly, deeply moved because he knew their pasts – just like they knew his. X-Ray was kicked out when he was in high school, and Firefly grew up in a children’s home. All three men were close and like brothers because they had no one else – and it meant a lot that they were trying to look out for him.
“It could be the best thing that ever happened to you too,” X-Ray said quietly, nodding at Firefly. “Just remember that. Issues and fears only compound if you don’t address them – so if there is anything going on? Talk to her about it.”
“Absolutely. Melody and I talk about everything… and then we do whatever it is that she wants,” Firefly grinned.
“Same with my Emily,” X-Ray smiled knowingly.
“I guess I just need to talk to her and figure out what makes both of us happy, because I guess I always assumed it was just ‘boom’ and that’s the person you are supposed to be with.”
“Sometimes it’s not a boom.”
“Sometimes it’s a slow progression…”
“Or a splash of cold water.”
“Y’all are not helping,” Austin chuckled, smiling. “Everything you are saying is only confusing me more from what I thought I felt, understood, and knew…”
“Just doing our jobs.”
“And we do it well,” Firefly bragged, grinning and elbowing X-Ray. “We just both want to make sure you know what you are doing before things get too far or you get hurt. All three of us have been through enough stuff in our pasts, and when the good stuff is standing there in front of you – it's hard to accept.”
“I get that.”
… And Austin really did.
Sitting there at the table beside Giselle, listening to all of them speak nearby, he realized that he was curious about what she thought of all of this – because it meant a lot to him.
These were his people, his family, and he couldn’t share this part of himself with her in Ghazni. It was like they were from two different worlds, almost like Alice looking through the looking glass and seeing an entire universe she couldn’t touch.
That fence between them in Ghazni was the surface of that mirror. Her life differed from his – and she would never experience a part of his environment… unless it was here, among his friends.
Just thinking that made him feel weird.
In less than a week, these moments would be gone…
Again.
* * *
Hours later,those same thoughts were rolling through his mind.
