A laugh left me as I pushed him away. “Such a jerk.”
He followed me into the kitchen, a low whistle coming from him as he took everything in.
“I’ll give you a tour later when I show you to your room,” I offered as I went over to the coffee maker to get a pot going. “Or did you want to go relax now? Sorry, I didn’t even think. I’m still in shock that you’re here.”
“No, I’m good.” He set his bag down near the archway, something like awe in his voice as he looked around. “Can’t believe y’all did it—got the house and made your dream.” After a moment, he huffed, his tone all wicked teasing. “Can’t believe your parents let you marry Beau Dixon.”
My face fell, and I was thankful my back was to Peter. This man I’d grown up with and spent nearly as much time with as the Dixon boys. Who had been like an older brother to me before he’d left for college and then the Navy, where he’d stayed. He would’ve seen right through it, down to the root of my pain.
“Yeah.” I tried to laugh, tried to joke, but it fell flat. “Actually, they really love him now.”
“No shit?”
Another one of those noncommittal hums built in my throat. “Yeah, it took a long time, but things started changing the night—well, the last night I saw you, I guess. Before you left for the Navy.”
“You good?” he asked suddenly, voice much closer than it had been and dripping with concern.
“Yeah.” I shrugged, barely making eye contact with him as I turned to grab a banana and an avocado for Levi’s snack.
But I saw his furrowed brow. The worry and the wonder. And if Peter was anything like he used to be, I knew he wouldn’t let it go.
“So, tell me what happened,” I asked as I moved through the kitchen to put Levi in his high chair, trying to get the focus off me. “I’d heard about you getting married from my parents, but not the rest.” When I faced him again, I let my expression fall with my apology. “To be honest, I try not to keep up with your family all that much.”
He waved a hand lazily through the air. “I don’t keep up with them much either.” With an exhausted sigh, he said, “There isn’t a whole lot to say. She didn’t like how much I was gone with my job, so she left.”
I paused in cutting open the avocado, my voice hesitant when I asked, “Your job . . . in the Navy? You’re a SEAL, right?”
His eyes narrowed playfully at me. “Thought you didn’t keep up with my family.”
“You should’ve heard the girls in this town when it got loose that you were a Navy SEAL.” An exaggerated groan left me that faded into a laugh. “There are probably still some who have been desperately waiting for you to come back. Your being in Amber is probably making their entire life.”
“Yay me,” he said dryly. “But, yeah. Going overseas. Missions. She didn’t like it. I told her I’d get out. I would’ve done anything for her. But she still left, even after I got the paperwork started.”
“Oh my God,” I whispered, sorrow pulling at my chest. “I’m so sorry.” When he just shrugged, trying to feign indifference, I asked. “So, are you still getting out?”
“Already am. Have been for over a month. But if my mom asks, I just got out this week.”
At the mischievous grin on his face, a soft laugh bled from me. “I see. And what are you gonna do? Come back here?”
A huff left him, his expression saying I should’ve known better. “Not everyone loves Amber the way you do, Savannah,” he said, repeating words he’d told me so, so long ago.
“You do have a problem with returning,” I mumbled meaningfully.
His brows lifted in agreement. “A couple guys from my Team live in South Carolina now. When everything happened and I got out, I went there to get my mind off everything. Be pissed at the world, I dunno.” His shoulders lifted in a quick shrug. “And that place . . . there’s just something about it.”
“You like it there,” I said when he didn’t continue.
His head dipped in a slow nod, stare unfocused for a while before one of those grins lit up his entire face. “Small as hell, but it’s nothing like Amber. And the gossip there? They think they have it on lockdown, and it cracks me up because they can’t touch the Amber networking system.”
“Nothing can,” I said in agreement as I put Levi’s snack in front of him, making babbling noises back at him for a moment before turning to clean up as Peter poured coffee, making himself at home.
“A lot of people know a lot of people, but there’s still some sense of privacy. Place is adorable as hell. But . . . it doesn’t have my parents and we have more than one traffic light.”
I drew in a shallow gasp as if he’d told me something scandalous. “What kind of sacrilegious place has more than one traffic light?”
One of those big, contagious laughs burst from him as he slid a mug my way. “The kind that . . .” His words trailed off when my laugh immediately died as my heart took off in a frantic, painful race toward the man who’d just entered the kitchen.
Midnight-blue eyes locked on me for long moments, holding me prisoner with all that love and pain before they slid toward Peter and narrowed.
“Oh, hey,” Peter said, quickly recovering when he saw Beau. “Damn, man, it’s been a long time.”
“Peter,” Beau said gruffly, then turned to leave the kitchen, his stare catching on me as he did.
My hand shot out to the counter as my knees weakened. Because that fierce look had said it all.
He was hurting, I knew. But this encounter hurt him more. The betrayal that ripped through his eyes said as much.
Except I hadn’t been doing anything. I wasn’t the one who had betrayed the other. And this was Peter. It was no different than having a conversation with one of Beau’s brothers. And I hated that he’d left me feeling like I’d done something wrong, like I needed to fix things, when everything had been on him.
When I finally looked away from the archway Beau had left through, Peter was studying me. Expression solemn and knowing. Lifting the entire pot of coffee, he asked, “Got anything stronger?”
A soggy laugh broke free as tears filled my eyes, but I quickly shook my head, stepping back and holding up a hand when he stepped forward. “No, no. Don’t. I’m fine.” Sucking in a broken breath, I blinked quickly until the threat of tears was gone, then gave him a shaky smile. “See? Fine.”
One of his eyebrows lifted as he said, “Yeah, and my brother’s a saint.” All sarcasm and dripping with doubt as he silently prompted me to explain what that had been about.
“Peter, please?” I softly begged as the sound of my kids coming down the hall with Beau filtered into the kitchen.
His head had slanted that way, listening to the same soul-warming voices, before shifting back to me. With a slight dip of his chin, he murmured, “But we’re drinking more than coffee later.”
My voice was all a hesitant breath and did nothing to mask the lie when I said, “Yeah, sure.”
Beau curled his arm around me as we followed Hunter and Madison, laughing and teasing each other on their way into the Dixons’ house. Dancing around him the way she always did while his eyes tracked her because they were never anywhere else.