Dammit, why hadn’t he realized his friend was hurting?
Trey didn’t pay much attention to the rest of the conversation as Samantha continued to talk with the man, getting a small cardboard box from him before asking who had come to pick up the body. Trey knew all of that was important, but right then, he simply couldn’t process any more. Kyson was gone. Nothing seemed to make sense at the moment.
A little while later, they ended up at Samantha’s office at the institute, though Trey could barely remember even getting back in the Jeep, much less her driving them there. He was somewhat baffled about why they’d gone there until he heard Louis explain to Samantha that Kyson’s death had been ruled a suicide and that there was no need for a full autopsy. He even showed them paperwork to prove it.
“UT Southwestern handles burial assistance for Dallas County in cases like this,” Louis added softly, his eyes kind behind his glasses, seeming to know that Kyson had been important to him. “We were able to confirm his military background, so the VA paid for most of the cremation. The county covered the rest. With no next of kin, there was no one to send the ashes to. I’m sorry, but he’s gone.”
Trey mumbled his thanks, then let Samantha guide him out to the Jeep again. Fifteen minutes later, he was sitting in a chair at the small table in her kitchen, sipping on the whiskey she’d pulled out of the back of a cabinet, numbly watching as she made soup and sandwiches for dinner.
“You don’t have to make anything.” He took a large swallow of his drink even though it was nearly impossible for a werewolf to get drunk on anything less than a case of whiskey. “I asked you to dinner, so we should go somewhere.”
Samantha gave him a small smile as she continued to stir the soup. “I thought maybe it would be better if we hung out here and talked for a while.”
And in that moment, Trey realized he was so completely done for. Even if he attempted to ignore the whole damn soul-mate thing, he was going to have to accept that Samantha had slipped in and taken up residence in his chest—right where his heart was. After spending little more than a long weekend with him, she was smart enough to know he was in no shape to be going anywhere, so she’d taken him to her place and made them soup and sandwiches. If she pulled out a bag of Fritos, he was going to have to do something serious, like wash her windows or something.
“Talking would be good,” he answered, enjoying this little domestic moment, even if it came in the middle of the shittiest night he’d had in a long time.
When Samantha brought over the soup and sandwiches, she was carrying a bag of corn chips, too. Which, yeah, put a smile on his face. Sitting down across from him, she pulled the small cardboard box he’d seen her get from the neighbor at Kyson’s apartment closer. Trey stared down at the bowl of tomato soup in front of him as she opened the box and reached inside.
“What’s this?” she asked, holding up a piece of framework covered in rectangles of colorful cloth and tiny bits of metal.
Trey’s breath caught as he stared at the thing in Samantha’s delicate hand. He hadn’t realized his friend had even kept anything from his days in the military.
“It’s Kyson’s ribbon rack.” Spoon in one hand, he reached out the other to run a finger over the stiff pieces of fabric. “They’re his award and campaign ribbons from when he was in the army. They’re worn on a soldier’s dress uniform on the left side, over his heart. I didn’t know he kept his.”
Samantha was silent for a while as she ate spoonfuls of soup. “Do you have one?” When Trey nodded, she pointed at the rack of ribbons. “I assume the different colors mean something special, right? And these little pieces of metal in the middle of these ribbons mean something, too?”
Trey knew exactly what Samantha was doing. She was dragging him out of the darkness in his head and he loved her for it.
“Yeah. Every ribbon has a meaning, especially to the soldier who receives them.” He tapped the rack. “And these little pieces of metal as you call them are oak leaf clusters and knots that signify multiple awards. One cluster means the second award and two clusters means the third award. The rules with the knots are a little different simply because the army refuses to make anything easy, but you get the basic idea.”
Samantha laughed as she took a bite of her turkey and cheese sandwich. “Tell me about the ribbons and what they all mean. And if you know why Kyson got them, I’d love to hear the stories.”
Just when Trey thought she couldn’t possibly get any better, she did.
So they sat there at her small kitchen table, eating their soup and sandwiches, while Trey walked her through every single ribbon on the rack, from the simplest Army Service Ribbon, through all the campaign ribbons for Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Global War on Terrorism, and finally finishing with Kyson’s Purple Heart and Bronze Star for the battle the two of them had been in together in Kabul. In between, there were a lot of other awards for achievement and commendation. And Trey had been around for all of them. He told Samantha every one of those stories, even the one about the last battle they’d fought in together. Talking about everything he’d been through with Kyson brought tears to his eyes and made it feel like his heart was being ripped out of his chest, but he told her everything and felt better afterward.
When every bit of food was gone, every ribbon explained, and every story told, they pulled the cardboard box closer and began to go through its contents together. There were copies of Kyson’s awards and discharge paperwork, patches off his old uniforms, trinkets and keepsakes from years spent traveling the world. Underneath all the knickknacks was a picture of an enormous Kyson standing with an arm around a petite, shy-looking blond who barely came up to the middle of his chest.
“That’s Shaylee,” Trey whispered, tears blurring his vision again. “I knew he liked her, too, even if he refused to admit it to me.”
He wondered if anyone had told Shaylee that Kyson was dead. The poor woman was going to be devastated.
If Trey was surprised by the photo of Kyson and Shaylee, he was even more stunned when he saw the picture at the very bottom of the box, this one of Trey and Kyson rigged out in full battle rattle taken only days before that miserable mission in Afghanistan that had nearly killed both of them.
Samantha grabbed the picture away from him excitedly. “You look so young in this! I swear you somehow look smaller than you are now.”
Trey shrugged as he let out a chuckle. How could he tell her that going through his werewolf transition had slapped forty pounds of muscle on him and about five inches in height? “That’s what I get for standing beside Kyson. I told you the guy was frigging huge. He looked even bigger in all his gear. Made me seem like a small guy in comparison.”
Samantha studied the photo again and then him, as if trying to work through the size differences and the scale of the picture. Fortunately, there wasn’t much there for her to work with to prove him wrong.