Operation: Endurance (When the Mission Ends) (3 page)

Aaron had bought her this huge marble piece for her bread-making. He used to love it when she was in the kitchen cooking. He would come in and wrap his strong arms around her waist, saying that since her hands were busy, he was free to take advantage. In his world, her cooking was a win-win for him. Would he have resented the fact she was making bread for another man?

She shook her head, angry with herself for starting the day off on a sad note…again. Of course he wouldn’t. She was being an idiot. Aaron had been too nice a guy. He would have pushed her to get on with her life. He never would have been bothered by the fact that she was using his gift to make food for another guy.

Aaron never knew that when they met, she’d been mourning Chris’s death.  A death that didn’t actually happen. They didn’t find out Chris was still alive until six months later and by then, she was already committed to dating Aaron.

And now Aaron was the one dead, murdered by a sniper’s bullet simply because he knew her and her friends. He’d gotten caught up in a Mexican Mafia vendetta against her friend, Penelope.

The guilt crippled her. Aaron had deserved so much better. He’d been such an incredible guy. The tears rolled silently down her cheeks as she wrapped her hands protectively around her middle. So much guilt. Guilt over Aaron. And now Chris was moving next door and she was using Aaron’s beautiful piece of marble to make Chris a welcome to the neighborhood gift.

It was all so wrong. But she knew Aaron wouldn’t appreciate her wallowing like this. She was stronger than this and she shouldn’t dishonor his memory by letting her mix of grief and guilt win. He’d died over a month ago. It was time for the waterworks to stop. Starting now. She wiped the tears off her cheeks and stood up, pushing her shoulders back.

She had Cassie’s wedding details to finalize, a breakfast to make, patients who needed her, and students to teach. Her life was full and there was plenty to keep her busy. She was strong and could do this. One step at a time. One day at a time.

She read over her chocolate babka recipe as she worked to flatten the dough and then glanced at the clock. It would still be warm when Chris and their friends arrived to start moving him into the townhouse next door.

Living next door to Chris… She glanced back out her kitchen window to Chris’s new front door. The sun was just starting to light up the sky. Was she going to be able to maintain her distance from him? It had been so hard since he came back, so wounded, so hurt. She wanted nothing more than to be able to wrap her arms around him, but she’d been with Aaron. And Chris had made it more than apparent that he wanted her to maintain her distance. Now, given their history and his impending proximity, distance was an impossibility. But where did this leave them? She still wanted to wrap him in her arms, but she’d given up that right when she’d accepted his death the year before. Another man for which she felt entirely too much guilt over.

* * *

Moving day. It was past time for him to move out of Cassie’s house. Chris lifted the last box into the moving truck, wondering for the fiftieth time that morning if this was a huge mistake. Could he live next door to Julie? Of course the answer was yes. There was nothing to stop him,
especially since he’d already signed the lease and had the keys to the townhouse in his pocket. But was it really a good idea?

There was no doubt Julie wasn’t in a good place in her head right now, the dark circles under her eyes became more pronounced daily as her clothes became baggier. But would his move make that better or worse? All their friends could see nothing but positive things about him moving in to watch over her. They all knew she was drowning under her grief from Aaron’s death. But they didn’t know about the history between the two of them, and he feared this might risk her mental state even more.

No one knew what happened that Valentine’s Day weekend fourteen months ago and both he and Julie had carefully avoided discussing it since he’d been back. That was better though. There was no repairing the damage done by his broken promise. He’d promised he’d come back healthy and safe. That didn’t happen. They were both very different people now than they’d been then. They could only move forward and that meant helping Julie to heal.

Chris squinted into the sun. Damn, only April 25th and it was already too damn hot in the West Texas sun. He rubbed his left knee to ease the ache. He probably shouldn’t have run this morning, as this day was shaping up to be a hard test for the newly re-formed knee. Made up of more steel plates, screws and rods now than original body parts, this knee probably qualified for bionic status. Too bad it didn’t feel that way.

“You’re barely off those crutches. Why don’t you let Jake and I handle the rest of the carrying for the day?” His older brother, Colton, stepped around him in his usual take-charge manner.

Chris tried to curb the irritation that came from dealing with Colton’s attitude. The two of them had come a long way, but his heavy-handedness with Chris still chafed. “I’ll be fine. I talked to my physical therapist earlier in the week and told her I was moving. She said the knee was strong enough to handle the extra stress. Don’t worry, Colt. I have no intention of doing something that will land me back on crutches. I never want to see those things again.”

Colton struggled to keep his mouth shut and Chris had to work to hide his smile. Colt’s girlfriend, Penelope, was good for him. Any given day, Colton was incredibly bossy and overbearing, but now he’d physically bite his tongue when he knew he was about to overstep. The guy would be lucky if he had a tongue left after ten years of marriage to her.

But from what he’d seen of the two of them together, Penelope wanted to keep Colton’s tongue in good shape. Their public displays of affection were damn distracting. These days it seemed like everyone in his family was getting some but him, which brought him right back to Julie again.

She’d been the last girl he kissed. The last one he made love to before that fated deployment. She seemed so damaged now. He wanted to pull her into his arms and protect her.

He was worried about her. They all were. Julie was the quiet one and didn’t share much with any of them, but they could all see her struggle and it was becoming more and more painful to watch. When the townhouse next door to hers had opened up at the exact same time he was looking to find a new place to live, their group of friends thought it was a perfect twist of fate. Someone needed to be near her to make sure she didn’t sink into that dark place where they could all see she was headed. He was the natural one to do so.

Cassie and Jake emerged from the house, carrying his grandfather’s prized leather recliner between them. They all loved that chair and the security it represented, but had decided long ago that Cassie should be the one to keep it since she lived in their grandfather’s house. He looked at Cassie questioningly while he ran over to relieve her of her side of the chair, but by doing so, he halted the forward momentum of it to the truck.

“Why are you carrying this to the moving truck?”

She shrugged like it was no big deal, but he knew better. The two of them were six and Colton was ten when their parents died in a plane crash and they moved in with their grandfather. They never knew him before that point, but the twins managed to bond with their grandfather through this chair. He’d spent many hours reading to them in it and this chair was still Cassie’s favorite place to curl up and read in her bedroom.

“Since Jake moved in, we have too much furniture. Unfortunately, you don’t have much after last year. You need it more than I do now.”

“Cass, I can’t—”

She shook her head. “Yes, you can and will. This chair has good karma and you need that in your new place. Consider it your housewarming gift from me.”

He searched her eyes and could see her sincerity. He leaned over and gave her a kiss on the forehead. “Thanks, Cass.”

“Holding a chair here and it’s much heavier than it looks. Less loving, more moving.” Jake sounded annoyed.

He smirked at Jake, although he could secretly admit he was feeling the weight of it, too. “Are you already worn out, old man? We’ve hardly even started.”

“Bite me!”

“Aw man, you’ve totally got the wrong twin for that one. I know I’m irresistible and all, but you’re gonna break Cass’s heart.” He smiled at Cassie and she just rolled her eyes at him. “Besides, it would never work out for us. She’s already bought her dress and she’d never let either of us hear the end of it if she had to return it now.”

They’d started to make some forward momentum again, but now Cassie stepped in front of Jake, halting progress. She pressed her hand against his chest and looked at Jake with sultry eyes.

Chris didn’t need to see this. He rolled his eyes.

Her voice was low when she said, “And believe me, you really want to see that dress.”

“You know I’m counting the days, darling.” Jake dipped his head to nuzzle on Cassie’s neck where her long red hair was pulled up in a ponytail, jostling the chair they held at the same time.

Chris tried to ignore the spasms of pain radiating out from his knee, while he waited for Jake and Cassie to stop cuddling. Damn, it was going to be a long day.

* * *

Julie heard the moving van pull up out front and she quickly closed the top of the coffee carafe. She walked out her front door which was actually on the side of her house, facing Chris’s front door. The townhouses were more like apartments in that way. As she pulled it closed behind her, Jake and Cassie hopped out of the cab of the moving truck while Chris and Colton pulled his truck up behind it.

Her glance lingered over Chris. He already looked worn out. While he definitely looked better and had begun to bulk back up to his former muscular frame, there was no hiding the fact he wasn’t sleeping. The dark circles under his eyes screamed his exhaustion. He wouldn’t appreciate her observance though so she turned her gaze to the rest of the group.

She smiled at them in greeting. “Good morning, everyone. I hope it’s okay, but I set up breakfast in my dining room if you need caffeine or sustenance before all that work.” She nodded her head at the trucks behind them.

“Okay?” Cassie asked as she smirked at Julie. “Have you ever known these guys to turn down food?”

Julie smiled back. “That’s kind of what I was counting on.”

“Caffeine? Does that mean coffee?” Jake looked at her hopefully. She nodded and started them back over to her town house.

“Coffee
and
food. The chocolate babka just came out of the oven.” She led them into her house.

Colton and Chris moaned in unison. Chris asked, “Is that the same chocolate
babka you made for New Year’s Day?”

She forced a smile, wishing she could just act normally around him for a change. He’d just been out of the hospital for about a week when she’d made the
babka and he still hadn’t had much of an appetite. He ate three servings of it that day. It was such a little thing, but it had been the first interest he’d shown in anything and the first glimmer toward recovery for him. Knowing how much he liked it was the main reason she’d made it today. “It is. I thought it would make a good welcome to the neighborhood breakfast.”

“Thanks for this Julie. You really did way too much, but I appreciate it.” Chris spread his hands out over the over-the-top spread of food and drinks on the table. Like her, he seemed to have issues meeting her eyes. This awkwardness sucked.

Colton looked at Chris. “I think I moved in with the wrong friend. If she does this for you often, I may just have to move in with you.”

They all laughed, but it was Chris who said what they were all thinking. “Like you would ever give up what you have with Penelope.”

Colton just gave the self-satisfied smile of a guy in love.

Julie asked, “Where is Pen today? Is she at the bookstore?” Penelope owned and ran a bookstore near the University. She also taught yoga and wrote erotic romance on the side. She was constantly busy working on one of her many projects. Just a few weeks ago, she’d almost died at the hands of the same guys who killed Aaron. It wasn’t often that Colton let her out of his sight if he could help it.

“Yeah,” Colton said. “She needed to put in a few hours this morning since it’s Saturday and you all have wedding stuff going on this afternoon. She didn’t want to abandon the store completely today.”

That reminded her. Julie went over to the table by the phone, grabbed her binder, and turned to Cassie. “I got an email from the caterer. They were wondering if you’d like to come by and sample a couple of different dishes for the reception.”

Cassie frowned down at Julie’s binder and grabbed Jake’s arm. “Jake, she pulled out the notebook. Every time she pulls out the notebook I have to make another decision. Can’t we elope?” she whined.

Julie rolled her eyes at Cassie’s theatrics. “Stop whining, you baby. It’s only for another couple of weeks and it’s going to be a perfect day. Remember your dress and think about Jake standing at the end of that aisle waiting for you.”

Cassie’s face transitioned from worry to bliss as she looked over at Jake. She gave him a slow kiss and then said, “Yeah that will make it all worth it.”

“You just had to get them going again, didn’t you?” Chris whined to Julie.