Chapter 2
His smile widened. "Denise said we could use it. If you don't want to ruin everyone's weekend, you'll leave."
That was when I looked past him and found my older sister standing by the kitchen island, refusing to meet my eyes.
Two days earlier, at 8:06 p.m., I had called Denise from base and told her I'd finally been cleared for leave. Seventy-two hours. One quiet weekend. No work calls unless command needed me.
She'd said, "You deserve the rest, Em."
She never mentioned she'd already handed my spare key to her husband's entire extended family.
"Denise," I said quietly. "Can we talk?"
She sighed the way people sigh when they've already decided your hurt is inconvenient to them. "I honestly didn't think you'd actually make it home this time," she said. "You're always deployed somewhere."
"I told you I was coming."
"The house sits empty most of the year," she said, eyes sliding toward Travis before landing on the granite countertop. "His family needed somewhere to stay."
Needed. Not asked. Not borrowed. Needed.
Family has a talent for turning theft into charity if they phrase it gently enough. They take your keys, your time, your patience, and then act wounded when you finally notice the door is gone.
I adjusted the duffel on my shoulder. "You could have asked me."
Travis stepped between us like the porch had suddenly become his courtroom. "There's almost twenty of us here," he said. "You're one person. Just drive back to base."
May you like
Several relatives laughed. A kid froze halfway down the hallway holding a juice box. Travis's mother held my mug near her mouth without drinking. Denise stared at the countertop like the stone pattern had become the most interesting thing she'd ever seen, and a man by the fridge suddenly found his phone fascinating so he wouldn't have to look at me.
Nobody moved to stop any of it.
