Our grandparents have owned a cottage here in Angel Bay since before I was born. We stayed here with them every summer when we were kids, but then our grandfather died and our gran hasn’t been the same. Jacey still spends summers here to keep Gran company, but for at least the past year, Gran has been in Florida most of the time anyway.
Jacey cringes. “You won’t believe this but I don’t know when she’ll be back. I think she met someone in her retirement village.” She watches my face and nods. “I know. I don’t like to think about it either. But you know, Grandpa’s been gone for years now. I suppose she’s lonely.”
“Oh, God,” Brand mutters, swigging his beer. “Geriatric sex. I’m out. Where’s the bathroom?”
Jacey points him in the right direction and then she drops into his vacant seat. I stare at her, waiting for her to give me an explanation. After a couple of minutes of silence, I just flat out ask.
“Why didn’t you tell me about that guy?” I ask her, serious now. “You should have.”
She drops her eyes and stares at the empty beer bottle that Brand left behind.
“Because I can handle it on my own,” she tells me with a sigh. “I don’t need to have my big brother swoop in and save me.”
I sigh too. “I know you don’t,” I reply. “But maybe your big brother wants to swoop in and save you. It’s sort of what I do.”
She laughs at that. “Oh, great. So you retire from the army and I’m going to have to let you save me all the time so that you get your hero fix?”
“Something like that,” I answer absently. In my head I’m thinking about my schedule. “I think I can stay here for a while,” I tell her. “Brand and I have to pitch our new body armor to the Pentagon in a couple of months, but until then I’m free.”
“Unless I find another investor in the meantime,” Brand interjects as he grabs another chair and comes back to the table. “But even then, you can get to the meeting just as easily from here as you could from your condo.”
I nod and Jacey stares at us.
“I don’t understand your new business,” she admits. “You’re selling body armor to the government, right? Why don’t they make their own body armor?”
“They do,” Brand explains. “But it’s not good enough because the good stuff has always been too expensive. Gabe and I want to design better armor that the government can buy for every soldier. If we can do it, and if we can get the army to buy it, then no one will ever have to go through what we went through.”
Jacey grumbles, “And I have no idea what you went through because you won’t tell me.”
Brand and I both are silent and Jacey sighs. “I know, I know. You’ll talk to me about it when you’re ready.”
“It’s not you, Jacey. It’s just not something we like to talk about to anyone,” Brand offers. “Think about the most horrible thing you could possibly think of. The bloodiest, scariest thing… your worst nightmare. Then picture it happening to you… picture it becoming your reality, a nightmare that you can’t wake up from. Trust me, you wouldn’t want to talk about it either.”
Jacey looks stricken and she puts a hand on my arm as she stares at us both.
“Fine. I get it. But seriously, if either one of you ever want to talk about it, I’m here. And I have two ears to listen with.”
I pat her hand. “Thanks, Jace. But back to the matter at hand. I’m going to stay with you for a while. No arguments.”
Jacey groans, but finally nods. “Fine. I guess it would be nice to have you around anyway. I miss you. And you know, Gran’s been after you to come and bug-bomb her basement for spiders ever since you got home. This will give you an opportunity.”
She grins and it’s my turn to groan. “Crap. I forgot. I don’t know much about bug-bombing, but between Brand and me, we’ll figure it out.”
Brand yelps. “How the hell did I figure into this? The only thing I know about spiders is that I stay away from them.”
“I’ll pay you in beer,” I offer.
“Done,” he quickly agrees.
I turn back to Jacey. “Now, about this Jared guy. What’s he like? I want to get a handle on him.”
Jacey thinks on that. “Well, he isn’t the most stable person. I should’ve listened to Maddy. She tried to tell me what he did with Mila. But when I asked him about it, he said he’d been drunk and wasn’t himself and I believed him. The problem is, he’s drunk all the time and so he gets ugly. But if you’re at the house, I bet he’ll leave me alone. No one in their right mind, drunk or not, would mess with you. Your bicep is as big as my thigh.”
I picture Mila, the sister who introduced herself to me earlier. The sweet, charming sister who clearly wouldn’t hurt a fly. If that asshole would fuck with a chick like that, he wouldn’t hesitate to fuck with my feisty sister.
“You have to take unbalanced little fucks like him seriously, Jace. And somehow, I doubt your little boy toy is intimidating enough to help much. But I’ll be here now and hopefully Jared will just stay away and the problem will be taken care of.”
“OK,” Jacey sighs. “But don’t rag on Peter. He’s in a band. He doesn’t need to be intimidating. He’s a creative.”
I roll my eyes and she grins.
“I’d better get my side work done so that Maddy doesn’t freak out. She pretty much stays until the last person is ready to go. When will you be at the cottage?”
“I’ll drive home and pack a bag and then be back tonight. It might be late, but I’ll be here.”
“ ’K.” She drops a kiss on my forehead as she walks past. “You’re the best big brother I have. Thank you for my birthday watch. It’s gorgeous.” She stares at her wrist, at the glittering gold watch I brought her.