Becoming Three (32 page)

“I'm going back to work tomorrow, you know,” Sarah told her men very firmly over lunch.
Her men
. Yeah, she liked that, even if she didn't like the fact that they'd been treating her with kid gloves since bringing her home from the hospital yesterday morning. They'd also just coincidentally come home for lunch themselves yesterday and today. She eyed them; Jace sat to her left, and Jasper sat across from her. “I plan on running some errands tomorrow. Do either one or both of you plan on accompanying me to the store when I do?”

“Maybe,” Jace murmured. His voice did not hold a tease or humor. “Or we could just go today, since I have the rest of the afternoon off. I could drive you.”
Jasper covered Jace's hand and squeezed it, and Sarah's chest swelled at the comfort her sweet cowboy offered her tough warden. She knew Jace was having a hard time with what had happened in the youth center. Sarah could see that Jasper struggled too, but Jace seemed to have lost all perspective with the situation.
Yesterday, they'd taken turns trying to apologize for having sex without her. She hadn't understood their guilt until Jace reminded her of what she'd said to him last week. Smiling, Sarah explained she'd meant that two of them having sex without all three of them together as a unit wouldn't work. Now that they were, and seemed to have inherent trust in each other, two of them could mess around without the other present. She told them she didn't have a problem with it so long as they shared when it happened and didn't start keeping secrets about it. In fact, she'd tried to lighten the mood and told them the only thing that upset her was that she didn't get to see them having sex herself. It would have turned her on to no end and likely gotten rid of her killer headache in a snap.
Sarah fingered the glorified Band-Aid near her temple, touched the tips of her fingers over the tiny scabs marring her right cheek, and looked to Jace with sympathy. “The doctor wouldn't have released me from the hospital if I wasn't fine.” She shifted her gaze to include Jasper. “Really.”
Jasper offered a small smile. “We know. But you got to give us a few more days to get right with it.” He picked up his empty plate, gathered Jace's and Sarah's, and took them to the sink. Jasper rinsed them off, put them in the dishwasher, and jerked his thumb toward the front of the house. “As much as I might like to stay and look at the both of you some more, I gotta run a few errands of my own in town for the bosses before I head back to the ranch.”
With something that had become their ritual in just days, whenever one of them left, the others walked him or her to the door. Jasper held his Stetson at his side as he opened the door and stepped backward onto the porch. “You guys want me to pick up a pizza or somethin' on the way back into town tonight?” he asked. “Might be a little late, though. Around eight or nine.”
Sarah nodded, and Jace said, “Sounds good. Mushrooms on half for me.” He circled his hand around Jasper's neck, dipped down, and kissed him good-bye. “We'll wait for you.”
Her feet bare, Sarah leaned up and met Jasper halfway. She clung to his lips for a prolonged moment, loving his mouth. “Half-pepperoni for me,” she finally said.
Jasper caught her lower lip between his teeth and tugged, his eyes twinkling. “I know what you like.”
She waggled her brows as she stepped back. “You damn well do. You know it very…” Movement on the street captured Sarah's interest and drew her eye down their walk to the road.
She saw him, hardly recognized the man in any way, but in her heart, she knew him. Her throat constricted, and she didn't know how she breathed. “Hunter?” Her brother's name squeezed out of her with nary a sound.
The man looked up anyway, and through the haunted darkness, Sarah recognized Hunter's deep brown eyes.
She flew down the stairs and started running, and her big brother, so much leaner now than the younger man she remembered, opened his arms and caught her. He stumbled a few steps but held on to her and whispered her name again and again against her shoulder. Tears streamed down Sarah's face unchecked, and she touched him all over, unable to believe he was real. She didn't have any words; she didn't know how to talk; she just clung to her brother, inches off the ground against his taller frame, and silently thanked God repeatedly that he was safe and home.
Eventually, after what felt like only seconds but was probably many minutes, Hunter lowered Sarah back to the walk. He pushed his dark hair behind his ears, and she got another look at those eyes. Eyes that she couldn't begin to imagine what they'd seen.
“Hey, Sis.” His voice sounded scratchier than she remembered. “How's it going?” He rubbed the back of a bandaged hand across her cut-up cheek.
“Hey, Bro.” Sarah covered his hand, and he flinched. She knew why immediately. Sarah could feel Hunter no longer had his pinkie and ring fingers under that white gauze.
Shadows filled the walkway, and Hunter lifted his gaze up and to her right. “Jace,” he said and nodded.
“You son of a bitch.” Jace engulfed Hunter in a bear hug, and they clung to each other in much the same manner Sarah had just done. She could see tears streaming from both men's closed eyes.
Jasper stepped in and twined his fingers with Sarah's to pull her a step away. “This is for you three,” he whispered in her ear. “I'll get to know your brother better another time.”
“Tonight.” Sarah clasped Jasper's hands in hers. She practically jumped up and down in the grass, but she couldn't help it. So many nights she'd cried herself to sleep wondering if she would ever see Hunter again, let alone have him meet, and hopefully approve of, this cowboy she'd fallen in love with. “This is your home now too,” she told him. “Don't get polite and distant on me and stay away.”
“I ain't—
am not
—ever leavin' you again.” He stooped down and pecked a kiss on her cheek. “I'll be back tonight. I promise.”
Sarah tugged Jasper to Hunter. “Let me introduce you before you have to go.”
Jace pulled away from Hunter, and Sarah did the honors.
“It's nice to finally meet you, sir.” Jasper pumped Hunter's hand in a firm shake. “Your sister talks about you all the time.”
“Same goes for you, Jasper,” Hunter answered. “I've read a lot about you in e-mails. All of it good.”
Jasper blushed full red. “That's nice to hear. I'm happy she has you back home. I'll let y'all catch up.” He put his cowboy hat on and pulled the brim down on his forehead. “I gotta get back to work. Bye.” After climbing into his truck, Jasper waved once more and drove away.
Sarah rushed back to Hunter and slipped her arm around his waist. Her throat immediately filled with thickness again.
I can't believe he's really here. It doesn't exactly look or feel like him, but those are his eyes, and the Hey, Sis is all him too
. She made a squeaking sound as she tried to contain her emotions, but quickly abandoned her attempt to hide her tears. Instead, she closed her arms around him again and tucked her face against his chest.
Hunter put his chin on her head and rocked her back and forth. A moment later, Jace moved in behind her and wrapped his arms around both of them, forming a tight knot of embraces. She could feel the racing hearts of her brother and Jace and knew hers beat equally fast.
“I missed you so much,” she mumbled into Hunter's shirt.
“Me too, Sis.” Her brother kissed her hair. “Your e-mails kept me going for a long time.”
Sarah touched Hunter, heard him,
listened
to him, and question upon question started bubbling in her mind.
Jace thumped Hunter on the shoulder with one hand and slid his other down Sarah's waist to her hip. “I think we should take this inside before the neighbors think we're about to get even weirder.” He withdrew but kept his hand on Sarah. “They probably won't recognize Hunter right away after being gone for so long.”
Hunter pulled back. His focus dropped to the intimate placement of Jace's hand on Sarah and then looked up at their faces. “I think that's a good idea.”
“Agreed.” Sarah clasped Hunter's hand in hers, keeping him close as she led him inside. After getting something to drink, they all sat down at the kitchen table. Sarah assessed the glances between the two men who'd been thick as thieves as boys, teens, and young men. She didn't mistake for one second their darting gazes had anything to do with Hunter figuring out Jace and Sarah had intimacy between them. Or that he already knew what Jasper meant to her and thus had drawn his own correct conclusions about her love life. It hit her that she'd been underage when Hunter was sent overseas, and Jace was the person he not only named as her guardian but was also the military's contact should anything happen to Hunter while in the service.
“So”—she looked right into those familiar yet different eyes of her brother—“do you want to tell me how long you've been stateside?” She raised a brow at Jace, bringing him in on this too. “And do you want to tell me how long you've known about it?”
Hunter jerked his attention off Sarah and put it on Jace. Jace shook his head, and Hunter came back to her with guilt now clouding his dark eyes. He opened his mouth, and only “How?” came out.
“I'm not blind, Hunter,” she shared. “Your hair is by no means long, but it is well past regulation length. You also have facial hair you've clearly been letting grow for more than a day or two. Plus, you're not in uniform, and I just don't think it can be a mere coincidence that you show up on our doorstep just a few days after a murderer grabs me and throws me into a wall. Jace clearly e-mailed or called you, told you what happened, and you came home.”
Her brother dropped his gaze to the table for a long, tense silence. Without looking back up, he whispered roughly, “I've been back in the States for a year.”
It felt like someone punched the air right out of Sarah's lungs.
Jace brushed his thumb across her cheek, and she realized he wiped a tear that had fallen. “I'm sorry,” he said softly. “It wasn't my information to tell you.”
Hunter looked up fast at that. “He wanted to, Sarah. He e-mailed me about it all the time. I exceeded the bounds of our friendship and begged him to give me time on my own. He honored it but hated doing it.”
Sarah couldn't help her voice breaking, or that it made her sound like a little girl. “Why didn't you want to come home to us?”
His face falling, Hunter got up and folded down to his knees at her side. “Sarah.” His chest heaved, and his voice cracked. “It wasn't that. It isn't that. I don't… I can't…” He took her hands and held them loosely in his. “It's not a good excuse or reason, but when I came back to the States I didn't want to know or talk to anybody who knew me before I went to Afghanistan and Iraq. I can't explain why. I don't have anything that's going to make you feel better; I just knew I needed time on my own. I knew that would hurt you and that you'd feel the need to track me down, just to make sure I was okay, so I made Jace keep my secret.” Hunter reached out and put his hand on Jace's forearm. “He didn't know where I was either. I moved around a lot, didn't tell him when I did, and couldn't get to my e-mails sometimes. He just knew I wasn't overseas anymore.”
Jace silently passed Sarah a napkin, and she wiped her nose. She breathed until some of the tightness in her chest eased, and only then could she look at Hunter without crying again. “Are you going to go away again?”
Hunter looked away, and she watched the line of his jaw tic. Untangling his hands from hers, he walked around the table and took his seat. “I've checked into a motel. I still need a place I can go to be alone. I'm not ready to be around a lot of people, but I'm back in Quinten for good. I'm not leaving.” His eyes darkened to almost pitch, and he clenched his hand into a fist on the table, visible for a second, until he shoved it onto his lap. “It's time for me to try and get a life back.”
She wanted to know what had happened to his hand, why he still had it bandaged if he'd injured it overseas a year ago. She itched to ask him if he had other injuries not visible to the naked eye, but he still had that hunted look about him, so she held her tongue. “I want to listen,” she said instead, “whenever you're ready to talk to me.”
“I know.” Hunter exhaled a deep breath, pulled his hands out of hiding, and rested them flat on the table. “Right now I think I'd rather hear about you. And him.” He blinked and shot a dark glance at Jace. “And then also apparently about this Jasper guy.
“But first: what the hell is this about a fucking murderer hurting you?” Hunter glared at Jace again. “Jace didn't say shit about a murderer when he e-mailed me. This town has changed big-time since I left. Get me up to speed.” He smiled, and Sarah got a hint of her old brother for a second. “Starting with everything that affects you, Sis.”
Sarah laid aside her hurt, worry, and fears about her brother's choices and started talking. She would get her answers when he was ready to share.
She was just grateful to have him home.

“Have a good night.” Jasper smiled at the server who held open the door for him. As he backed out to the sidewalk, he held up the two pizzas. “Tell your boss again that I appreciate him havin' these ready for me.”

Jasper took long strides down the sidewalk toward his truck. He wanted to get home to Sarah and Jace.
Home
. He had one now. With them. They hadn't spoken plainly about it, but both Sarah and Jace referred to that house being where Jasper was supposed to be all the time too. Things were kind of crazy right now, but he had a feeling in his gut that when stuff settled down a bit Sarah and Jace would ask him to clear out his space at the bunkhouse and move in, all official, with them. He couldn't wait to say yes.

I got a real family now.
Jasper laughed out loud with pleasure and happiness. He rounded the side of the local dry cleaner to get to his truck, and a fist
cracked
against the side of his face, careening him into the brick. The pizzas fell to the ground, and before Jasper could spin around, another punch slammed into his lower back, jamming his kidney, and he stumbled to his hands and knees.
His hat was knocked to the ground, and a hand yanked his head back by his hair. “You think you're too good for your Simmons blood now, little brother?” Samuel hauled Jasper to his feet and cuffed him one in the jaw. His tiny, booze-reddened eyes blazed at Jasper in the darkness, and years of fear made bile surge in Jasper's throat. “You think I'm gonna let you get