Broken Barriers (Barriers Series Book 4) (20 page)

He was settled and happy with my sister. Dean was primarily the root cause of that, but Josh had loved Sam with every fiber of his heart since the day he met her. I only wished his own sister would have felt the same about me.

“Listen, you want to continue to sit around drinking and doing nothing with your life at the lake, well, that’s your call. I’m only going to stick my neck out for you this one time, so you better listen and listen well.”

Sam interrupted us and handed Josh a platter of hamburgers, hot dogs, and aluminum-wrapped corn on the cob. She leaned up to whisper something to him before she turned around. Josh slapped her ass while her face flushed as she yelped, “Josh!” Twisting around, she whacked his arm and moved to walk past me, but stopped suddenly. “Everything okay over here?” Sam asked, narrowing her eyes between Josh and me. She must have sensed something different about me while standing there.

“Everything is fine, sugar,” Josh said. “Just having some adult male bonding time. You know, sex and porn talk.” And with an eye roll, she walked away, muttering to herself as she sat back down next to Emily, Jeremy’s wife, who continued to play with Dean and Ben. Jeremy was clearly the odd man out as he sat amongst the girls.

“Well, I’m not getting laid tonight,” Josh said as he tossed the burger patties onto the grill.

“Really?” I shook my head. “That’s my sister. I don’t want to hear about that.”

“Mmmhmm.” Josh continued adding food to the grill. “Not at all the same thing while you were banging my own sister.”

Shit. He had a point, but Courtney and I did try our best to keep that under tight lock and key for a while before the wedding night rendezvous leaked out. After that, well, everyone knew about us.

“Anyway, back to what I was saying before.” Josh shut the lid to the grill. “I know you were part of the Military Police unit in the Marines. If, and I do mean
if
,
you decide to stay in New Hampshire, I might have a job opportunity for you. I have a few connections with some state police up in the Laconia area. I will only bend my neck for you if you truly want to consider a job on the police force.”

My mind tried to process all that he had thrown at me. It was certainly something I hadn’t ever considered. I never had the plan of taking my military training and using it to further my future career. I had always just assumed I’d be destined to work some stuffy office job in the city, wearing the suit, and working the boring nine-to-five job with the wife and kids waiting for me at home.

I scratched the scruff against the side of my jaw as I watched Josh flip the burgers. Then my eyes glanced over at my sister. She sat there bouncing Dean on her lap. He laughed as she lifted him to place raspberry kisses on his cheeks. Her smile was as large as his.

“Tell me, Josh. You ever give it a second thought? The force?” I asked. Josh turned and pushed his aviator sunglasses on top of his head. I saw the answer in his eyes before he said it.

“I grew up always wanting to be a cop. It was my destiny in life.” He shook his head and glanced at Sam. “Then she came along,” he said, raising his chin toward my sister, “and I knew then I had a purpose for doing the job I do.” I glanced between Josh and Sam and understood what he meant. My sister and my nephew might not be here if it wasn’t for him.

But, what was my purpose?

“You know my military training isn’t exactly the same as what you do each day you go to work.”

“No, but you are used to taking risks for your country. Not much is different when you put your life on the line for another person who might need your help one day when you least expect it.” Josh drew in a breath and released it slowly. “One day you might wake up and think, where the hell did the last five years of my life go?” He pointed over to Sam and Dean. “Just be sure to make those five years worth every second, because life may not give you second chances.”

Jeremy walked past us, clasping Josh on the shoulder before grabbing a juice box from the cooler along with a cold beer. Ben’s bare feet pounded against the ground as he rushed to his dad’s side. His head tilted all the way back, eyes squinting as he gazed up at Jeremy who punched the little straw through the juice box. Ben’s little hands stretched up, his fingers waving as he eagerly waited for his drink. As soon as he had the juice in hand, Ben bounced back to Emily while Jeremy stayed with us guys by the grill.

Jeremy gave me a silent nod before twisting his baseball cap backward and tossing his sunglasses over his eyes. “Please tell me you two girls aren’t talking about the same thing I’ve been listening to over there for the last fifteen minutes. There is only so much girl drama a man can take.”

Josh lifted the lid to the grill and backed away from the billowing smoke. He placed a couple of cheese slices onto the burgers before turning back to his brother. “Jeremy, you’re a good example for what we were just talking about. So, I was just telling Drew that I might be able to pull some strings and get him an interview with the New Hampshire State Police.”

Jeremy relaxed and stood at ease, his arms crossed over his chest. “You thinking about joining the force, too?” he asked. His voice seemed eager to chat about something besides girlie stuff.

“Great. Now I’ve got both brothers trying to push me in that direction.”

Josh’s face scrunched as he held up a flattened hand to me. “No. No…all I’m saying is do something you’re happy or comfortable doing. There was a reason why you chose the Marines and a reason why you chose to be a Military Police Officer in your unit. You see where I’m going with this? There had to be a reason you chose that.”

My mind raced with all the possibilities of failure, but my gut told me to take a chance. I really had to stop second-guessing everything. First, it was Courtney, and now this. Josh observed my inner struggle. It was either my wrinkled brow or the fact that I was cracking my knuckles to relieve some of the nervous tension.

“Like I was saying, Jeremy here is another example of doing what you are destined to do in life. He never once gave up on his hockey career. He followed his dreams and look what that got him.”

I was suddenly confused by this life lesson. “Didn’t it get you sent back to the minor leagues?”

Jeremy let out a full belly laugh and said, “Well…yes…it did. Thanks for that reminder.” He took a couple of steps closer to me. “But had it not brought me back to the minors, I might not have ended up with Emily and Ben in my life.” He looked over his shoulder, and as if it was planned, Emily tilted her head over to stare back with a gentle smile. She mouthed the words, “love you” before returning her attention to Sam. God, those two really did love each other.

I remembered hearing Josh’s mom telling Sam one day years ago that had it not been for Emily and Jeremy living their dreams and following their hearts, they might not have found their true happiness. It was a funny thing, those dreams. Each night when you went to sleep, you never knew what might cross your mind before you woke up. I never wanted to live through some of my dreams again. The dreams when I saw
her
—now, those were the ones worth living to the fullest. Those were the dreams that healed my heart and my soul. Only problem was…I woke up realizing that none of them were ever truly real.

Josh and Jeremy made me recognize that when an opportunity came my way, I couldn’t turn my back on it. Josh finished placing the cooked food onto the platter and turned to hand it to me. I looked him in the eyes; he already knew what I was about to say before the words passed over my lips.

“Josh, make the call. If I’m destined to be a police officer, then it will all work out in the end.”

The next day I set about getting back into shape so I could put my best foot forward not only for myself, but also for Josh. I didn’t want to give him any reason to be disappointed in how I presented myself when I did finally go in for my testing for the force.

He believed in me, enough to risk his own neck. I would not let him down.

First step...exercising again. It was definitely not one of my joys in life. In fact, I honestly hated it, but I’d always
had
to do it for wrestling in college or the Marines. It had never been one of those tasks that I did only for me and enjoyed it. My plan today was to see if some recreational exercise did enough to spark some interest in working out for myself.

The sun scorched my shoulders as I pushed the bright red kayak into the water next to our dock. Forecasters said most of southern New England would be close to record-breaking heat today. Fortunately for Lake Winnipesaukee, that only meant a high of around ninety, but it was still friggin’ hot no matter where you were. I grabbed the paddle off the dock, along with my supply bag stuffed with a small towel, sunscreen, shirt, and my clear plastic water bottle filled with ice water and stepped gingerly into the swaying kayak.

After I adjusted my seat a little and positioned my feet within the kayak, I pushed off the beach with the end of the paddle and began floating on the smooth water. The small waves from the passing boat lapped against the edge of the dock as my kayak drifted with the current. With my shoulders squared, I placed my sunglasses over my eyes and set my sights on the open water.

I dipped one end of the paddle into the water and pulled, repeating on the other side of the kayak. After a few strokes, I had enough momentum and distance in the bay to glide aimlessly. The water remained calm despite the boat traffic—not even a single ripple to interrupt the glassy surface. Most people were spending the day over on the other end of the lake, so this side was quiet. At just over seventy square miles, there was a lot of lake to be covered by boaters. The relentless summer sun tingled my bare chest, and sweat beaded all over my arms and face within minutes out on the water. I watched a few other boaters farther out on the lake as I pulled the top from my water bottle. The ice water refreshed me for only a few minutes as I wiped the sweat from my skin.

Once I finally made it to the main part of the lake, that side was bustling with activity. Young kids ran and jumped off the end of their docks into the water while others held onto rubber tubes as parents dragged them behind their motorized boats. Cocky teenagers raced across the water with jet skis that would do nothing but piss off the big money yacht club members. Those old geezers just waited for these days so they could complain about the rambunctious teens who were bored and trying to rebel against their parents while
forced
here on vacation.

Sam and I once were in that group. Although we never had the jet skis, we certainly had our fair share of run-ins with the yacht club members who liked the lake to be peaceful morning, noon, and night. During one of the last summer trips with my parents here, Sam and I found some of Dad’s fireworks and set them off along the banks of the club’s property. It did not go over very well. We were both grounded for the rest of the summer because one of the fireworks malfunctioned and ricocheted off a sailboat on the dock. That cost us our entire summer job paycheck to fix. You could say we learned our lesson that summer, as I was sure there were plenty of teenagers out here today who would also learn a lesson or two while rebelling.

My mind drifted with the kayak through many memories of my childhood as I floated along the edges of Rattlesnake Island.
The
M/S Mount Washington
passed by with a packed boat of vacationers heading to the other end of the lake. My shoulders finally received a reprieve from the blazing sun as I tucked the kayak behind the island and the trees. A few twigs snapped in the woods before a flock of birds scurried in the trees above me. As I tilted my head over my shoulder, I spotted a small white-tailed rabbit nosing through the dried ground cover. It lifted its head for a brief moment before hopping away into the bushes and out of sight.

I rested my arms in front of me, stretching my back and my legs for a minute. Water dripped off the ends of the paddle while I floated with the current. As I checked my watch, I noticed how long my paddle just to this spot had taken me—nearly an hour, which for me wasn’t all that bad. But, my arms were throbbing, and if I didn’t get out of this kayak soon, my legs were going to start cramping. My back would also be the nice shade of lobster red since spray sunblock only went so far when you were spraying yourself. It was quite the look when one portion of your body was a lovely shade of golden brown while the rest was red.

The paddle back into the bay didn’t take nearly as long as I had anticipated. I managed to hover along the shore for much of it. By doing this, I was able to avoid much of the current brought about by the number of boaters on the water. I also succeeded in keeping the sun from beating down on me with the trees beside the shore. They were a hindrance and a blessing at the same time.

I dropped my paddle onto my lap for a second and caught my breath. I pushed up my sunglasses to see if my eyes were playing tricks on me. In this heat, I couldn’t be too sure if it was a mirage or really truly there. I took a quick sip of water and stuffed the bottle back into the bag.

Cole sat in a beach chair in front of her house, her olive toned skin soaking up the rays. Her hair was pulled up off her shoulders, and a barely-there black and pink bikini covered only enough to leave me wondering what lay beneath. My tongue darted out as I licked my lips. My eyes ran down her slender legs that tapped in the sand, and I was left panting more than I was during my paddle. Without taking my eyes off her and without thinking, I began paddling to the shore behind her.