Jed touched his face. “Hey, Max?”
“Yeah?”
“It’s good to be home.”
Epilogue
September 2007
Ashton, OR
MAXSETdown the sander, lifted his goggles, and wiped his brow. The air was thick and muggy, heavy with sawdust and a brewing late-summer storm.
He tossed the goggles aside and drifted to the boat shed’s open door. In her shady corner, Flo raised her head, but didn’t follow. The oppressive heat had made her lazy. “Don’t worry, girl, I’ll take you for a swim later.”
The collie flicked her tail in response and returned to her doze. Max stared out over the water. Behind him the cabin lay silent and still, the yard too, empty but for the pottering, pecking hens. To an outside observer, the place appeared deserted, but Max knew better. With two retired soldiers and two extra dogs for company, he was far from alone.
Trouble was, Jed’s friends, Raffi and Luke, went about their business with barely a sound. Between them, they were even quieter than Jed, and from time to time, Max forgot they were there.
Not today, though. A closer sweep of the yard revealed Raffi alone by the water’s edge, sparring with himself in a game Max had yet to figure out. In fact, he’d yet to figure out the quiet, pint-sized Latino man at all, he said so little. Still, Raffi cooked a mean curry, and Belle and Tess adored him. That was enough for Max, and aside from Glenn, Raffi was probably his favorite of Jed’s old Army crew.
He’d met them all at some point or other over the past six months; all but Pat, who was the only one to return to active duty after that dreadful day in Kirkuk. They were a motley bunch: Luke with his lost hearing. Beau with his prosthetic leg. All unique and different, but united in a bond no outsider would ever understand.
Max cast his gaze closer to the shore, searching for his other live-in babysitter. He found Luke dozing in a shaded spot by the greenhouse, Saja and Jed’s dog, Desta, settled by his side.
Yeah, Jed’s dog: Max’s own solution to a worry that had plagued Jed’s recovery… the worry that when the storm cleared and everyone went home, their combined life-changing illnesses would destroy them before they’d even begun.
Bringing Desta home had made perfect sense to Max. Flo had given him his life back, his independence and freedom, and a set of proverbial balls when he was too scared to get out of bed. Why not Jed? Flo couldn’t watch over the both of them, as hard as she tried. Getting another dog had been a no-brainer.
Jed had taken some convincing, but Flo, and later his poignant reunion with Saja had won him over.
It helped that Desta—an old African name meaning joy—had a sorry tale of his own to tell. He’d been abandoned in a paper bag at the side of the road, and even Jed at his most stubborn couldn’t say no. The fast-growing, mischievous young pup had been glued to his side from the moment Max brought him home.
It was a shame Jed couldn’t take him to Colorado. Max would’ve felt better about the mysterious, open-ended trip if Desta had been with him. The spaniel clearly thought so too. Even now, he was lying with his eyes lazily trained on the horizon, awaiting his master’s return.
Max let out a heavy sigh. At least Glenn was with him, right? Glenn had been their rock while Jed had been ill. Too often, he’d been the only thing standing between Jed and another lengthy hospital stay. He’d been gone more than a month now, and Max missed him almost as much as he missed Jed, who’d only been gone a few weeks.
A few weeks. Fuck. It feels like a bloody lifetime.
Max went back to his work, completing a boat renovation and putting the finishing touches to the long-neglected desk project he’d started when Jed had been in the hospital. He’d just carved his initials in the legs when Flo’s low bark signaled a presence behind him.
“What are you making?”
Max spun round and let out a startled gasp. He knew the voice, but for some reason, Jed’s droll grin was the last thing he expected to see. He dropped his carving blade with a clatter. “Damn, you scared the shit out of me.”
“Sorry,” Jed deadpanned, but his grin widened, and he didn’t seem all that contrite. “Want me to go away and come back?”
God, no. Don’t ever leave me again.
Max shrugged and bent to retrieve his tool. “Where would you go?”
“Here and there. Would be better if you came with me, though.”
Max smiled a wry smile at the indirect reference to their impromptu road trip to Phoenix a few months back. Paul’s widow had given birth to a daughter while Jed had been in the hospital, and rather than brood over it as he might have done before his second brush with death, as soon as he was fit enough, Jed had thrown some clothes in a bag, hustled Max and Flo into the truck, and hit the road. They were halfway there when Max realized it was the furthest he’d been from the cabin since he’d come to Ashton all those years ago.
Would he have had the balls without Jed by his side? Who knew? With any luck, he’d never find out.
Jed tugged him upright and took the blade from his hand. “I’m sorry I was gone so long. I missed you.”