Jericho tried not to hear indictment in his words. Still. “I was deployed.”
“I know. It’s all good. But I’m just saying, maybe that’s why God brought you back. Family. Legacy. You know, that big stuff.”
That big stuff.The words settled in his chest, tightened. But, even then, Harley’s words from last night found him. Their conversation.
“I’m just not enough,I don’t know,butsomeone always gets hurt.”
“You can’t save everyone.”
“I can try.”
But he hadn’t tried—he’d run. Sort of.
Okay, yes.
“I shouldn’t have reenlisted after my parents’ deaths. It justfelt ... I don’t know. I didn’t know what to do, so I just ... kept on with what I knew.”
Topher blinked at him, then frowned. A pause, then, “Dude. We all got it. It’s nobody’s fault that life gets overwhelming. It just ... does. The worst patients I have are those who can ‘take care of themselves.’” He mitten-quoted the words. “I’m trying to help them, and they won’t let me, or they get in the way of my giving them the treatment they need, and then they just make it worse. They hurt themselves or prolong their suffering or even miss out on something that can help them heal faster. Drives me wild. And sure, I get it. They only see the present. Their pain. Their panic. They can’t look ahead, to see their way out, so they just ... keep holding on. But they forget that I know what to do.”
He leaned down and looped his mitten through the leather handle and picked up one side of the caddy. “I want to say to them, just admit you’re hurt already. There’s no shame in asking for help when you need it.”
Jericho took the other side and lifted. Heavier than he thought, the supply of logs enough to keep them warm for the day, even into the night if they needed.
They fought their way toward the cabin.
At the stoop, the door opened. Gabe stood there.
It still felt like Jericho was seeing a ghost. Mostly because the guy only slightly resembled the Gabe he remembered. This guy seemed confident. Capable. So maybe yes, resurrected into a new life.
He held the door and stepped back. Orlando barreled in ahead of them, snowy, shaking off the flakes.
“Dude!” Gabe said, but he laughed.
They came in and set the carrier down in the rack by the fire. Then Gabe knelt in front of the fire, moved the screen, and started to pile in fresh logs.
The place smelled of maple syrup and cooked oats. And, asJericho pulled off his gloves and hat, he spotted Harley in the kitchen with Winter.
Harley looked over at him and smiled.
And heat, maybe fire, just poured through him. She looked so...
Happy.
The sense of it shook him. He hadn’t seen that since ... well, maybe the summer a few weeks before he enlisted, when he’d...
When he’d told her he loved her.
The moment swept over him, the memory as vivid as yesterday, the sun refusing the night, the sense their tomorrows would never end.
“Hungry?” she asked now as she set the table with bowls.
“Like a bear after hibernation.”
She lifted an eyebrow and then laughed, something short and sweet and ... oh yes. He was keeping those promises from last night.
Even if she broke his heart.
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