“You don’t have to talk. Just listen.” His mom settled in. “You had an eye for her from a very young age. So did your brother. Even though you three were close friends starting in kindergarten, it didn’t take long to notice there was a silent rivalry for her time and her attention. It worried me. I was afraid you two would eventually fight over her and it would destroy your close relationship as brothers and best friends.”
Trent stared at the ceiling. It was amazing how insightful she’d been. He should have known.
“I was never quite sure if Destiny felt the same way toward either of you. She gave you equal attention. I know it was partly because she was an old soul who knew in her heart at a young age that she should not pick favorites. And besides, it didn’t matter. You two were so different that you each had your own separate relationship with her. Sean could talk to her about serious book stuff, and you could make her laugh and discuss more abstract concepts.”
Trent squeezed his eyes closed, wishing she would stop while wanting to hear her assessment at the same time.
“When Destiny was with Sean, she was a leader. When she was with you, she was a follower. It made sense. It was also intriguing. A social scientist would have had a field day watching the dynamic you all had. Neither of you ever got jealous or spiteful. And then Sean asked her out.”
Trent threw his forearm over his eyes now, concerned he might actually start crying.
“Worried me to death. I watched you retreat, and I prayed to God you did so to be polite, all the while worrying you were hurting inside. I should have talked to you. It was wrong of me to get so damn excited over their relationship and later engagement while you were silently glowering in the corner.”
“I was not glowering. Be real,” he finally added, not moving his arm or lifting his face.
She chuckled. “You so totally were.”
Okay, maybe I was.
“I watched Destiny like a hawk, too, trying to make sure she wasn’t making a mistake, but I couldn’t be sure. All I could do was hope if she consented to marry Sean, it was for the right reasons. Inside, I was so happy. I love that girl with all my heart. I love her as if she were my own child. She spent more time here than in her own home when her grandmother had to work when you were young, coming over after school, doing homework at our table, eating dinner with us at times. I love her, and it clouded my vision.”
“Mom…” The one word came out choked. He was going to become a ball of emotions in a moment.
She ignored his protest. “I decided not to worry about the engagement. After all, no dates were set, and there was plenty of time for the two of them to be certain about their feelings.” Her voice dipped. “And then Sean was killed, and my life broke into little pieces, and I was so depressed over the death of my sweet, gentle boy that I couldn’t focus on anyone else. You were home for the funeral, but then you had to go back. Destiny was here too, but it was too painful for her, and she moved to Dallas. I don’t see her nearly as often as I’d like to. It hurts. I lost two kids that day.”
A tear slid from the corner of Trent’s eye, and he rubbed it against his forearm.
“You and Destiny never mended whatever was broken. That made me sad too, but I stayed out of it. And then when I saw her at the hospital, I knew something was up. She was so distressed. Furious, in fact. Her demeanor stood out to me in a way that I couldn’t stop thinking about. I would have expected her to be worried or sad or crying or something. Instead, she was angry. Why, Trent? Please tell me what I’ve missed.”
It took him a moment to find his voice, and even then, it was broken and soft. “Go in my room and open the side pocket of my duffel. There’s a letter in there from Sean. You should read it. But do it alone. Take your time.”
“Trent?”
“Please, Mom.”
“Okay, honey.” She stood and leaned over him, forcing him to meet her gaze. “I love you with all my heart, you know.”
“I know, Mom.”
After a moment, she rose and padded from the room.
Trent’s heart beat wildly in his chest while she was gone. And she was gone a damn long time. Half an hour or more.
When she finally returned, he was sitting up straighter. He was certain his face was red from silently crying, but hers was splotchy and swollen. She had the saddest eyes he’d ever seen. “Oh, honey…”
Trent swallowed renewed emotion and nodded. “Yeah.”
His mother leaned over him and hugged him hard, rocking gently for a long time. When she pulled back, she met his gaze. “Has Destiny read that?”
“Yes. Recently.”
She furrowed her brow.
There was no way he could continue putting his mother off. “We ran into each other at the Ugly Mug about two months ago. She’d been avoiding me for all these years. A giant misunderstanding stood in the way of us ever speaking to each other. She finally had the guts to face me head-on and spill a decade of pent-up frustration.”
His mother smiled. “That sounds like Destiny.”
He tried to return the smile, knowing it was a lame attempt. “Not going to lie, she was a bit drunk.” That was an understatement. “Tequila did the talking.”
His mother chuckled. “Tequila will do that. Sometimes it can be a good thing.”
“Seemed like it to me at the time. Turns out while I’ve spent all these years thinking she couldn’t face me because I reminded her of Sean, a man she’d been very much in love with, she’d spent all this time embarrassed to admit that she’d known she’d made a mistake because she’d been in love with me.”
His mother gasped. Her hand came to her mouth, and she pressed her fingers against her lips.
“Yeah, that was my reaction. That and heart-stopping elation that the woman I’d been pining over for half my life was doing the same for me.”
His mother’s eyes widened, and she lowered her hand. “So, did you start seeing her?”
“Yes. Sort of. But we had a mountain of problems. For one, she’s concerned about what people will think. She doesn’t want the town to think ill of her for switching brothers. She has some deep-rooted, built-in fears about the fact that she’s biracial. She’s fought hard in a mostly white world to be seen as good enough.”
His mother frowned. “That makes me so sad.”
“Yeah, and I felt like an idiot for not realizing it. To me, she’s just Destiny, the sweet, adorable girl from next door with the amazing, gorgeous skin and curly hair and beautiful, dark eyes.”
The smile that spread on his mother’s face made Trent close his eyes a moment.
“Anyway, she didn’t want to jump the gun and out our burgeoning relationship to the town, worrying about how they would gossip about us if we didn’t manage to end up together. Also,” Trent paused to capture his mother’s gaze. “She was worried about you and Dad, afraid you would either think ill of her for defiling her relationship with Sean—”
She flinched. “I would never do that.”
“Yeah, well, she also worried you would be so elated to have her back in the fold that you would pick out china before we even had a chance to go on a single real date.”
His mother chuckled. “Now that I would do. But please tell me you tried to talk her down.”
“Of course, I did, and then I found out about this threat against my life.”
“Oh.”
“And I made a pile of mistakes. I should have told her. I realize that now. I’ve had two weeks to think about my stupid decision. I wanted to protect her. I wanted her to remain innocent and not think I would always be in danger. I wanted to protect her from yet another dead Dawkins brother.”
“Trent… Honey…” His mother reached out and grabbed his hand.
“She’s beyond furious, and she has a right to be.”
“Have you tried to call her to explain?”
He shook his head. “No. Woof filled me in on everything she said to him about me and my stupidity. As soon as she found out I was going t
o be okay, she was furious.”
“Yeah, that’s how I found her. I get it now. But you have to realize she was hurting.”
“I do. I get it. But I’m afraid the damage was extensive. And besides, I can’t keep it from happening again. My job is dangerous. It’s not fair to drag another person into my life. I’m afraid she wouldn’t survive another dead fiancé.”
His mother lifted his hand to her face and held it tight. “She’s stronger than you give her credit for. And we don’t choose who we fall in love with. When it happens, we just have to learn to live with all the shit that comes with loving someone, even if that shit includes the fact that one day that person might not come home to us.”
“I hear your words, but you can’t possibly step in my shoes.”
His mother sat up straighter and shot him a strange glare. “I most certainly can, young man. My world wasn’t perfect when I was your age, either. There are things about me I’ve never told you.”
He frowned. What the hell is she talking about?
She took a breath and held his gaze. “You know my parents lived in Seattle, right?”
“Yes. You always told us that. When we were young, you said it was too far to visit them. When your father died, you went to the funeral alone and came home very sad. The only other time you went to visit was when your mother died. You were gone several days. I think Sean and I were about ten.”
“That’s right, and I was always surprised that your precocious mind didn’t ask two thousand questions.”
“Huh. You’re right. That is strange. I don’t know why. What happened?”
“They were filthy rich. That’s what happened.”
Trent winced. “Really?” He glanced around. “Where did all the money go?”
She chuckled, the most sardonic tone he’d ever heard from her. “It went to a potato farmer in Idaho.”
“What?” Trent shifted, trying to sit up straighter.
She laughed a bit manically this time. “Yep. When I was eighteen, I came to Texas to go to college, wanting to spread my wings. I was raised with a silver spoon, and I wanted to know what it felt like to be a regular normal person. So, I lived frugally, created this whole other identity and met middle-class kids, including your father. We fell in love, and I put off telling him who I was because I didn’t want him to reject me for lying to him. I was afraid and protecting myself. But when he proposed, I had to tell him the truth.”
“Oh shit. You catfished him. Dad must have been pissed.”
She lifted both brows. “That’s an understatement. It wasn’t that he cared about the money. It was that, in a way, I had lied to him. I knew my parents would never approve of him, but I cared more about William than I ever did my parents’ stupid stock funds. We fought for weeks before I came to him and begged him to forgive me for my omission. I broke ties with my parents and never looked back. I’ve never been sorry, either. I’m pretty sure they gave that money to a farmer thinking it would infuriate me. The truth is, I was relieved. I didn’t want to deal with it, ever.”
“Wow. I can’t believe you never told us that.”
She shrugged. “I wasn’t that girl anymore. I wanted you to have a middle-class life that included running around outside without worrying about getting your clothes dirty or needing to come inside for Latin lessons.”
He cringed. “Latin?”
“I was completely fluent in that useless language when I graduated from high school.”
He laughed.
She sobered. “Your father worried about my ability to give it all up for several years until we had a huge fight one day, and I told him he had to trust that I loved him enough to stay with him for the rest of my life without ever looking back.”
“I’m so sorry. That must have been hard.”
“It was. Harder for William than for me. I knew what I was giving up. I knew it was for the right reasons. I knew I would never, ever regret it.”
“But he had to trust you.”
“Exactly.”
Trent groaned. “I’m you in this little tale.”
She shrugged. “Sort of. In some ways, you’re your father.”
“I love her so much, Mom.”
She squeezed his hand again. “I know you do. Just like I’m sure she loves you, too. But you have to trust that she can weather anything that happens. That your job will never be too much for her to handle. If you’re not open with her, if you withhold the details, she will always worry she’s not working with all the facts. In this case, those facts could have gotten her killed.”
“That’s why I didn’t tell her.”
His mother sighed. “Destiny isn’t stupid, Trent. She knows exactly how dangerous your work is. After all, she already lost Sean to that danger. Her eyes are wide open. She knows there are aspects of your job you can’t discuss. We all know that. But you left her in the dark intentionally about things that involved her. You did that to protect you; not her.”
His mother was right.
She grabbed his hand and squeezed. “If Destiny’s telling you she wants to be with you despite your job, and you keep her at arm’s length to protect her, you’re insulting her intelligence and treating her love like it’s a fleeting thing.”
Trent swallowed the giant lump in his throat and wiped his eyes again.
His mother stood, patted his arm, and kissed his forehead. She didn’t say another word as she walked away, leaving him with his thoughts.
Chapter 27
Two weeks later…
“Destiny,” Libby shouted from her bedroom. “Can you get the door? That’s my date. I’m not ready.”
“Sure.” Destiny climbed off her bed, glanced down at her attire, and sighed. Normally, she would not greet Libby’s dates wearing black leggings and an oversized Army T-shirt, but since he was already knocking, she couldn’t help it. She adjusted the messy bun on top of her head and rushed down the stairs.
Catching a glimpse of herself in the mirror at the bottom of the stairs, she cringed. Yeah, she was a hot mess. The shirt was Trent’s. He’d left it when he spent the night. She didn’t even have on a bra. After four weeks without talking to him, texting him, or seeing him, she still spent most of her days off wallowing in self-pity alone in her room.
She’d cried too many times to count, and was in no way ready to go out with her girlfriends, let alone date.
By the time she reached the door, Libby’s date had already knocked twice and rung the bell, so she didn’t bother with the peephole; she simply yanked the door open.
And then she froze, her breath catching. “Trent…”
He was leaning hard on crutches under both arms, a giant, elaborate, black leg brace that extended from his hip to his ankle. Her eyes trailed upward to take in his loose sweatpants and a Delta Force T-shirt. He hadn’t shaved in a few days, and his hair was the longest she’d seen it since they were kids.
She gripped the door so hard it was a wonder her fingers didn’t hurt. “What are you doing here?”
“Could I maybe come in? It took me five minutes to get here from the car.”
She yanked the door open wider, stepped completely out of the way, and let him pass. She had no idea what to say, but she obviously couldn’t be a bitch to a man in a leg brace recovering from multiple gunshot wounds.
Wondering how the hell he’d gotten there, she peered outside, shocked to find his parents sitting in their SUV. “Your parents drove you here?”
“Yes. Don’t worry. They’re leaving,” he tossed over his shoulder as he worked slowly toward her sofa. She noticed his duffel slung over his shoulder and that he carried a grocery bag. What is he doing?
Trent’s parents waved at her and backed out of the spot. “I should go talk to them.” It was the very last thing she wanted to do right now.
“Nope. You should shut the door and come talk to me.”
She watched William and Nancy pull away and stepped back inside, shutting the door before she leaned against it. “T
rent?”
He eased the duffel off his shoulder onto the floor and set the grocery bag on the coffee table, then dropped onto her sofa with a wince. He lifted his leg to extend it out straight on the cushions, taking up the entire sofa. “Mom and Dad have been wanting to spend a weekend in Dallas anyway, so they agreed to drop me off here.”
“How did you know I would even be here?” She hadn’t taken a step away from the door yet. It was holding her upright. Damn, he looks good. It was hard to remember she was furious with him and that he also hadn’t contacted her in a month.
“I spoke to Libby,” he informed her.
Destiny groaned as her shoulders sagged.
“She said you were off for three days. How did she get you to answer the door?” He was almost smirking. He was incredibly proud of himself, which played with her emotions.
“She said she had a date.”
Libby came barreling down the stairs at that moment. “I might have lied.” She had an overnight bag over her shoulder, and she came straight for the door. “I’m staying with Shayla and Bex for a few days.” She stopped next to the couch and met Trent’s gaze. “Don’t forget. You owe me. I expect pictures of your hot friends in my inbox ASAP.” She laughed.
Trent smirked at her. “How could I forget? I’ve got plenty of friends in mind.”
Libby narrowed her eyes. “Do these friends have names? Or are you making them up?”
He shook his head. “I would never make something like that up. I’ve got a mental list going. Hatch, Kraft, Tank, Sweets…”
“Please tell me those are nicknames.”
He nodded.
“Thank God.” Before Destiny could respond, Libby turned and rushed past Destiny and out the front door.
Traitor.
Destiny returned her gaze to Trent. “You’re going to stay here?”
“Yes. I know it’s presumptuous, but it was the only way I could think of to get you to see me and prevent you from being able to escape.”
She crossed her arms. “A bit upper-handed don’t you think?”
“Yep. There is no other way to describe it.”
Destiny's Delta (Special Forces: Operation Alpha) (Delta Team Three Book 2) Page 16