Love, Never-Ending_Flash Me Photos Portfolio 1

by Michele Notaro

  I took it and stood a little, slapping his shoulder with my free hand and saying, “It’s good to see you, Wiley. I’m great, how’ve you been?”

  “Good, pretty good.” He smiled at me.

  Tanner pulled his brother into a quick hug, then pointed at Symon. “Wy, this is Symon, our other boyfriend.”

  Wiley glanced at Tanner for a split-second, but he smiled and held his hand out to Symon, who took it and quietly said, “It’s nice to meet you.”

  “Likewise,” Wiley said with an open and friendly smile before he sat down. He grabbed a roll from the basket. “So, JJ, I hear you’re a photographer now?”

  “Um, it’s Jax, actually, but yeah, I’m a photographer. What are you doing these days?”

  He smirked. “You mean besides pissing off our father and disgracing the family name?” He laughed and my eyebrows lifted. “I’m working at a real estate company.”

  “You’re selling real estate now?” Tanner asked.

  Wiley smiled a little. “No, I’m a secretary there, but yeah, I just started this week.”

  “Oh, do you like it so far?” Symon asked. I could tell that he was having a little bit of a hard time dealing with a new person, so I reached under the table and put my hand on his thigh, squeezing it. He put his hand over mine and squeezed back.

  Wiley answered him, “Yeah, it was pretty good. I like the people I’m sharing the office with, at least for the most part. The boss is kind of a douche, but everyone else seems really nice.”

  “That’s good. Not the douche guy, but the rest,” Sy said, his cheeks flaming.

  I smiled at him and decided to put him out of his misery. “So Wiley, I heard a while back that you were trying to start a business or something.”

  “Oh yeah, I wanted to sell my furniture, but it didn’t go over very well.” He laughed a little at himself and I smiled back.

  “Furniture?” Symon chewed his bottom lip, and I exchanged a look with Tanner. We’d just mentioned last night that Sy was trying to torture us with his lip biting.

  “Yeah, I take old furniture and either refurbish it or recycle it for new pieces. Sometimes I make some with new materials, but I enjoy using old pieces more than anything.”

  My eyebrows rose on my forehead. “Wow, Wiley, I didn’t know you did that.”

  He shrugged. “I’ve always liked putting things together.”

  That was true. He used to take his toys—and sometimes steal Tanner’s—and take them apart, then put them back together, sometimes he even combined toys together. I nodded. “True. The furniture thing sounds pretty cool.” I glanced at Sy and decided that he’d be okay with my plan, then back to Wiley. “Actually, we need a new headboard. Would you be able to make something like that?”

  Symon sat up a little straighter. “That would be awesome if you could.”

  “It might take me a while to find the right materials, but yeah, I could do that.”

  “We have a king, so it’d have to be pretty big. How much would something like that cost?” Tanner added.

  “I mean… you guys wouldn’t have to pay for it, obviously.” Wiley grabbed a roll from the basket.

  I shook my head. “No, we want to hire you to make it.”

  Wiley looked between the three of us, then blew out a breath. “Okay, um, that would be awesome, but I don’t know how much it would be until I found materials and figured out what I’m going to do.”

  Sy said, “Just let us know when you figure it out.”

  I squeezed his hand and he shot me a smile. I could tell that he appreciated what I was trying to do, and when I looked at Tanner, I could tell that he did as well. He sent me a grateful smile.

  The more we talked, the more settled both Symon and I became. Wiley was a pretty nice guy, not that he hadn’t been back in the day, but considering who his oldest brother and father were, I hadn’t been sure what to expect. But Wiley seemed to have a mind of his own, for which I was grateful.

  Tanner got up to go to the bathroom in the middle of eating, and as soon as he was out of earshot, Wiley glared at me and Symon. “You know this is the part where I tell you I’ll kick your asses if you hurt my brother, right?”

  My eyebrows rose into my hairline. “Wow, I didn’t really expect that, Wy.”

  He shrugged and made a face that looked just like Tanner’s whatever face. “Well, too bad. Because I will. I’ll kick your asses if you hurt him. He’s been through enough.”

  Symon said, “We’re not going to hurt him, Wiley. We care about him.”

  Wiley looked at my boyfriend, taking him in for a few moments before nodding. “Okay. I hope that’s true.”

  “It is,” I said, making him turn his gaze to me. After he took me in and nodded again, I leaned my elbows on the table. “Was it bad? When he came home?”

  Wiley titled his head, staring at me. “He didn’t tell you?”

  “Tell me what?”

  “That he stayed in California for nearly a year for treatment. He had to go through skin grafts and physical therapy and all kinds of shit by himself. I flew out a couple times, but he didn’t want me to stick around. I probably should’ve fought him on it, but he insisted that he needed to do everything himself. He stayed away until he was—”

  “Wiley,” Tanner hissed. “Shut your mouth.” Tanner sat back in his seat. “That’s none of your business, Wy.”

  Wiley sighed and leaned back in his seat, holding his hands up in defeat.

  I stared at Tanner with a frown, trying to understand why he would feel the need to go through all of that alone. Tanner glanced at me, but looked away quickly. “Just leave it, Jax.”

  I opened my mouth to argue, but Symon knocked my knee, making me look at him. He mouthed Not here, so I nodded and blew out a breath. We’d just have to talk to him when we got home. Or to Symon’s place, anyway.

  The rest of the meal went smoothly, and we walked Wiley to his car. He waved goodbye before we piled into Symon’s car and drove back to Sy’s apartment. As soon as we were inside Symon’s place, I asked Tanner, “Tell us what happened. Why do you feel guilty over it?”

  “Jesus, Jax, give me a minute to get inside.” Tanner plopped on the couch and kicked his shoes off. “You may as well sit down.”

  Symon shot me a small glare, probably annoyed that I’d just blurted it like that. But the two of us joined Tanner in the living room. Symon sat beside him and I sat on the loveseat.

  Tanner leaned back and looked at the ceiling. “I’m not supposed to give details, like where we were or what we were doing. But I went out with my team on a regular run to a local village. It was just another day over there. Nothing special about it, you know?” He glanced at us, and we both nodded. He looked back up at the ceiling. “So our truck hit an IED and, well, the truck blew up. I lost consciousness for I don’t know how long, but when I came to, I was surrounded by fire. There were muffled sounds all around me, but I couldn’t make anything out because my ears were ringing. I just remember being in so much pain and… I couldn’t see anyone, but I managed to crawl out a little. My buddy, Fletcher, was alive, but he was stuck under shrapnel, so I crawled over to him. His… left leg was stuck and there was blood everywhere. I had to apply a tourniquet to his leg and press on his stomach where he was bleeding.”

  Symon scooted closer to Tanner and rubbed his arm.

  Tan didn’t seem to notice. “I remember Collura’s body only a few feet away from us. He was badly burned but still breathing, at least for a little while. I… I couldn’t save him.”

  Symon rubbed Tanner’s cheek and leaned in to whisper to him, but I didn’t hear what he said. I couldn’t believe what Tanner had been through. I knew it’d been bad from seeing his scars, but… I’d never really thought about the fact that he must’ve lost people. And when he’d come back, he’d been all alone.

  “I blacked out after a team came to get us. When I woke up, I was in a hospital room, and I had a bunch of tubes running out of my arm. Most of my body was
covered in bandages and… and everything on me hurt.”

  He blew out a breath, staring at the ceiling. “I remember Gallagher coming, I remember him talking to me, but I couldn’t hear him. It took a couple weeks to regain my hearing completely. It came back to me in waves. I… when I could finally hear again, I asked about the others on the truck with me.” He cleared his throat. “Holden Fletcher and I were the only survivors. He… lost his leg, so I got lucky with just the burns.”

  My heart constricted in my chest. Why would he feel guilty about that? He didn’t hurt those people. “That isn’t your fault,” I whispered.

  “I know. But… I still feel guilty that they died and I survived, you know? I worked with some of those guys for years.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Symon said in a quiet voice.

  Tanner looked over at him and ran his hand through his hair. “Thank you, angel.”

  Symon scooted closer to Tanner and kissed his temple.

  “Holden is the guy you talk to on the phone sometimes, isn’t it?” Symon asked.

  Tanner nodded. “We’ve kept in touch. He actually grew up in Baltimore and still has some family here, so he’s been thinking about moving back.”

  “That would be nice to have him here.” Symon kissed Tanner’s shoulder with a soft smile.

  Tanner blew out a long breath, but didn’t say anything else.

  “Do you… want to keep talking?” I asked.

  Tanner blew out a breath. “Yeah, but… not about the other guys that didn’t make it, if that’s okay?”

  “Tell us whatever you’re comfortable with.”

  Tanner nodded and it took him several minutes to start speaking again. “I was in the hospital for a long time. It was… horrible. I was constantly in pain; I had trouble moving my right leg and the fingers on my right side. So I was… frustrated and angry all the time. I wasn’t the nicest patient to the nurses, though I tried to be. But when my brothers and my dad came to visit me, I… was a pretty horrible person to them.” He shrugged. “It took a long time to get to where I am now, but I’m here, you know? And that’s more than what the others can say. I just wish… I wish I could’ve helped them.”

  “It wasn’t your fault.”

  “I know, but that doesn’t make the guilt go away.”

  I scooted over to the couch and sat beside Tanner. “You shouldn’t feel guilty for living, Tan.”

  He shot me a half smile. “I know. And I’ve accepted it, but… I don’t think it will ever go away completely.”

  I nodded and leaned forward to rest my head on his chest. “I wish you would’ve called me or wrote me or something. I would’ve come. I could’ve helped you.”

  Tanner whispered, “I didn’t want to worry you.”

  “You should’ve done it anyway.”

  “You hated me for what I did.” He took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Jax. You have to know—”

  “Please stop, baby. Let me just hug you.”

  He took a deep breath, and I pulled him into a hug with Sy behind him. After a few minutes, Symon pulled Tanner into his arms. They were whispering, but I wasn’t really paying attention. What Tanner went through was horrible. So fucking horrible. He went through something unimaginable and it sucked. It sucked so badly. I wish I could’ve protected him from all of that pain. But I couldn’t erase what happened. No matter how much I wanted to.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Symon

  “Where are you taking us, Jax?” I asked for the millionth time from the back seat. It was Tanner’s turn to sit up front. We rotated, taking turns driving, riding shot gun, and sitting in the back. Sometimes I hated sitting in the back, but Tanner and Jax were holding hands, and Tanner kept looking over his shoulder at me and smiling.

  “It’s a surprise, pumpkin,” Jax answered.

  “Why can’t you just tell us? Wait!” I looked at Tanner. “Do you know where we’re going?”

  He laughed a little. “No, I have no clue.”

  I sighed and sat back in my seat.

  Jax looked at me in the rearview mirror and I saw him smirk. “I promise you’ll like it.”

  “How long will it take us to get there?”

  “Literally five more minutes.”

  I sighed and less than five minutes later, Jax pulled over, parking the car on a side street near a shopping center. When he got out of the car, I followed. “What are you doing? Taking us shopping?”

  He laughed as he reached into the trunk. “Nope.”

  I walked around to the back of the car and my eyes widened. “Is this a weird nighttime picnic?”

  “Nope.” He grabbed a big blanket and shoved it into my chest. “You carry this.” He grabbed three chairs and passed them to Tanner. “You carry these.” He pulled out a cooler and a reusable grocery bag that was filled with snacks. “I’ll carry this.”

  “This looks like a picnic to me,” I muttered.

  I heard Tanner snort, but he nodded at me in agreement.

  The two of us followed Jax over to the big park that was behind the shopping center. My eyebrows rose again when I saw all of the people there; couples, families, kids running around, dogs. I looked around trying to figure out what was going on, and my eyes finally settled on a huge screen. It looked like one of those big blow-up things people use as kids’ bouncy houses, except it was absolutely humongous and very clearly a movie screen.

  “This is that ‘movies in the park’ thing you told me about,” I said as we navigated through all of the people trying to find a place to sit.

  “Yep. I didn’t realize they still did it. When I was a teenager, they showed the movie on the back of one of the buildings, but apparently a few years ago, they moved the event to the park with that blow-up thing, so here we are.” Jax turned to look at me. “What do you think?”

  “This is so awesome. Thank you for bringing us.” I smiled at him, then looked over at Tanner.

  Tan looked at Jax with a small smile. “This’ll be fun. I always loved coming here when we were kids.”

  Jax smiled, then looked around and pointed. “I think I see a good spot to set up.” We followed him over and set to work putting a blanket down, the chairs behind it, and our cooler and snack bag on top of the blanket. “I wasn’t sure if you guys would want to sit on the blanket the whole time, so I brought the chairs. It’s up to you what you want to use.”

  Jax sat down in the middle of the blanket, so I sat beside him and Tanner stretched out on Jax’s other side. Jax said, “They won’t start the movie until it gets dark, and it’s some kid’s movie about a superhero family or something, but it looked cute. And since we ate dinner already, I just brought snacks and drinks.”

  I kissed his cheek. For some reason he seemed nervous, so I grabbed his hand and squeezed it tight. “This is perfect, Romeo.”

  He shot me a grateful grin, then we both looked over at Tanner, who was just lying on the blanket looking up at the sky.

  “What’s with you?” I asked Tanner.

  He looked over. “Huh?”

  “Why are you being weird? You were fine at home.” Well, my home, not theirs, but it felt like home for all of us.

  Tanner shrugged. “I’m fine.”

  I frowned at him, then looked around at all the people. I leaned across Jax’s folded legs. “If you’re uncomfortable with PDA, that’s okay, Tan. You just have to tell us.”

  He sighed, then leaned up on his elbows. “It’s just… weird, I guess. I’m not used to it.”

  “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do,” I said.

  He smiled weakly. “I know.” He looked around again, then turned his whole body so he was sideways to us and laid his head on Jax’s thigh. “Is this okay?”

  Jax smiled at him and ran his fingers through his hair. “Of course.”

  I leaned into Jax a little for a few seconds, then sat back up to grab a snack and a water bottle. I passed them each one before I settled back into Jax’s side. We got a few looks
, but they were more curious than mean. Most people didn’t even seem to notice us, they were wrapped up in their own stuff. And I was grateful for that. I didn’t feel like dealing with nasty comments when we were just trying to enjoy ourselves, and we weren’t bothering anyone else.

  Once the movie started, I settled into Jax even more, and he wrapped his arm around me while running the fingers of his other hand through Tanner’s hair. The movie was really cute and made us all laugh a few times, so it ended up being a lot of fun.

  When the movie was over, we cleaned up and headed back to the car. I held Jax’s hand and Tanner walked close enough to him that their shoulders kept bumping.

  Once we were settled in the car—Tanner insisted that I sit up front this time—I pulled out my wallet and said, “I forgot to give you these earlier.” I pulled two keys out. “I figured it would make Tanner feel better about me leaving the door unlocked for you guys.” I shrugged and felt my cheeks flush.

  Tanner leaned forward from the back seat and kissed my cheek, grabbing a key out of my hand. “This makes me feel a lot better, angel. Thank you.”

  I nodded, then took a chance and glanced at Jax. He smiled widely at me, grabbed the key out of my hand, then cupped my cheeks and kissed me hard. Tanner’s face was right next to us because he never sat back, so as soon as Jax released me, Tanner turned my cheek to him, and he kissed me on the lips, too.

  Jax groaned. “God, you two are so sexy.”

  Tanner smiled against my lips, then released me and kissed Jax. “Can we go home now? To Sy’s house, I mean.”

  “Absolutely,” Jax said before letting go of Tanner, shooting me a smile and starting the car. “Tan, we should probably make copies of our keys, too.”

  “I’m good with that.”

  I let out a breath of relief, thankful that I hadn’t done something wrong with the keys, and I settled into my seat with a smile on my face.

  Tanner

  “I can’t get him to talk to me about it, Sy. I don’t know what to do.” I huffed as I drove the ambulance down a random street. We’d decided to drive around a little while we waited for a call. We were both hungry, anyway, so we figured we’d go to lunch while we were out.