Tagged For A New Start (Tagged Soldiers Book 3)

by Sam Destiny

  “Did Evy believe her?” And why shouldn’t she? He wasn’t sure if he’d have dismissed the notion easily if had he been in her shoes.

  Jazz gave him an outraged glare. “She did not. However, Tessa thinks you should still drop by. It’s not exactly comforting to know your mother found her. Especially because she made up some bullshit story. Evy seemed to have believed it, but Tessa said she doubted it. So let’s go. I don’t even want to know how it is with three scared women in one house.”

  Tank stood, on auto-pilot. They were there with two different cars and he could drop by his mother’s place and see what the hell she’d been thinking.

  “What exactly did she say?” Even to his own ears his voice sounded wooden.

  “Tessa didn’t say. She just told me your mother tried to bring out that line, but that’s why we’re going back now and you can ask Evy.”

  He’d longed to see Evy after work hours, but certainly not like this, because of someone trying to split them up.

  They left the bar, the beers taken care of before they’d ever gotten them, and outside Jazz held him back. “You get in the car with me. You can pick yours up later. I’ll even drop you off here again, but there’s no use going to your mother’s place now. If she was just at Hilary’s she cannot be home unless she lives in the same neighborhood.”

  Tank felt the questioning glance on him and shook his head. “No, not around there. Actually almost half way across town.”

  And damn, Jazz was right. She wouldn’t be there yet and he longed to hold Evy.

  Figuring protesting wouldn’t get him anywhere, he slipped into the passenger side of Jazz’s car, not surprised to see pictures of his best friend and his fiancée on the dash. Tessa’s perfume, too, lingered in the air, and there were toys everywhere. The truck looked like a family car, and the way Jazz grinned, observing the mess, Tank knew he knew it, too.

  The doorbell rang and Tessa was up before either of the other two could react. Evangeline had stared at the TV for fifteen solid minutes and still couldn’t say what exactly they’d been watching.

  Her mind was on Tank and his mother. She couldn’t figure out what his mother would gain if she split them up. It was clear there was hardly any love lost between those two.

  “I’m so glad you’re here,” she heard Tessa say while Hils clicked off the TV.

  “Where is she?”

  Ev recognized that voice and it propelled her from her seat right into the hallway and Tank’s waiting arms. He squeezed her tightly, a halo of cold surrounding him from the Californian winter.

  Granted, it was mild compared to other countries, but it certainly was colder than California was used to—yet still somewhat warm in her mind.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered over and over until Ev felt her heart cracking.

  She kissed his cheek, not able to pull away any further because he didn’t let go of her. Tessa and Jazz vanished into the living room, and although she could hear the hushed voices, she didn’t understand a word and didn’t really care about it, either.

  “It wasn’t your fault,” she replied, her tone quiet.

  “I didn’t cheat,” he added and finally she struggled until he let her go enough for her to see his face.

  His face had fallen, the light in his eyes dimmed.

  She cupped his cheek, making sure he watched her eyes as she said her next words. “I never once believed that. Besides the fact that I knew you were out with Jazz and he’d kick your ass if you even tried, I never felt so sure about trusting someone like I do with you this moment.”

  His blue eyes seemed to water, but she could hardly believe that.

  After all, this was Tank they were talking about.

  “Why?”

  “Why?” she echoed, wondering what they hell he meant, what she had missed.

  “Why do you trust me?”

  How could he be so emotionally scarred that he didn’t see what she saw in him? That he didn’t notice his tenderness and his devotion and support?

  Then it hit her.

  It was her fault because when he’d been nothing but giving, she’d done nothing but take what he’d offered.

  Before she could reply, Tessa, Jazz, and Hilary appeared in the hallway.

  “We’re off. Ela called because Johnny seems to be waking constantly, so we need to check on him. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Tessa announced, kissing Evy’s cheek before giving Tank a glance Evangeline couldn’t read.

  He surprised her by reaching out, touching his fingertip to Tessa’s nose.

  “Tie him to the bed if you have to,” he whispered and Tessa blushed while Jazz shot his best friend a glare.

  “See you soon, former best friend,” Jazz gritted out, then they were out the door and Hilary stretched where she stood, faking a yawn so obviously, the next-door-neighbors had probably noticed it, too.

  “I’m so tired. I’m off to bed. Good night!”

  And with that she was up the stairs when Tank suddenly cursed.

  “What’s wrong?” Evangeline asked and Tank shook his head.

  “Jazz promised to drop me off at the bar again to pick up my car, and now he’s gone.”

  “Stay here tonight.”

  He closed his eyes, lifting his head to the ceiling, and Evy couldn’t help but question how they’d gotten so far as to already be in a position where he didn’t want to stay by her side for even a night—especially when they hadn’t had one yet.

  “Look, I can also—”

  A wide smile suddenly broke over his face. “I’ve been thinking about staying with you, holding you through the night, but I wasn’t sure you really wanted to, and I didn’t want to force you or anything, so… Yes, I’d happily stay.”

  She drew him into the living room first, because she wanted to talk to him. He sat, drawing her onto his lap right away. He kissed her neck and she shivered, brushing her fingertips through his dark blond hair.

  “You’ve been growing it out,” she commented and nodded.

  “I figured it was… less soldier-like, less to remind me of my old ways and days. I never thought changing would be easy, but I did change even before you came to the US… permanently.”

  She leaned in, kissing his cheek before whispering, “You were hot with the very short hair, but like this?”

  He laughed, cupping the back of her neck before drawing her in for a kiss. She let him taste her, and she tasted him right back.

  There was the bitterness of beer and the sweet remnants of mint left by a piece of chewing gum.

  When she pulled back, she pressed her lips to his nose and then held his eyes. “You’re hot either way, Tank, so if you feel more comfortable wearing it ultra-short, I’m fine with it.”

  He surprised her by pulling the hairband from her braid and then combed his fingers through her dark strands, his touch gentle, careful.

  “I don’t care either way, and if you prefer the longer version, I’m your man. I mean… I’m always your man.” He shook his head. “But I’m doing what you like more because seriously as long as you look at me the way you sometimes do, when you aren’t focused on work and—”

  She rested her forehead against his, sighing. “I’m the worst girlfriend ever,” she whispered, meaning it, regretting it.

  “You aren’t,” he assured her, but she just shook her head, feeling tears come to her eyes. She squeezed them closed, hoping to keep the tears at bay.

  “You said yourself you didn’t have a relationship so far and you have nothing to compare this to. I guess it’s my luck, but it’s not what I want. It’s not how I want us to be. It’s not what you deserve, Tank. I promise, if that gala isn’t the biggest fail of my life, I’ll show you exactly how it should be, and I’ll treat you the way a girlfriend should treat an amazing boyfriend like you.”

  “You—”

  “No,” she stated, not even letting him get in a word. “If I’d been the girlfriend I should have, you wouldn’t have believed I could think you’d chea
t on me. You wouldn’t have doubted yourself and your amazingness if I’d have done my girlfriend job right. Then again, I lack in the best friend department, too. This gala…”

  God, she was making excuses and yet she already felt terrified of the time when the job wasn’t going to occupy her mind twenty-four-seven anymore, because then it would be time to admit that maybe she didn’t know how to do human relationships, either.

  Sitting there, with Evy in his lap, Tank realized for the first time that he wasn’t the only one worried about this, about messing up. It was obvious in her hazel eyes: the uncertainty, the doubt in her own qualities and he couldn’t help the utterly real smile coming to his lips.

  They were a perfect match; better than he’d initially thought.

  “You are doing everything you can, Ev. You can pick up the pieces after the gala because you’ll have the months and years to come. You’ll be here, and you won’t work an event like that anymore, mainly because we don’t have so many of these events here. Don’t forget that, okay? No one will go anywhere.”

  She leaned in, resting her head on his shoulder, and he cuddled her close, inhaling deeply. “God, how is it possible to miss a person when you see her every day?” he asked and heard her swallow again.

  “If I’m lucky and I haven’t lost everything after the gala, and my friends will still talk to me, I promise, Thom, I’ll make it up to you. I’ll make it up to you until you’re confident about everything you do.”

  He shivered at the nickname she’d given him, a name no one had used before, and one he’d never allow anyone else to use. “I like that,” he muttered, brushing his fingertips through her dark hair.

  “Holding me?” she asked and he chuckled.

  “That’s a given. I meant the nickname. It’s…”

  “Intimate?” she supplied and he nodded against the top of her head.

  She was quiet for a moment before clearing her throat. “I need to tell you something,” she then said and he stiffened ever so slightly, hoping she hadn’t noticed. Yet when she pulled back, he knew she had, and she was smiling.

  “It’s got nothing to do with you,” she assured him and he relaxed into her again.

  “Then you’re free to tell me whatever.”

  She leaned back in, as if she wanted to hide her face from him, and he felt how she pulled up her hand, probably playing with her lip if he had to guess. The movement against his chest was regular, slow, and he gave her time to contemplate her words.

  “I love my sister,” she started and he couldn’t help but chuckle. If she started like that, there’d be a hell of a lot ‘buts’ coming.

  “Noted,” he commented softly.

  “She’s a fuck-up. Well, I guess it’s the word you’d use at least. She’s younger than me, and she gets what she has in life because she opens either her legs or her mouth, and if she does the second it’s not to talk. She’s fun, and loyal when she chooses it, and she’d always have my back, no matter what, but she didn’t work for anything in her life. She finished high school because she knew the right people, and by that I mean she did what she had to school-wise to take the notes that would be enough, and then be with the right people to get them to do essays and homework and all. So in exams she either cheated because she copied, or she made a bad grade.” She paused briefly, the bitterness not leaving her voice no matter how often she inhaled. “She brought home bad grades rather seldom, and if she did, my parents made excuses. However, god forbid I came home with a C. My parents would complain and fuss forever. Of course, if I came home with A’s then I probably copied from my neighbor.”

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered into her hair. She was smarter, more determined than most people he knew.

  “Don’t be. I stopped feeling sorry for myself before I ever started university. I have bad days every now and then, but they get less and less. My parents loved me in their own way. I knew by the way my mother sometimes would come in at night, when she thought I was asleep, and kissed my forehead. She still does that to this day whenever I sleep there. Anyway, I wanted to earn their praise and I worked hard for it. I studied forever and I wanted to get the good grades, and I did. They nodded and were proud. Really proud. I loved the feeling, the smiles on their faces when they took me out to dinner to celebrate my first year of university with perfect grades. I made it by myself. Everything I’d done, everything I’d reached, I’d done by myself, and in university, about when I met Tess, I realized I was no longer doing it for them, but because people called me strong, determined, a leader. I loved it.”

  He could imagine the pride she’d felt once she’d accomplished something by herself, could imagine it being addictive.

  “But my parents still loved Cyn more. She got a job because during her interview her cleavage would spill out, and they’d be proud because she found such a good job. It didn’t matter that she hardly ever stayed anywhere because usually wives or girlfriends found out. Not that those reasons ever reached my parents’ ears.”

  Tank sighed. “Because you didn’t tell them about the things their other daughter did?”

  She laughed, but it was without humor. “I’d never do that to Cyn, Thom. She’s my sister. She had my back. She held me the whole night when I realized I was pregnant. She didn’t judge, she just sat and rubbed my back. Say what you want about her, but it’s not her fault my parents love her above anyone else. In fact, I don’t think she could care any less what they think, and the less she cares, the more my mother holds onto her. As if she knows I could never abandon her whereas Cyn might be walking away any given second.”

  Tank decided to not comment on that. Toxic parents came in all shapes and sizes, and he knew how hard it was to walk away from one’s family, no matter how bad they were for a person.

  After all, he went to check on his mother once a month, although that might fully stop after the stunt she’d pulled that evening.

  “When Tess and I got really close, I started the same competitive behavior with her, and only realized it when she went to the US, her heart shattered and her mind on the verge of breaking, too. She came here, in a bad place because nothing in her life worked the way it was supposed to, but it all changed in a flash. Suddenly her life was the one to aim for, and mine the one you should leave behind.”

  He squeezed her softly. “That’s not true. It was a mess, Ev, and you know that. Tessa’s life that is, and I don’t think it got any better until she got that job at the station. The job you got for her. The job she applied for because she accepted your help. She wasn’t above taking you up on your offer.”

  Evangeline pulled back. “Exactly, I offered. This time around she didn’t.”

  “Because it wasn’t her gala to plan, and you know that. What I was aiming for is her life got the way it is now because she accepted help when it was offered. In fact, if you look at it exactly the way it happened, everything changed when she accepted Jazz’s offer for help at the airport.”

  She smiled gently. “I know what you’re trying to say, and I’m trying to let people help me, but honestly, it’s not even about that. I just want people to see what I can do, and I need it more than ever because the moment I have a chance to, I want to get rid of Lanestrong. It’s not going to happen this year, or next, because he got me the visa, but it will happen, and until then I’ll build my client list. So I need to rock this.”

  He framed her face. “Ev, you need to understand that people will still be impressed with you if you let others do things for this event. It requires not only planning talent, but also organizational skills to have everything the way you want it.”

  “I can’t give up more tasks.” She sighed.

  Tank nodded. “Actually you can. Let me be with the guys and women decorating the venue, Ev. I can read plans, and I’m not dumb. Also, I listen when you talk, and you told me all your plans. Let me do that while you’re in the office, doing the phone calls and whatever else is happening. I’m sitting around most of the time, and I love yo
ur daughter like my own,”—he swallowed at the severity of that statement, the heaviness, but she didn’t even react to it—“I cannot sit around being unimportant another day.” He wanted to help her, too, and not just feel like a third wheel without any purpose.

  “I like having you at the office because whenever I think I can’t do it, I look up, and I see you with Leila. It’s each time that I realize I need this gala to work because if not, I’ll lose my family.”

  She still held his eyes, nothing but sincerity written in her hazel gaze, and he swallowed around the lump in his throat. “Family?” he croaked.

  “My life’s complete because of you. I don’t feel the need to impress you, or be the best I can because you take me the way I am, and the way you treat Leila… If I wasn’t yours already, you could win me with that, Thomas. The way you treat her. The way you love her. You belong to my family now, and I have no plans of letting you get away, even if it’s getting too much for you.” Her voice broke and he wished he knew what to say to reassure her he wouldn’t walk away. “I might not hunt you down right away because… gala, but I would afterward. The moment Tessa and Jazz close the official part, the dinner over, the dancing about to begin, I’d be out of that room to find you and beg on my knees if I had to.”

  “Evangeline.” He was choking on emotions and didn’t know where to go with them, so he cupped the back of her neck, holding her inches away from him. “You wouldn’t have to beg.”

  And with that he claimed her mouth in a kiss before lifting her off the sofa, not caring that other people were in the house, or that he left the light on in the living room. He carried her upstairs, and the way she wrapped her legs around him, she didn’t seem to mind the slightest bit either.

  There was no need for Tank to say any words because she understood. She’d seen the overwhelming emotions in his eyes, felt the gratitude in his kiss.

  Maybe they should talk about his mother, about how she’d found her, what they should do about her, but when he placed her on the bed, leaving her just long enough to close the door before his lips were back on hers, she didn’t think talking was what they should do.