Vetted: An Everyday Heroes World Novel (The Everyday Heroes World)

by A. M. Williams

  With that, he grabbed some plates and headed to the door, leaving me staring after him.

  It looked like I needed to go have a conversation with August about what happened earlier, and I found myself worried about what that conversation would entail as I walked around the house and toward the home across the street.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  AUGUST

  MY ONLY THOUGHT when I got home was to keep it together. And that was a struggle. A massive struggle.

  My mind flashed to Britain in her uniform and I didn’t want to think about how attractive she’d looked in it because of my feelings toward the military. It was a uniform, and it represented everything that I hated in that life. Seeing her in uniform reminded me of the problems my brother faced and the lingering issues from my childhood.

  It was only worse now because of the news she dropped.

  Deployment?

  Six months?

  What the fuck?

  A knock on the door pulled me from my thoughts, and I turned to stare at it. After a few moments, another knock.

  There was only one person I thought it could be. And I was proved right when the door opened and Britain was standing there, still in her uniform.

  “Hey,” she said, stepping inside and closing the door softly behind her.

  I froze in the middle of the room, and I said nothing. What could I say?

  “Sooo…” she said, glancing around before her eyes lit on the wall in the living room. She walked into the room and my head dropped. I’d forgotten about that wall.

  This was it. Everything was about to come out. A gaping pit was in my stomach at the realization that I’d fucked up already by not telling her.

  I sighed and followed her to the living room, pausing in the doorway to watch her staring at Rich’s military memorabilia on the wall. He had a folded American flag in a shadowbox with his dog tags, name tape, and his ribbon rack tacked to the felt above it. He had a few framed photos on the wall as well that showed various points of his military career.

  Britain quietly stared at it, her arms crossed in front of her chest, and I used the chance to study her, trying not to think about what she was looking at.

  She was in profile, but I could see the tension radiating from her and flashed back to our break up in college. It was an argument that started with a conversation very similar to the one she had at her parent’s house. The only difference was we were alone when she broke the news that she’d joined the military, even though she knew I had misgivings.

  I didn’t resent her then—even though I didn’t like that she’d joined up without my knowledge—and I didn’t resent it now. I just wasn’t sure I could handle it.

  Britain turned to face me, and we stared at each other for several moments.

  “Why didn’t you tell me about Rich?” She asked.

  I was silent because I didn’t know what to say.

  Britain shook her head and made a noise of disgust. “You kept something like that from me for what reason?” Her voice was rising, belying how upset she was, which she had every right to be. “He just told me everything.”

  I looked at her in shock. “Everything?”

  She nodded. “Yeah, everything. His struggle after separation, the suicide attempts, and finally getting help. I get why you wouldn’t want to talk about it, truly, I do. But what I don’t get is how you’ve had ample opportunity to bring it up to me that he was at least in the military and you didn’t. Instead, he told me about it so I could have a better understanding of why you just stormed out of my parents' house after I admitted that I was likely deploying instead of staying to offer me support.”

  I clenched my jaw and dropped my gaze to the floor. I wasn’t sure there was anything I could say at this point that wouldn’t make things worse, so I stayed quiet. I’d been a dick to leave saying nothing.

  Britain let out a laugh, but it was filled with pain. “I can’t even…” She muttered.

  I looked up at her and saw her clasp her hands behind her head, her head tilted back so she could look at the ceiling. “I thought we were over this shit,” she said in a low voice, still looking at the ceiling. “We’re adults. We don’t have to agree on everything. And I thought we were moving past my involvement in the military.”

  She dropped her arms and looked at me again.

  “I’m not sure I can look past the military,” I admitted, even though it hurt to do so.

  She shook her head and red bloomed on her cheeks. “Really? You can’t… I don’t know, try to talk it out and work past it? For me?”

  Her voice cracked on that last question, and my chest hurt. I stared at her and said nothing. What could I say at this point?

  “So, we’re at a stalemate?” She finally asked when it became obvious that I wasn’t going to say anything.

  “I think so.” I sighed, and a rubbed a hand over my hair. “I think we should take a few days to think and… meet for coffee this week to talk it out?”

  She stared at me without speaking, and it took everything in me to not squirm at her scrutiny. We were repeating the mistakes of a decade before and I couldn’t stop it.

  That was a lie. I could stop it. I just wasn’t sure how or if I wanted to. The news of the deployment was a slap in the face and a reminder of what Britain wanted out of life and how it didn’t match with what I wanted.

  “You want to meet for coffee later this week?” She asked.

  I nodded. “Yeah.”

  She continued to stare at me before shaking her head. “I guess we’ll meet for coffee then.”

  I tilted my head to the side at her tone, which sounded sarcastic.

  “Is that not okay?” I asked carefully.

  “Of course, it’s not okay!” She burst, flinging an arm to the side. “We need to talk about this and if we ‘take a few days,’ I already know what’s going to happen, although, it probably already has. You’ll convince yourself this won’t work and that you can never get over my connection to the military. When we meet, our talk will actually be you breaking up with me.”

  My head jerked back. “What? No, it won’t.”

  The look Britain sent me would have sent a lesser man scrambling, but I wasn’t a lesser man. Though I wished she’d look elsewhere.

  “Really?” She asked, arching a brow. “You can tell me you weren’t over here thinking about how you can’t get over me being in my uniform and my connection? My career is still going on, August. I want to go back to active duty if I can. That’s not going to change unless something stops it.”

  She looked away and licked her lips before looking back at me. “It devastated me; you know? When we broke up before? I told you how important being in the military was and how they’d help pay for my schooling so my parents weren’t out of pocket and I didn’t have to take out loans. I explained how I wanted to help animals and give back to this country. I did this so many times, but did you even hear me?”

  It was my turn to scoff. “Of course, I did.”

  She tilted her head. “Then tell me one reason I wanted to join the military?”

  “That was over ten years ago. You expect me to remember everything?”

  As soon as I asked, I knew it was the absolute wrong thing to say.

  “No, I don’t.” I watched as she seemed to deflate in front of me. She took a step back as she said, “I’ll talk to you later this week.”

  “What?” I asked as she walked toward me.

  She said nothing and tried to brush past me, but I wouldn’t let her go. I grabbed her hand and held it, forcing her to stop, her eyes trained on something over my shoulder. “Where are you going?”

  “Home.” She still wasn’t looking at me and her face was flat, devoid of any inflection. It sent a shiver down my spine.

  “Why?”

  “Are you serious right now?” she asked in a low voice, still not looking at me.

  “Yeah, I’m serious.” I wasn’t sure why the change had come over her, I just knew
it had something to do with me and I wanted to make it stop.

  “You just said that you couldn’t get over my connection to the military and when I asked you to tell me one reason for joining the military, you stated you essentially couldn’t be expected to remember everything.”

  I winced at her words. “I remember what you said. You said you wanted to give back to the country because the military helped make sure we remained free. And you wanted to work with animals because you always loved them and wanted to help them, too.”

  Britain said nothing, and I waited to see if she’d say something else, anything else.

  “Yeah, I did. Can you please let go?”

  “Are you going to leave?” I asked, still holding on to her arm.

  “What is there to talk about?”

  “Will you look at me?” I asked, desperate to see her face again.

  She sighed and turned to look at me, but I didn’t let go of her hand. “What?” She asked.

  “Are we good?”

  Britain blinked at me for several moments, her face devoid of any sort of emotion. I couldn’t get a read on her.

  “Are you serious?” She finally asked.

  “Yeah. I want to know we’re good.”

  She clenched her jaw. “No, August, we aren’t good. You just insulted me by what you just said and you still have offered no sort of support to me. You haven’t asked how I feel about the deployment, which is scared, or if I know where it’ll be or anything. Instead, you’re more worried about your own thoughts and feelings on this and how it impacts you. Not once have you been worried about me.”

  “That’s not—" I started to say, but Britain jerked her arm to pull it from my grasp and turned to go to the door, leaving me standing there gaping after her.

  “That’s not it at all…” I mumbled as I watched her go.

  And it wasn’t. Right?

  She made me sound incredibly selfish, and I wasn’t. I just couldn’t reconcile everything military related. I just needed a few days to get my thoughts together.

  That and more ran through my mind as I watched her cross the street to her parent’s house. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that I’d also just fucked up royally with that entire conversation. And I wasn’t sure what to do to fix that.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  AUGUST

  “YOU’RE AN ASSHOLE,” Rich said as he joined me on the back porch Tuesday night.

  I nodded. “Yeah.”

  “You still haven’t said anything to her?” He asked as he handed me a beer.

  I shook my head. “No, but she’s not answering my texts or calls. I sent her flowers today.”

  Rich snorted. “Baby brother, you have a lot to learn about women. You need to try harder.”

  I glanced at Rich and sipped my beer. Once I’d swallowed, I said, “And what would you know? As far as I know, you’ve never had a serious relationship.”

  Rich pursed his lips and looked at me. “Just because I haven’t talked about it or you haven't seen anyone doesn’t mean there hasn’t been someone.”

  My brows rose in surprise. “This is news to me. You mean you aren’t a celibate monk?” I joked.

  He punched me in the shoulder, and I laughed. “Asshole,” he muttered before drinking from his bottle. “It was mainly when I was in. I haven’t really seen too many people since I got out and we moved here. But there have been a few.”

  It was on the tip of my tongue to ask him if those camping trips he went on were really camping trips after all, but I quelled that desire. I had a feeling he wouldn’t appreciate my teasing.

  “So, why am I an asshole?” I asked after a few minutes of silence.

  “You know why.”

  I sighed. “Rich…”

  “August. Just shut up for a minute. You know what the issue is here.”

  I nodded. I did. It was my stance on the military because Britain wouldn’t give up her dream. That seemed obvious now.

  “The issue is that you’re dating Britain and when she dropped a bombshell on all of us, instead of trying to comfort her and support her, you left.”

  I jerked at his words and straightened in my seat, turning to face him. “What?” I asked.

  He nodded. “Yeah. You didn’t stay to hear her out or talk to her about it. It was obvious when she was delivering the news that she was struggling with it herself. Instead of holding her hand or hugging her, you left because you couldn’t believe that your self-fulfilling prophecy came true.”

  I squinted my eyes as I looked at him. “Self-fulfilling prophecy? What are you going on about?”

  He set his beer down and turned to face me. “You’re set in your ways, which is good to a point. You’re in your thirties. You should have some understanding of what you want out of life. But you’re so set in your ways you aren’t willing to compromise or consider a different viewpoint. Britain walks on eggshells around you with the military, I can tell. When she came out on the back porch, I could tell she didn’t want to be there in uniform, but I’m pretty sure her mom forced her outside.

  “You both radiated tension before her announcement. I know now that the bulk of that tension was because of her needing to tell us about the deployment, but the other part of it was you. You were so tense that it’s not even funny. When are you going to grow up enough that you realize you have to sometimes make sacrifices to make things work in life?”

  I stared at my brother, shocked at what he was saying.

  We never did the deep conversations. Never.

  Unless it was about his medical care, we glossed over relationships and stuff like that.

  But now that I was thinking about it, I think it was mainly on my part.

  Rich had tried to bring up a few different things over the years, and I’d always shut him down.

  I blew out a breath. What the fuck? Why was I only now realizing this?

  “I can see you thinking about what I said, and that’s all I ask. Think about it. Figure your shit out and decide if you’re willing to support that woman when she deploys. If not, you need to do both of you a favor and end it.”

  With those words, Rich stood and went inside, leaving me alone on the back porch with my thoughts.

  Fuck.

  What he said made way too much sense. Way too much.

  I ran a hand over my head and forced myself to really consider what he was saying.

  The talk with Britain had gone to shit the minute she’d shown up.

  First, I was thrown off by her being in uniform at dinner.

  Then I was thrown off by her announcement of a deployment.

  Finally, she showed up at my house still in uniform and I couldn’t deal.

  To make it worse, I was a complete asshole to her about everything.

  I blew out a breath.

  I was an asshole. And a jerk. And I apparently couldn’t see past my own issues to realize that someone else might struggle, too.

  Fuck.

  I remembered the first time Rich told us he was deploying. My parents were worried, but Dad was proud. I was proud, too, but I wasn’t happy about him going.

  I remembered Dad going as a kid and it had been hard. It hadn’t been as bad when I got older and I got used to it, but it was never easy.

  The feeling of Dad and Rich deploying was nothing compared to what I felt when Britain announced she was deploying.

  I felt like I’d been sucker punched. All I could think of was her deploying and something happening to her out there.

  I already didn’t like the military because of my upbringing and what happened with Rich, but I couldn’t deal if something like that happened to Britain.

  And those thoughts brought me back to the original one: I was an asshole. Of major proportions.

  It couldn’t have been easy for Britain to tell us she might deploy, and I’d made it ten times worse by not even supporting her like a boyfriend would. Not even like a boyfriend, like a friend.

  Instead, I’d stormed of
f, caught up in my own thoughts.

  Then when she confronted me, I made it worse.

  “Fuck,” I muttered to myself

  I quickly drained my beer and walked inside to throw it out before walking right to the front door and across the street to Britain’s house.

  I knocked on the door and waited patiently for someone to answer. If it was Britain, she wouldn’t let me in. I already knew that.

  But I was hoping it would be her mom at the door. She would let me in for sure.

  A few moments later, my prayers were answered when Rita answered the door.

  “August,” she said with a smile. “What are you doing here?”

  She stepped back, and I slipped in the door, my eyes immediately going to the stairs.

  I’d never been upstairs in their house before, but I knew that’s where Britain’s room and the two other guest rooms were. All it would take was a quick few steps, and I’d be up there with no one to stop me.

  However, I wouldn’t do that. I wouldn’t be rude, even though I really wanted to be.

  “I was hoping I could talk to Britain?”

  I knew she was home. I’d seen her car through the front window of my house.

  “Oh, yes. Let me go up and get her.”

  I nodded and watched her trot up the stairs. I stayed in the foyer because I didn’t want to risk Britain bolting when she saw me.

  I slipped my hands into the pockets of my shorts and rocked on my feet as I waited for her.

  A few moments later, I heard footsteps, but it sounded like only one pair.

  Sure enough, Rita was coming down without Britain.

  “I’m sorry, August,” she said, looking sheepish. “Britain doesn’t feel well and isn’t up for coming down. Maybe you can call her?”

  I stared at her for several moments. If I was a worse man, I’d push past her and into Britain’s room. But I wasn’t. I respected her and her husband too much to do that. So instead, I nodded.

  “Right. I’ll try that. Thanks.”

  Without waiting to see if she said anything else, I turned on my heel and walked back across the street.

  Once inside my house, I walked to the front window that overlooked my front lawn and Britain’s house. I stared at it as I pulled my phone out of my pocket and unlocked it, thumbing to her name and pressing the call button.