Page 51

“Lucas going to see to the Lab?”

Chance nodded. “With instructions not to take him out of the run, just to see he’s fed and has water. That’s still one edgy dog.”

Cody nodded. “You’re doing a great thing here, bro.”

Chance gave him a rather considering look. “With a lot of help from people who agree with that sentiment. Including Britt.”

Cody drew back sharply. “What?”

“You didn’t know? She’s made a couple of sizeable donations, since she started making real money on the circuit.”

Cody shifted his gaze back to the hills, afraid of what might be showing in his face. He’d never known that. Yet another thing to add to the list.

“Where is Ariel?” Cody asked, afraid to even say Britt’s name.

“Out walking with Tri. Things kind of…hit her this morning. They needed some alone time.”

Cody studied his brother for a moment. He knew what kind of things he meant. Ariel’s husband, Tri’s former handler, had paid the ultimate price for serving his country, just as their father had.

“You’re okay with that?” he asked.

Chance returned the steady gaze, only his was much more powerful, Cody was certain. You didn’t go where he’d gone and do what he’d done and not come back with that different look. “You know as well as anyone grief doesn’t come and go to order. He was a great guy and she loved him. I accept that.”

“She loves you,” Cody said, almost urgently.

“And I cherish that,” Chance said with a smile, a soft, gentle sort of smile they’d all been afraid they would never see from him again when he’d first come home. And that made Cody search for something else to say, other than what he’d come here for, because he didn’t want to wreck his brother’s mood.

“So how’s the planning for Keller’s wedding coming?” Ariel had been an event planner back in California and had delightedly taken on this project for the family who had so completely welcomed her.

Chance rolled his eyes. “She’s amazing, but damn, that’s a lot of work. Not that Keller and Sydney don’t deserve it—he deserves everything all of us can give—but it makes eloping sound pretty darn good.”

Cody’s brow rose. “Something you want to tell me, bro?”

“No.” But a smile played around Chance’s mouth when he added, “Not yet.”

Soon, bro. You deserve all the happy you can find.

Chance just looked at him for a moment, with those gray-blue eyes that had seen so much, most of which he kept to himself. Today was apparently going to be an exception, however.

“You didn’t ride all the way out here just to check on all that. What’s up?”

“I…needed to ask you something.”

Chance’s expression didn’t change. All he said was, “It’s a little early for a beer, but at least sit down.”

They did, on the front steps of the cabin his brother had adopted as his home and refurbished. Shoulder to shoulder, looking out toward the rolling hills of this land that was in their blood, made it easier.

“Mom told me once you blamed yourself for what happened to Ariel’s husband.”

He felt Chance go still beside him. It was a moment before he spoke. “I did.”

“Why?”

It was a measure of how far he’d come, how far loving Ariel had brought him, that he answered at all, let alone easily. “I couldn’t talk the brass out of the mission I knew was suicidal. It was Ariel who showed me you can’t convince people who don’t have the capacity to listen.”

Cody was glad, beyond glad, that she’d been able to do that. But the admission didn’t really help him. Not in the way he had been hoping it would. Silence drew out between them, until Chance gave him—and there was no doubting that was what it was—an order.

“Out with it.”