Page 61 of Anchor
Ah, home sweet home.
My shoulders slump and I wipe off the smile I’d slapped on when the plane touched down in Jacksonville. A shrink would have a field day with my mental state, but it’s nothing I haven’t been through before, so I drown out those thoughts with our homegrown country station. The sooner I get to Jack’s, the better. The last thing I need is to be alone in my head right now.
Driving around my hometown is a surreal experience. I clearly remember growing up here, going to school here, but the person I was then and the man I’ve become couldn’t be more different.
I pull up to the lake house and momentarily contemplate passing on his offer to hang out when my eyes fall on movement in the doorway. My breath catches in my throat when I realize it’s Jack’s younger sister, Olivia. Her eyes meet mine and I realize I’m not the only one who’s done some changing over the years I’ve been away. Was she always such a knockout?
My hands clench on the steering wheel until Jack appears in the doorway behind her as a much needed reminder that I should keep my distance. I hop out of the truck and make my way over to them. Olivia stays back with her arms wrapped around her waist as Jack walks over and gives me a one-armed hug.
“Good to see you, man,” he says. “It’s been way too long.”
“Yeah,” I say, my eyes still on Olivia. “It has.”
“Do you mind helping Olivia with the food? I’ll pull out the chairs and shit. Logan should be here soon.”
“Sure, man. Whatever you need.” I make it a point not to look at Olivia until Jack leaves the room.
She bites her lip and smiles. “C’mon, I’m making bacon wrapped shrimp. It’s pretty awesome, I’m not gonna lie.”
I chuckle. “I’m sure it is.” I follow her in and immediately feel at ease. “God, this place hasn’t changed at all.”
Constructed just about entirely of wood, the house is really more of an expanded cabin with floor to ceiling windows that look out over the pristine surface of McCormick Lake. Through them I can see Jack wrestling with the patio furniture. I squint my eyes at the dark figure beside him.
“Holy shit, is Sofie out there, too?”
Olivia turns from the fridge, a package of bacon in her hands. “Yeah, she didn’t want to miss your big homecoming and I managed to convince Jack to be on his best behavior.”
I glance back at them and note their hostile postures. “Yeah, I’m not sure how long that’s going to last.”
She places a bunch of ingredients on the counter and looks out the window only to shrug them off. “Who knows with those two? Here, will you rinse these off for me?”
I move across the kitchen to her side at the sink. The dress she’s wearing brushes my leg and my body warms. She smiles up at me and all I can think is,Oh, shit.
We’re interrupted by the sound of the back door to the patio slamming. “I’m going to strangle that girl, Liv,” Jack says, grabbing a beer from the fridge. He motions toward me and I nod.
“Relax. You can control yourself for a couple hours,” she tells him.
“I doubt it,” he replies cryptically. And fuck if I don’t have the same thought.
When Jack leaves again, I should put a careful distance between us, but I don’t. Instead I move to her side and lean against the counter. “So how have you been?” I ask, knocking my shoulder into hers playfully.
“Oh you know, busy as hell. How about you?”
“Same.”
“Well, I’m glad you were able to make it. I don’t think I’ve seen you since before you left for boot camp.” She flicks a glance up at me and the memory of our one and only kiss feels like a physical presence. She blushes and then looks back down.
“My mom was about to kill me for staying away for so long. War I can handle, but that woman is terrifying.”
“Mrs. Hart?” she says. “She makes apple pie for goodness’ sake. She’s like five feet tall. How can she possibly terrify you, someone who is essentially an American Jedi?”
“Has she ever chased you around the kitchen with a barbecue fork because you broke her T.V.?”
Olivia gasps. “She did not do that.”
I hold up my hands. “Swear to God.”
“I’ll have to ask her the next time I see her because I just can’t picture that.”