XanderI stood in the living room, looking around to make sure there wasn’t any dirty socks, trash, or anything else. I was probably being ridiculous, acting like a little old lady expecting company, but I wasn’t used to visitors.I rarely got visitors. If I was being honest with myself, I got zero visitors. Charlie didn’t count. I supposed I could count Evie. Two. Exactly two visitors.After assuring myself the room was ready for company, I checked the kitchen. I was just moving the bowl of fresh fruit to a new spot on the counter when I heard the doorbell. I quickly made my way to the front door.“Hi,” I greeted.Kade grinned and launched himself at me. He wrapped me in his arms, giving me a bro hug. I patted his back before he released me.“Damn, did you get taller?” he teased.I laughed. “I think you got shorter. All those years packing around a heavy ruck will do that to you.”I opened the door and gestured for him to come inside. He picked up the small duffel sitting next to his

EvieI finished pulling my hair up into a messy bun that would keep the heavy strands off my neck. It was going to be a warm one.I sat down on the foot of my bed and put on my tennis shoes before standing up and checking my reflection in the mirror. I wasn’t really all that concerned with my appearance. I was going for an extra-long walk today. I needed to walk off the frustration of the week.I headed for the kitchen and filled my water bottle that I carried when I knew I was going to go farther than my usual spot in the park. Despite my declaration I wasn’t going to work today, I needed to check my email. One peek.When my phone started ringing, I slowly shook my head. “No. No way. I’m off.”I glanced over at the screen, unable to keep my curiosity from checking to see who it was. I smiled and grabbed the phone. “Hey there!” I answered.“Hi,” Xander’s rich baritone came through. “What are you doing?”“Uh, getting ready to go for a hike. What are you doing? Are you with your brother

XanderI jogged downstairs. I had canceled my meetings for the day and was going to hang out with Kade until it was time for him to catch his flight back to Oregon.I was going to make him breakfast. Something nice and greasy and completely unhealthy. I spoke to Alexa and asked her to turn on the morning news station.While I was apprised of the events happening in the country and the city, I fried bacon and cooked hash browns. I cheated a bit and opened a jar of gravy and popped open a can of biscuits. The final touch was the scrambled eggs, a little on the wet side, just like Kade liked them.I had thought he would be down by now. Neither of us was prone to sleeping in. Years of living on a military base and living with a military man stole away the whole sleeping in thing.I went upstairs and knocked on the door to the room he was sleeping in. “Kade! Wakey, wakey, little brother.”There was no answer. I opened the door and immediately noticed the bed was neatly made. I didn’t have

EvieHe held my hand as we made our way from one animal exhibit to the next. He was saying all the right things and smiling and was acting perfectly normal. That was what bugged me.He was too normal. He wasn’t being his usual self. I could feel him trying too hard to be the normal guy. Xander was naturally reserved, but just then, he was being very—for lack of a better word—normal.“Something to drink?” he asked with a friendly smile. That was when I knew something was definitely not okay.“Yes, please.”I stood to the side while he got in line to get the sodas. I spotted a small table in the shade and took it over. When he turned to look for me, I waved my hand to get his attention. He carried the drinks and sat down. Again, I could see there was something on his mind.“Hot?” he asked.“It’s not too bad. What about you?”“Fine.”I sipped on the soda before I decided the best way to find out what was on his mind was to ask him directly. “How are you? Like really, how are you?”He fro

XanderI parked my car in the massive parking lot reserved for the hundreds of dock workers. I checked my watch, wincing when I confirmed my suspicions. I was late.For the life of me, getting to where I was supposed to be on time seemed like an impossible feat. I tried and I tried but something always happened.I made my way down to the right dock and immediately spotted Charlie. He had his hands on his hips and was staring out at the massive cargo ship in the harbor. By his stance, I could see he wasn’t happy.He had called and asked me to come down and give him some ideas. Apparently, there was a ship coming in for repairs. Charlie was stumped and needed some fresh eyes on how to take care of the issue.It was my thing. The ship wasn’t one of mine, but I didn’t mind offering some advice to a friend. It wasn’t like I needed the money, so I never charged him a consultation fee. There were a few companies that I did charge because the owners or CEOs were dicks. Probably not the most p