I beamed in return. “Hey. Welcome home.”
“Thanks.” He sighed, running a hand over his recently shorn dark hair. He collapsed on the couch beside me.
I fought the urge to crawl into his lap and hug him. He’d been gone for two weeks, a short trip this time. Sometimes he was gone for months at a time. Every time he went out on a job, I worried about him.
I knew that, as a former Marine and now highly trained security specialist, he could take care of himself. That didn’t mean I didn’t worry about him.
“Are you hungry?” I asked. “We’re kind of low on supplies at the moment but I managed to make you something and hide it from Cade.” I grinned.
He chuckled. “Wow, I’m amazed you could hide anything from him. He has a better sense of smell than a bloodhound. I’m famished. But I can get it.”
He started to get up but I stopped him. “You’ve got to be exhausted. I’ll get it.”
He sighed, not putting up much of a fight, which further confirmed how tired he must be.
My brother had formed Talon security after getting out of the SEALs and had recruited Sid and a few other men to join him. They only took a few contracts a year, providing security for corporations doing business in areas of disruption overseas. Most recently I knew Sid had been somewhere in the Middle East. He’d also traveled to Africa in the last year. Aside from where he went and how long he’d been gone, he couldn’t share much. It was just as dangerous as when they’d served in the military if not more so; I knew that much.
I heated up the pasta dish I’d made him and watched it revolve in the microwave, trying desperately to tamp down the turmoil that was my constant companion when it came to Sid.
After years of close friendship, my feelings had changed unexpectedly, morphing into something terrifyingly close to love. When I really thought about it, I knew those feelings had always been there. They were present in the twist of my gut when he looked at another girl, or the butterflies in my stomach when he wrapped an arm around me. Despite the time they may have taken to bloom, it still felt like a light switch had flipped on and now I was grappling with what the hell to do underneath the bright lights.
“How many episodes in are you?” he asked, breaking me from my reverie, his eyes turned to the Law & Order SVU marathon I’d been watching.
“Three,” I admitted.
He chuckled, shaking his head at me.
I placed the plate in his hands and sat back down, curling up with a blanket over me at the other end of the couch.
“Trav get back okay?” I asked after my brother.
He nodded, taking a huge bite of pasta. I knew he wouldn’t say much more and I didn’t press him.
“Everything okay here while I was gone?” he asked once he’d swallowed.
I shrugged. “Yeah, same ole same ole. Cade’s been staying at Danika’s most nights. I think they’re getting pretty serious.”
He nodded, a thoughtful expression passing over his face at hearing about his little brother. “Looks like you guys actually cleaned up a little bit,” he noted, looking around our living room.
Sid was by far the cleanest of us. I didn’t tell him it had actually just been me who had cleaned up, that I didn’t want him to come home to a messy house. Instead, I shrugged, trying to appear indifferent.
He finished his meal and placed the plate on the coffee table in front of him, patting his lap in silent invitation. I stretched out my legs across his muscular thighs in our typical TV-watching position.
Sid and I had always been somewhat affectionate. However, the sheer need to touch him as of late was new and something I was still desperately trying to understand.
“All right, Sam, I’m cutting you off,” he said after the episode ended. “How about we watch something less depressing, hmm?”
I let out a dramatic sigh. “Fine.”
He started an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm and with the exception of the occasional laugh, we fell into a comfortable silence I only ever had with him.
“Hey, sleepy girl, time for bed,” his deep voice came to me through a dream.
“Hmm?” I mumbled, forcing my eyes open.
Sid stood peering down at me. He reached for my hand, his skin warm and rough against mine. “To bed,” he ordered, his tone light as he shuffled me to my room. “Christ, I really hope there’s never an emergency I have to wake you up for—you’re always so out of it,” he complained as I shuffled awkwardly to my room. “Night, Sam,” he said quietly as I flopped on my bed.
Because I was half-asleep, the next words escaped my lips of their own accord. “Glad you’re home safe, Sid, missed you,” I murmured sleepily.