She picked up the glass and took a sip of the rich red wine. Dani grew up in a loving home with parents who adored her, and one where money was never a problem. Even though she knew Logan and Maria’s life story, she could never understand the heartache of having a mother like Lovey Dovey, nor what it would have meant to Maria to find a father who wanted her.
“You’re blaming yourself, Jake’s blaming himself, and you’re both wrong,” Dani said. “That’s going to get you both nowhere.” She shifted Evan, who’d fallen asleep, into the crook of her arm and buttoned her blouse.
Maria pinched the bridge of her nose, trying to stop the tears pooling in her eyes. “If that’s true, then Jake and I need each other, we need to be together so we can help each other through this. If he loved me, maybe he’d see it differently, but he doesn’t and he doesn’t want me anywhere near him. How can he not resent me for his not getting on that plane? Jamie said Jake thinks he doesn’t deserve me, but I don’t really get that. I’m just me, Maria, nothing special.”
“Oh, he loves you, sweetie, believe me. You can see it in his eyes every time he looks at you.”
“If that’s true,” and she wasn’t sure she believed it, “then what’s his problem?”
Dani lifted her gaze to the ceiling and shook her head. “Between you, and Logan, and now Jake, I really should’ve majored in psychology.” She reached across the small table and stroked her fingers down Maria’s cheek. “You’re an amazing girl. You’re beautiful, inside and out, you’re soon to be a lawyer, and you’re a partner in a business usually only inhabited by men. You can change a nickel into gold just by playing around in the stock market, and there’s nothing a computer can hide from you. And you claim you’re nothing special? Get real, Maria, and stop feeling sorry for yourself. It isn’t becoming.”
Maria bit back an angry retort finishing the last of her wine. As Dani’s words sunk in, she realized her sister-in-law was right. She was holding her very own private pity party, and it was getting her nowhere. Nor had she ever listed all her accomplishments like Dani had just did. Not bad for a girl with her background.
Gently rocking her baby, Dani continued. “As to Jake’s problem, I’d say Jamie called it right. After losing a man on his watch, Jake doesn’t think he deserves to be happy, and you’re his happy. Men have this pride thing going, Maria. When they screw up, they don’t handle it well. Not that he screwed up, but he believes he did.”
“So what do I do about it?”
“You do what Dani did with me. You get into his mind so deep, he can’t get you out of it.”
Maria craned her neck and peered up at her brother. “You been back there eavesdropping all this time?”
“Nah, not that much into girl talk, but my advice is to get in his face and don’t take no for an answer. He’ll come around.” He leaned down and kissed her cheek. “Love you, brat, but I’m missing my wife and son, so I’m stealing them away.”
After they left, Maria considered all that was said and decided to give Jake one more day before she descended on him. It was a hard decision to make, because she felt so strongly that he needed her and she wanted nothing more than to jump in her car and head for St. George Island.
She tried not to let it bother her that Jake had talked to Logan but not her. Her logical mind knew the men had a bond no one outside the team could understand. Sometimes one of them could just grunt and the rest would nod their heads as if a full conversation had just taken place. But it tore at her heart that Jake preferred solitude to being with her when he was hurting.
Logan had reacted the same way when Evan had been killed. Even though he hadn’t made the mistakes Jake had, he still took on the burden of allowing it to happen. She had witnessed firsthand her brother’s withdrawal when he returned from Afghanistan. So, if Logan had done everything right and had still had a hard time of it, what did it mean for Jake when he’d made decisions that he believed resulted in getting a team member killed?
She feared it was something he’d never get over, but she was going to take Logan’s advice and refuse to take no for an answer.
Her brother better know what he was talking about.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
You in place, Elaine?”
“Eyes on the back door,” Stewart whispered into his headset. “All’s quiet back here. No Tangos in sight. Headed your way now.”