Brandon’s hazel eyes hardened for a quick moment, and lost all expression as he forced a smile, “Pretty good, we got a group of guys that came in and signed up for memberships together.”
I frowned at his expression, “How many?”
“Eleven.”
“Eleven? That’s great Brandon! Why do you not seem happy about that?” There were days at a time that no new members came at all, eleven in one morning was unheard of.
“I am happy, so what brings you here?” He kissed my forehead and blew a raspberry on Liam’s belly, Liam slapped down on Brandon’s head and dissolved into a fit of giggles. We definitely had a happy baby.
“Well Bree and I have to go do some wedding stuff, but we were wondering if there’s any way we could talk you guys into lunch?”
His rugged face softened and his hand dropped to my hip, giving it a small squeeze, “I can’t leave Harper, Aaron called in this morning, so it’s just me and Konrad until a little later. He can go with you though.”
“I can go pick up some sandwiches from down the street and bring them back?” Bree volunteered.
Brandon’s gaze flickered to something behind us, then to Konrad, and his face tightened again, “I’ll go grab my card, Harper can you come wi–”
“Blaze.”
The familiar voice had my body tensing and Brandon exhaled a curse. Turning slowly, I kept my eyes on Brandon’s piercing hazel ones until I knew I needed to look ahead. Carter. My heart clenched and tears pricked my eyes. Why was I crying? Oh wait, that’s right.
“Oh Blaze, no. Don’t cry.” He stepped forward and brought his hands up, probably to wipe the tears, but I slapped his hands away.
“Don’t touch me.”
A flash of hurt crossed his face before it slipped into his signature stone face. “Can we talk?”
“Why are you here Jason?”
“He’s one of the eleven from this morning.” Brandon’s deep voice made its way through my body and helped calm me.
I leaned my back against Brandon’s stomach, and he wrapped the arm that wasn’t holding Liam around me again. “Why? Why would you drive all the way over here to come to this gym? I know for a fact you have all this on the base.”
“I’ve been out for a month Blaze, my time there ended and I decided not to re-up.”
“Then why are you still here?” I knew I was being rude, but seeing him again brought back the ache from losing his friendship, and the reason why it was lost.
“A good chunk of us were all getting out within a few months of each other. We’re renting out a few houses in San Diego.”
“What about your wife?”
He snorted and shook his head, “She drained my bank account when I was in Afghanistan, when I got back she was gone and there were papers for me to sign for the divorce on the table.”
“I could have told you something like that would’ve happened. You really thought you could marry a base whore and she’d stay with you?”
“Harper.” Brandon warned.
I looked up at his face and felt like a scolded child, “I’m sorry Cart– Jason, that was rude. And I’m sorry that’s what you had to come back to, she didn’t deserve you anyway.”
Brandon flexed his grip on my hip to let me know that was better. He couldn’t stand Jason Carter for obvious reasons, but of course he was still as polite as could be to him, just as he’d been with Chase.
“Carter,” I sighed when a grin crossed his face from me using his last name, “why are you here though?” I made a loose circle with my finger, indicating the gym. There were tons of fighting gyms around San Diego, it was too much of a coincidence for him to choose this one.
“I uh – one of the guys that got out before us was already a member here before I moved, he told me the owner’s name and I figured I could come here and talk to Brandon, see if he knew how you were. I didn’t know if you guys were still together, or if you even spoke anymore. But you’re my best friend Blaze, I needed to see you and this was my best shot. I was waiting for him to be done training that guy,” he nodded his head toward the wall of punching bags, “and then you were here.”
“That right there, what you just said, is a perfect example of how little of friends we actually are. We haven’t spoken in over a year and a half, and even though you kind of lost the right to know anything about my life, if we were friends at all, you would have known that if you found Brandon, I wouldn’t be far behind. You don’t know anything about me anymore, and I don’t know anything about you. So much has happened in the last year and a half with me, and you’re clueless to all of it. That’s saying something.”