Forged by Sacrifice Kindle rev 100519

by Evans, LJ

  Ava gave me a tired smile that made me regret my attitude. “Thanks, Mac.”

  Then, she disappeared—so not the Ava we all knew and loved. The one who could barely sit still for more than two seconds. The one who gave as good as she got. The one who pranced around stages with an attitude the size of Texas.

  I sat at the bar while the daytime bartender continued the prep work behind the counter. I shot off a text to Eli.

  ME: Your fiancée is about ready to pass out. Maybe you should come get her?

  CAPTAIN: Shit. I’m on my way.

  ME: She left with Gorgeous to the drugstore, so you have time.

  CAPTAIN: Gorgeous?

  I looked up at my prior text, and I had typed Gorgeous instead of Georgie. Worst Freudian slip ever. Eli would never let me live it down.

  ME: Georgie. She left with Georgie.

  CAPTAIN: You’ve got it bad, my friend.

  ME: Nah. But she is gorgeous.

  CAPTAIN: You can’t fool me. I’ve known you too long. I’m just leaving Corpus Christi. I’ll be there in about thirty.

  ME: Yes, sir. I’ll hold down the fort till you get here, sir.

  CAPTAIN: **middle finger emoji**

  The door of the bar opened, and I looked up to see my other best friend, Travis Dayton, a.k.a. Truck, walk through. He looked both better and older than the last time I’d seen him when I’d gone to Hawaii on leave. His normally pale hair looked almost white it was so bleached by the sun. It had always been one shade away from white anyway, but now that he’d let it grow out, it looked like he could be ninety instead of twenty-eight.

  “Douche!” I got up and almost jogged to the door I was so excited to see him. I hugged him tightly.

  “Dickwad,” he greeted back, squeezing me as hard as I was squeezing him.

  “How’s Hawaii?” I asked as we let go and made our way back to the bar. The bartender already had a pint on the counter for him.

  “Good, but I’m itching to get out of there.”

  “Really?”

  “Yep. Few more months.”

  “You’re not going to reenlist?” I asked in surprise.

  He laughed. “Shit, yeah, I’m going to reenlist, but I’m going to ask to get the hell out of Hawaii.”

  “Beaches, ladies, and umbrella drinks not everything they’re cracked up to be?”

  “Cost of living, crowds, and humidity that never stops is more like it.”

  I nodded.

  “So, you came to more humidity?”

  He grinned. “To see you two asswipes, of course.”

  “Lucky us.”

  “Damn straight,” he teased. “So, how does it feel being a civilian again?”

  “Honestly? It hasn’t really settled in yet. Nash has been giving me shit nonstop.”

  Truck had been able to meet Nash and Darren when we’d all met up at my family’s house in Delaware a year or so ago. Nash wasn’t the easiest man to get along with, but Truck had gotten on his good side in that way that Truck did with everyone.

  “Here’s to hoping you can be a better politician than you were a wingman.” He held up his beer, and I refused to tap it with my own.

  “I’m a damn good wingman.”

  “Until you set your sights on some unexpected lady yourself, then you abandon ship.”

  I was abandoning ship now, too, but it wasn’t for a woman it was from a woman.

  “If it takes you too long to close your own deal, and I get propositioned, you can’t expect me to say no,” I retorted, grinning over my beer.

  “Hence, not being a good wingman.”

  “I take it you won’t be voting for me come election day then?”

  “That’s years in the future. And you’d have to be in the same state as I am.”

  It sucked being spread all over the country from my closest friends, but it helped that I was tight with my family. Being away from my friends allowed me to focus on work in a way that I might not have been able to do if I was trying to balance all the portions of my life. The unexpected melancholy I felt at leaving the Navy hit me again, along with the agony of not being able to have a certain pair of pale-green eyes to call my own, and I ordered another beer to wash it away.

  Georgie

  CHURCH

  “I need redemption

  For sins I can't mention.”

  Performed by Aly & AJ

  Written by Coogan / Rothman / Michalka / Michalka

  We ended up back at the house earlier than expected after Truck and Eli arrived at the bar, because Eli called in reinforcements. Andy and Lacey came in, took one look at Ava, and shooed her right out. She objected, and they stared her down like any good parent could. Lacey and Andy had their own sons somewhere, but they’d inherited Ava when she’d needed them most. I was pretty sure they were more like parents to her than her dad had ever been.

  It still said a lot about how rotten she felt that Ava gave in. It said even more about it that, when we got back to the house, she went to her room and didn’t come out until morning. But once she was awake, she announced to us all that we were spending the day on the beach with a picnic, and none of us argued. It was the perfect way to spend part of Fourth of July.

  I loved the Fourth almost as much as Christmas. They were both usually full of lazy days, food, and lights. The Fourth’s lights were in the sky, whereas Christmas’s lights were in the trees and on the houses. Plus, there was good music to go with both holidays.

  I didn’t even realize I was humming aloud until Truck asked, “What is that?”

  “Um, ‘Born in the U.S.A.’” I smirked, knowing I was pretty close to tone deaf, but not caring.

  “I’m pretty sure that’s not what it sounds like.” Mac grinned at me, causing thunderbolts to jolt across my stomach.

  I started humming “America,” and Truck burst out laughing. “What the hell is that one?”

  “Are you American at all?” I asked.

  “I’m American enough to know that isn’t any song our country wants to be known for.”

  Ava came to my rescue by singing the first verse in her beautiful voice.

  “That wasn’t what Georgie was singing,” Truck laughed.

  “It is too,” I chuckled. “Ava knew exactly what it was.”

  “But you were doing it rather badly. It was only my keen ear that helped me figure it out,” she teased.

  I threw an ice cube at her. “Okay, how about this one?”

  I started “The Star Spangled Banner,” and they all groaned.

  “And that is my cue to leave all you heathens and go shower.” I tried to sound upset, but I couldn’t. They were all too easy to be with.

  I stood up and felt Mac’s gaze over my bikini-clad body. I met his gaze with one of my own, staring until he finally looked away.

  When I came out of the shower, I pulled on my red, white, and blue dress that I’d bought specifically for this occasion. It looked like a flag and glitter had thrown up on the material, but I loved it. Just like I loved our country. The halter top showed off the tan that coated my arms and back from sitting on the beach the last week, and the flounced layers on the bottom ended mid-thigh and were reminiscent of a ballerina. It really was too much, but I still adored it.

  I finished my makeup and hair in the bedroom, hearing the shower in the adjacent bathroom kick on a couple times as everyone came back from the beach and got ready to head downtown to the bar.

  When I came out of the bedroom, Truck teased. “You look like one of those ads where the mother and the daughter have on matching dresses.”

  “We don’t get to celebrate our country enough,” I said with a shrug.

  “Not everyone believes we should celebrate these days. Most people feel like our country is slowly ripping itself apart,” Mac said.

  “Yeah, I know. And we are pretty messed up, but what other country on this planet allows people the freedoms and opportunities that ou
rs does?” I asked.

  “You’ve been hanging out with Mac too much,” Truck retorted. “Maybe you should both run for office.”

  My jaw went slack. “Wait. Mac’s a politician?”

  “Not yet, but he’ll be one soon enough. Four-year plan, right?” Truck asked.

  Mac shrugged.

  “How did you not know this about him?” Ava asked with a smile. “Did you think he wore that pretty white Navy uniform for nothing? Now he just has to find the right wife to settle down with, pop out a few kids, and look like the true family man he wants to be. Isn’t that right?”

  My eyes met Mac’s, and he looked away, coloring slightly. I suddenly realized why he thought kissing me was a bad idea: because I’d told him about my family. I’d had my fair share of people walk out of my life after learning about my dad or my stepdad or both, and I’d sort of built an immunity to it. I’d given the people judging me a one-fingered wave—even if it was an internal one—and moved on. But for some reason, Mac’s rejection stung more than I expected.

  I shrugged my armor back on―the one that normally said, Go to hell, to the people who couldn’t take me and my family for who they were. By the time we got to the bar, I’d recovered enough of my good mood to be smiling. We all dove in to help with the ebb and flow of the crowd until close to nine thirty when Andy and Lacey shooed us out once more—this time to go watch the fireworks from the roof.

  Ava protested leaving them, even for a few minutes, on such a busy night, but Lacey insisted. “Go. Andy can’t make it up that rickety ladder anymore. It’ll be calm down here while they’re going off.”

  We made our way to the storeroom where a ladder swung down from the ceiling that led to the roof where a couple of battered wooden picnic benches and twisted metal lounge chairs sat near the brick edge of the building. The furniture wasn’t fancy, and the rooftop wasn’t an oasis. It was just a roof of a strip mall, but it was enough for us to huddle with our drinks. We were close enough to the marina that we could hear the music that was playing over the outdoor speakers. Ben, the leader of the house band, and his bandmates had taken a break and joined us as we waited like expectant children for the show to begin.

  Somehow, I ended up next to Mac, as if our bodies had found a way to each other without us even knowing it. I sat down, the rough wood scraping along the back of my thighs where my short dress had stopped.

  The air was still humid even though the sky had all but faded to black when the first loud pop split the air around us. It startled me, and Mac laid his big hand on my knee as if in reassurance. I couldn’t help smiling at him, the sting of earlier slipping away. I wasn’t one to carry a grudge. And I’d known all along that Mac and I were all sorts of wrong. He returned my smile, drinking me in with a gaze that reflected in his eyes as the first sparks lit up the sky. I tugged my eyes away from his and back toward the night, the colors sparkling like rainbows with an extra brilliance of white, dangling jewels making my heart bounce with joy.

  In New York City, you had to fight for hours for a place near the water to watch the fireworks unless you knew somebody who knew somebody. I’d been near the water, on the water, and on rooftops in the city watching those displays, too. But I’d always been socializing, because no one in my group of city friends ever stopped to just stare at the lights. It was more about the party than the fireworks.

  Here, everyone was quiet, watching in an awed respect. The men who sat with us had served our country, and I felt like they had a different perspective than those who had never put their lives on the line for us.

  I risked another glance at Mac and realized he wasn’t watching the dazzling lights popping and dropping and dripping in the sky at all. He was watching me. His gaze on my smile and on my eyes.

  I forced my gaze back to the lights as the finale set off a gazillion fireworks at the same time. The crowd at the marina cheered and clapped, and I joined them. There was something hopeful about fireworks to me. Like the ball dropping on New Year’s Eve, it always signaled the start of something new. Something filled with possibilities.

  Eli was kissing Ava as the lights left the sky and turned it back to darkness. Truck jogged away, mumbling something about the bathroom. I turned to Mac, and he was still grinning at me.

  “What?” I asked.

  “You surprise me.”

  “Why?”

  “Just…I’m sure this isn’t your first fireworks show, and yet, you looked as excited as my niece and nephews watching them.”

  “With all the humming and talk about America, I would have thought you’d already have guessed that it’s one of my favorite holidays. Plus, fireworks are just…breathtaking.”

  “I think you’re―”

  A commotion in the parking lot below us stopped him from finishing his sentence, but I had an idea of what he was going to say, and it made my heart pound furiously in my chest. I’d been called beautiful and gorgeous by my share of men. But Mac almost saying it felt different. Something I couldn’t explain. Like maybe the ache I felt really could be filled.

  We all jumped up from the benches to see the commotion, and the wood scraped at the back of my leg, making me wince, but I ignored it as we looked down to see Brady and several others disembarking from a couple dark SUVs and a van.

  Ava and Eli headed for the ladder.

  Mac and I watched for a moment as the people waiting to get into the bar burst into a chorus of voices calling Brady’s name. Brady was still all blond-haired, casual grace just like he’d always been when he and Ava had played the open mic nights I’d hosted out of the salon. It had been a weird combination. Hair salon and open mic nights. But the coffee bar next door hadn’t been big enough to house one all on their own, and we’d worked out a deal where I held the music, he did the food and drinks, and we shared the profits. It had worked. I missed it, but it had never been quite the same since Ava and Brady had stopped coming.

  I leaned over the brick so I could watch Brady work the crowd. He smiled and waved and took pictures with them, signing things as he made his way toward the door with some of his own security surrounding him. Mac put a hand on my waist.

  “Don’t fall.” His voice was deep, full of worry.

  I turned, my smile reappearing. “Brady is in heaven.”

  He took my smile in, and his didn’t appear as I thought it would. But then, I realized that Mac didn’t really know Brady. He only knew him in a roundabout way through Ava. Brady could seem like one big egotistical monster if you hadn’t seen his passion and kindness at work.

  We turned and headed toward the ladder.

  Mac went down ahead of me, and as I started my way down, he stopped me with a hand on my leg, swiping at it. “You’re bleeding.”

  Concern laced his voice. I looked backward and wavered on the ladder, all but falling into his arms. He caught me. His arms were around my waist, making me feel protected in a way that was foreign to me. His eyes drifted to my lips in the dim light of the storeroom. The noise from the bar increased even as my heartbeat increased. We stood that way for a long moment, both of us focused on the other’s lips and the feel of our hearts pounding together. The feel of our arms around each other. Bodies tight.

  Finally, I breathed out, “Is it a lot of blood? I can’t even feel it.”

  “I can’t tell. Hard to see in this lighting,” Mac said, stepping away and turning me to look down at my leg below my short dress.

  I pulled away from the hands that were burning through my skin like the lights had just burned through the sky. “It’ll be fine. I need to go say hi to Brady.”

  When I hit the main room, the crowd was hyped to a level that was almost a scream as Brady made his way through the room. He patiently continued with signing bar napkins, papers, and chests while people took pictures with their phones. He had two bodyguards with him who were all muscle, even more than Mac, Truck, and Eli. The bodyguards eyed the crowd and the people who approached Brady like Se
cret Service agents. It made my grin return because Brady had really made it.

  I waited until Brady got close to the stage, and then I threw myself into his arms. When one of his agents tried to pull me away, Mac immediately had his hand on the guy’s arm, and we all would have been a heap of punches if Brady hadn’t waved the guy off. “Georgie-Porgie, I missed you!”

  Brady hugged me tight, and I hugged him back.

  He stepped back, eyeing Mac who was still waiting at my side for some reason I couldn’t fathom. Ava and Eli joined us, and Ava hugged Brady even tighter than I had. When Ava stepped away, Eli shook Brady’s hand. “Thanks for playing tonight.”

  “Well, it was on my way and gave me an excuse to say hi to everyone,” Brady said with a shrug.

  His crew from the van was setting up the stage with his equipment. Two women dressed in matching white summer dresses were helping the crew. Brady was in a red, white, and blue plaid shirt, a leather choker peeking out from the collar. His jeans were worn and ripped in all the right, rock-star ways even though he was a country singer and not rock at all.

  Ava jumped on the stage and took the mic. “Hello, Salty Dog.”

  Everyone cheered.

  “What do you think of our Fourth of July surprise?”

  More hollering, louder.

  “Are you ready for some Brady O’Neil music?”

  The crowd pretty much blew my eardrums out as their cries bounced around the small room, feet stomping on the wood floors, hands clapping. Brady joined Ava, taking another mic that was handed to him. “Hello, Rockport!”

  I had to put my hands to my ears because the screams were so loud. I turned to see Mac watching me, as if trying to figure out a puzzle. Eli and Truck had gone back to the bar where Andy, Lacey, and two more bartenders were trying to keep up with the orders.

  “I should go help,” I said as I swiped at the cut on my leg that had started to sting.