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Chapter One

Knight

The signs were everywhere That twenty-twenty hindsight was an evil, gloating bitch What incentive was there to ponder a question that had already been answered? The PTSD was a catch-all AJ knew it Jillian dismissed it Fate seized it

I love you Why would he say those words? Jillian Knight pondered that question while her brother, Jackson, drove her home from the hospital

“So you just ran out?” Jackson asked, lance

“Walked I walked out I told AJ I needed to do so”

“And as that?”

“I needed to get the hell out of there”

“Why?”

“He said … ‘I love you’”

“I see … Actually, I don’t You’re going to have to help me out on this one”

“Why would he say that? Was his accident soht about this rush of irrational feelings? And it wasn’t just that he said it It was the way he said it It’s like soun to his head”

“Do you love him?”

“No … I-I don’t know That’s just it What was I supposed to say? Thank you, or I’d rather you wouldn’t?”

“So what now?”

She sighed “I don’t know Food, beer, and then I’ll face him tomorrow”

By eleven o’clock that night, with the help of four bottles of Heineken, Jillian had an epiphany It was a new record for her Most epiphanies didn’t happen until the end of the sixth bottle of Heineken

“Jackie?” she whispered, opening Jackson’s bedroom door

“What the hell did you call rumbled with his head buried in his pillow, the bed sheet draped low on his waist

Jillian giggled, then hiccupped “Jackie … I figured it out”

He flipped over, raising up on his elbows, eyes squinted against the hall light “Call ets to it”

“Scooch over” She stumbled to his bed

“I’m naked”

“So … scooch” Jillian wedged her way into his bed