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“You’re a da and living and laughing It’s the best way to honor the people you’ve lost This last year—on the few occasions I’ve seen you with Vicki—I’ve noticed how you look at her How you alood for you, you dumb fuck”

Ty felt exposed and raw, not even sure he had the voice to respond to his friend’s scathing, yet brutally honest, diatribe For a guy who seeo-luckyobservant

“Look,” Chance said, his voice and expression softening “I know Skoobs is a bit out there, but he’s really good at what he does Ignore all the hippy bullshit and really talk to hi to help you for years, only you’ve never given him a chance

“You could have so special here, Ty With Vicki She’s lovely She cares about you She just about threatened to castrate ht I would blab about the kiss If you’re wondering why everybody is—rightfully—singing your praises today, look no further than the penthouse Because that little lady, half-concussed and wounded though she is, went to bat for you yesterday”

Every word out of Chance’shi coward He chose to hide in his apartnore life because he couldn’t face the unbearable possibility of losing anyone he cared about again

After he had lost his family, it had been so easy to retreat frorounded But then, less than a year later, he’d lost Dylan as well In the worst possible way

He couldn’t bear to think of it He’d attended the requisite PTSD counseling sessions at the VA center while he was recuperating from his injury

By the time he had accepted this job, Ty had believed that—mentally and eht time about how he’d lost Dylan, his best friend since childhood, and his brother in every way but blood But over the last few years, that pain had blunted He could go weeks noithout writhing in guilt whenever he thought about his dead friend

Chance had a point about the pictures he kept on the living room wall Ty considered it a wall of remembrance, but it really was a shrine All it did was remind Ty that he was still alive, while everyone he had ever cared about was gone In his parents’ case, he was eaten up by re the last few years of their lives But when it cauilt was a special kind of hell

Dylan had died saving Ty’s life He’d seen the sniper waiting to ambush them and had taken a bullet for Ty Dylan had been killed, and Ty—who had been injured in the same attack—had been sent home Ty had never quite recovered fro that Dylan had died so that he could live

And now he felt shaift his best friend had given hirown up together, gone to college together, then enlisted together And then…they had nearly died together For a long time, Ty had wished that he’d died instead of Dylan

Dylan had had a wife, a baby he didn’t even have the chance to s, so many people in the world who loved him While Ty had no one It hadn’t been fair

After Ty’s e, with nobody who truly loved hiht

Alive, but not living

Until this last year, when a slip of a wo her way beneath his defenses

“What do you mean she went to bat for me?” he asked as Chance’s final statement sank in

“You know exactly what I mean She wasn’t about to let you uilt At the hospital yesterday, she told everybody ould listen what had really happened She made me call Colby and Brand so that she could speak with theure it out for himself, but she was determined to make them listen to her Seriously, if you don’t snatch that female up, I may have to—”

“Whatever you’re about to say, Chance, don’t,” Ty warned, his voice dangerous Chance laughed

“Just sex, you say?” he asked with a chortle “Mate, you need to figure your shit out Because you’re deluding yourself badly”