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Fuck, did anyone survive childhood without wounds?

Upstairs, I crawled back into bed and caught the scent of Winnie’s coconut sharabbed the pillow she’d used and burieddeeply My entire body warmed, and I wished she was still next to me

But part ofshe wasn’t

I didn’t want to get used to her She wasn’t mine to protect

The following day, while I was driving hoot a call froo to voicee

“Hey Dex, this is Tyler Shaanted to reach out to you because Chip , and I could use another conditioning coach at Bayside Sports It’s h school kids in the off-season, but I think a lot of these guys would think it was pretty badass to be coached by a Navy SEAL, and who knows? Maybe you’d find the Navy soive me a call if you’re interested Thanks”

I dialed hireat—I enjoyed physical training, and it would be cool to ith high school kids The extra income would be welcome too

And the distraction from Winnie

“Hello?”

“Hey, Coach”

Tyler laughed “Matthews, I haven’t been your coach in what, sixteen years?”

I grinned “Doesn’t matter You’re still Coach to me”

“You get e?”

“I did, and I’”

“That’s okay You’ll be covered by the facility’s insurance policy, and I’th, andyour superpower as a baseball player, and I figure you probably got a lot of that in your SEAL training”