Page 38 of The Arrangement

“I’m just… weighing my options, sir. Trying to figure out my future.”

“I’ve heard that before. So, what is it–some pretty mare got you all wrangled up? Stud?

I choked. “Sir–”

“Look, Gallagher, I don’t give a damn who you do or don’t spend your free time with. What I do care about is that one of my finest sergeants doesn’t seem to know his value.” He huffed in obvious frustration. “That came out harsher than I intended. I just want to make sure that if you’re struggling with the decision, there are resources available to you that could help.”

“Yes, sir. I know.”

“JD?” Marc called for me from inside, stealing my attention. There was a weird tension in his voice I hadn’t heard before.

“Uh, I need to go… sir,” I tacked on belatedly, already angling for the door.

“I understand, but before you do, I just wanna say it’s easy to feel like a team when life means depending on the soldier by your side. It’s harder to remember when the stakes aren’t that high. But the team is always there. Enjoy your leave, Gallagher.”

“Yes, sir, you too.” I hung up and tucked the phone away, already pushing open the receiving door.

I’d almost made it to the front when Marc called more urgently, “JD.”

Officially worried, I picked up the pace, borderline sprinting the rest of the way, only to skid to a halt when I spotted thelast person I would have expected to see in Fairhope, Alabama. “Anderson?”

At barely five-foot-seven, and that was being generous, my little brother was exactly that—little. I hadn’t been joking when I told Marc we were complete opposites. Where I was tall, he was short. I had bulkier muscles, and he was a whip-cord. To cap it all off, he was a bona-fide genius with a short fuse and a loud fucking bang.

“Who the fuck else would it be? Maybe if you bothered to check your phone once in a while, or, I don’t know,toldyour family what you’re up to half the time, I wouldn’t have to resort to measures like this.” He moved toward me and it was like a choreographed dance.

He stepped forward. I reflexively stepped back. Marc sidestepped to stand between us, and Mitch, whom I’d completely missed, stepped up behind Andy. Some soldier I was. Missing a whole extra person just because I was slightly terrified of my little brother and his flashing Disney-villain green eyes.

Mitch leaned down to whisper something to Andy, though it did fuck all to diminish his fierce glower. “Why is it my fault?” Andy snapped irritably. Mitch placed a hand where Andy’s shoulder and neck met and squeezed. I watched in amazement as Andy’s eyes glazed over, and though his fire didn’t completely go out, it was undeniably banked.

“We talked about this, kitten.” Mitch released his shoulder and placed a kiss against my brother’s temple. Marc shot me a confused look, and I shrugged, not any more enlightened about what the hell was going on. “Let’s try this again,” Mitch said louder, with a beaming smile, to which Andy characteristically rolled his eyes, followed by a death glare when Mitch unceremoniously shoved him forward.

“Hey James, I wasn’ttryingto drop in so unannounced,” he shot his boyfriend another look, prompting an eye roll, “though I did want to surprise you.”

“Really? Why?” I asked, as curious as I was nervous.

His shoulders slumped, and the last of the fire guttered out. “Because we never spend time together anymore, and I thought it might be nice. I might have, uh, reached out to your base—IDK if that’s how you say it—to find out when your next leave would be and for how long. I mean, I tried Mom and Dad first, but it’s not like you told them. Kind of like how you never told them when you enlisted.”

Oof. I wasn’t sure what hurt more: the censure in Andy’s voice, the sharp look Mitch was giving me, or the surprised shock on Marc’s face. Yeah, there was no hiding my wince.

“I said I was sorry about that…” I began weakly. But I wasn’t fooling anyone in this room, least of all myself. I was sorry that apparently theyhadbeen upset, but I wasn’t sorry I’d done it, as evidenced by the fact that I still didn’t tell my family when I was stateside or on leave.

Mitch reached for Andy again, no doubt expecting another blowup, except Andy held up a hand to stop him. “Anyway, I called up Fort Bragg and eventually someone connected me with a guy named Jones?”

Marc and I shared a look. So much for Jones having a prior engagement; that fucker had totally bailed.Rude. Then again, it was definitely working out in my favor, so I didn’t have much to complain about.

“I’d hoped to convince you to come visit us in Chicago for a bit, but when I heard you were in Alabama of all places, I had to see it for myself.” His gaze slid to Marc, and the subsequent assessing once-over raised my hackles. “No offense.”

“Uh… none taken?” Marc replied, sounding as confused as he looked.

Andy took a deep breath, straightened his shoulders, and it was like I could watch him compartmentalize his agitation. “Right, so you would have known all of that if you’d ‌checked your phone. However, I see that we’ve come at an inopportune time, which is undoubtedly why youdidn’t. That’s… that’s on me.” He winced. “I’m sorry, we’ll get out of your hair. If you could point us to a decent place for the night, we won’t trouble you anymore.” He stepped backward into Mitch’s waiting embrace, his head bowed.

He might as well have kicked me in the gut. Hell, it probably would have hurt less if he had. Did he really believe I didn’t want him here? I’d always wanted a relationship with my siblings, but we’d never had anything in common, not to mention they were the smart ones and I was the family disappointment. Yet here he was, reaching out.

“Stay.” “Don’t go.” Marc and I said at the same time.

Mitch tightened his hold on my brother. “We don’t want to be an inconvenience.”

I wished I could talk to Marc about it, but I suspected we were on the same page. “You’re not. I’d love for you to stick around. Fairhope is a beautiful place. Marc’s been showing me the sights, but there are plenty we haven’t made it to yet. Hell, we’ve been so busy renovating the flower shop we haven’t even made it to the beach.”