Waiting On The Rain (McKinneyWalker Brothers #3) - Claudia connor Page 0,1

with a chip on his shoulder so deep he was shocked he’d been able to hold a rifle. But he had.

He’d held a rifle and held it steady. He’d learned to navigate— day or night— run obstacle courses, and rucked miles until a lot of the anger had been sweat out of him or buried under exhaustion. Maybe that’s why civilian life was hard.

He checked his watch. Almost nine. He figured at least two more hours before the bride and groom departed. The day had begun with a wedding party brunch at eleven this morning and his duties as groomsman hadn’t slowed since then. He’d surpassed his social limit hours ago.

He perused the other side of the room dotted with large round tables where he’d survived the seated dinner portion of the evening. White table cloths, spindly green and pink floral somethings sticking up out of skinny glass tubes in the center of each one. Kinda cool, he thought, though it hadn’t blocked him from even one of the nine people seated with him. Might have been better altogether if he’d built a walled garden around himself, like the folders he’d set up as a child when the class took a test.

But he’d nodded, even forced a smile when appropriate and tried his best to look like everyone else when on the inside he still felt gritty with sweat after operating in a middle eastern sandbox.

He’d been firm on not bringing a date and gave points to his sister the wedding planner. She hadn’t pushed. Instead she’d paired him up with one of the bride’s coworkers who was old enough to be his grandmother. Another point for Hannah.

There’d been a time when his hormones had raged and the thought of bridesmaids would have made him think good time. Now there was nothing raging. His blood didn’t run hot or cold. Sometimes Luke wondered if it was running at all.

Not for the first time, he looked around him and thought what the hell was he doing here? Not in the building, or in the state of Virginia, but in the country.

Was it too late? Could he call his commander, tell him April fools? Just joking? Why had he thought he could be anything other than a soldier? But he had thought that. Or had thought he wanted, that he needed, to try.

His gaze skimmed over the room. Most of the women were on the dance floor while a scattering of people sat at one of the large round white cloth covered tables. Older couples, one he recognized as Zach’s fire chief and the chief’s wife. A blonde sitting alone, nursing a drink, not facing the dance floor— which was odd with all the commotion going on. This place was a people watching gold mine, if you were into that kind of thing. Maybe she wasn’t. Maybe like him she was feeling the sensory overload. He couldn’t see much of her. Just her back with her long, pale hair flowing down, past the top of the chair.

Out of the corner of his eye, Luke saw Nick make his way over to the bar. He ordered himself a beer and gave Luke a chin jerk in greeting. They stood like that, side by side, facing opposite directions. To say they’d butted heads way back when, would be putting it mildly. At seventeen, Luke had had no interest in listening to Nick, his nineteen-year-old newly appointed guardian.

Nick got his beer and turned to look out over the room, taking a long swallow from his drink. Luke noticed his brother scanning the room, locating each of his three babies before he spoke. “Holding up the bar or drinking it dry?”

Nick’s tone was easy, not accusing so Luke tamped down his automatic bristling at his brother’s question. Told himself not to read too deeply into it. Before he came up with a response, Zach was there.

“My man!” Zach shouted as he hooked an arm round Luke’s neck. “I’m going to need you to kick it up a notch. Turn that frown upside down.”

Zach pivoted, turning them both back to the dance floor. When his gaze zeroed in on his bride, a goofy grin spread across his face as he watched Nora move. “That’s my wife,” Zach said. “I love saying that —my wife.”

It was a wonder his grin didn’t split his face. Luke couldn’t really imagine being that happy. It was kind of creepy.

One of Zach’s fire station buddies who’d also been in the wedding party