My Only - Alex & Jamie (35 page)

“No, Mom, I am not giving you any money. I will come pick you up and take you back to Horizons, but that’s it.”

“No, no, no, you don’t have to do that,” she hiccup
ped. “Just send me the money and I’ll take a bus back.”

“No, Mom, I’m serious. I’m not sending you any more money.” Amber felt like her head was being squeezed by a vice and her fingers began to tingle. She knew those were signs that blood pressure was shooting up. She needed to calm down.

“You know what?” her mother screamed through the phone before bursting into tears, “Aaron would have helped me! He would have never said no to his mother! He loved me! Why do you have to be such a bitch?”

“Goodbye, Mom.” Amber’s hands shook as she set her phone on her nightstand.

She blinked several times from the tears that were stinging her eyes. She glanced over at the framed photo that sat beside her alarm clock. It held a picture of her and Aaron taken right before his last tour in Afghanistan. They stood front of a chain length fence, both squinting from the brightly shining sun. Aaron’s arm was draped loosely around her shoulders as she hugged his waist. Huge smiles spread across their faces as they looked up at whoever they had asked to take the picture.

God, she missed her brother so much. It had been eight years since he was killed in the line of duty. She had thought that it would get easier with time. She knew she would never forget her brother or stop being sad. But, man. She really hadn’t imagined that, this many years later, she would still feel the same level of stabbing pain in her chest which she had felt when she had learned that he had been killed every single time she thought about him.

She knew she didn’t have time to deal with it now, though. She picked up her phone once again.

After two rings a woman’s voice came on the line, “Horizons, this is Sherry.”

“Hi, Sherry, this is Amber Ensey. My mother, Susan Ensey, is a patient at Horizons. I just received a concerning phone call from her leading me to believe she is no longer under your care. Can you tell me when she left there and why I wasn’t contacted?”

Amber could hear the clicking sounds of a keyboard, “It looks like she voluntarily checked-in, which means she can check-out at any time. Under those circumstances we are not required to notify anyone of a patient’s status.”

“Can you just tell me when she left?” Amber had no idea if her mom was on a two day or a two week bender, at least this would narrow it down.

“I’m sorry, I can’t.”

“Okay, thank you.”

Amber knew, logically, that it wasn’t Sherry’s fault that she couldn’t give her the information she needed. Sherry was just doing her job. But that didn’t change the fact that right now Amber didn’t like Sherry very much. Nope, not at all.

--- ~ ---

“Holy shit! Is that your bike?” Cameron loudly asked while looking out the window as Seth walked into the small office.

“Yep.” Seth watched his oldest friend's face light up as he held the blinds open, staring outside with a look of wonder on his face.

“She is a beauty. Can I take her out?” Cameron asked, dropping the blinds and turning towards him.

“No,” Seth immediately replied.

Cameron shook his head, a slow smile spreading across his face, “Damn, you look good. You always were a pretty S.O.B. Looks like you just got better with age. Like a fine wine, my man. What do you have, a twelve pack under there?” Cameron slapped at Seth’s abs, then, patting his own gut, he added with a wink, “I may have lost my girlish figure, but the ladies still love them some Cam.”

“Good to know.” Seth felt a smile tug at his lips.

He and Cameron had always been polar opposites, which was probably the reason they had gravitated toward each other in grade school. Together, they had ruled the school. Hell, as teenagers they had pretty much dominated the entire town - maybe even the county.

Cameron stepped up and pulled Seth into a hug, “Still a man of few words. Glad to see some things never change. I missed you man.”

“You too.” Seth said as he patted his friend on the back.

Cameron moved to sit behind his small desk, pushing his chair back to make room for his significant gut. “So, what are your plans now that that Uncle Sam no longer wants your damaged ass?”

Seth sighed as he took a seat in one of the two folding chairs that sat opposite the desk, “I’m headed to Jason’s.”

Katie, his brother Jason’s wife, wanted to throw him a welcome home party. He had always liked Katie and was glad his little brother had finally ended up with her, so he had agreed to it. Seth wasn’t a big fan of crowds and didn’t particularly enjoy parties, but he figured, what the hell - get all the awkward conversations out of the way in one fell swoop.

He knew people would be interested in the fact that he was back in town. Since he had left for basic training fifteen years ago, he hadn’t spent more than a couple of days at a time back in Harper’s Crossing, and he had only done that a handful of times. But now, he was home.

So much had changed over the time he had been away. He never expected to be back here. But it seemed that life tended to hand him curve balls.

When he had left, his brothers were young. Riley was sixteen, Jason was fourteen, Alex was twelve and Bobby was ten. Now Bobby, Riley and Jason were all married and Alex was engaged. Hell, Riley even had a baby on the way. In his absence, his dad Bob had suffered two heart attacks and had retired, handing the reins of Sloan Construction over to Seth's little brother Jason.

“I didn’t mean what were your plans today, dumb ass. I meant long term,” Cameron clarified.

“After the holidays, Fisher wants me to come in and talk to him.” A shooting pain stabbed Seth’s shoulder. He rolled it to try and get some relief. He still had some discomfort from the entry site but it was better than it had been.

Seth never thought in a million years that he would be in this position - at loose ends, no job. He had taken for granted the fact that he would always be a Marine. Apparently that wasn't in the cards. After his last injury had caused nerve damage, he had been offered the choice of either medical discharge or reassignment. Seth had been a member of the elite Marine Corp Force Reconnaissance, or Force Recon. It was more than a job, it was who he was. To him, reassignment was not an option. Seth knew that he would never be able to have a desk job.

Carl Fisher, who had been a friend of Seth’s dad while Seth was growing up, was now the police chief in Harper’s Crossing. When he had heard that Seth was coming home, he had immediately contacted him about joining the force. Hell, Seth didn’t know if becoming one of the boys in blue was something he wanted to do, but he figured there was no harm in hearing Fisher out.

“Well, if you’re anything like you used to be, I know you'll be bored as hell if you’re just hanging out until then.” Cam smiled and clapped his hands together, “So I have a proposal for you.”

“No I won’t sleep with you, even for a million dollars,” Seth said flatly.

Cam’s eyes widened, “Dude, Demi Moore is so hot in that movie! Remember when we bought tickets for the Sandlot but snuck into Indecent Proposal instead?”

“I remember you almost got us caught and kicked out because you kept talking to the screen.”

“Ah, those were good times.” Cam tilted his head, smiling at the memory. “But I’m not offering you a million dollars for one night. Don’t get me wrong, I would if I had it. You’re way hotter than Demi,” Cam joked, then continued. “Look, seriously, I could really use some help around here. We’re slammed and...hell, I know that installing security systems is way below your pay grade...but I could really use an extra hand. One that I trust.”

Seth was proud of his friend. Since Cam had taken over Titan Security from his father, he had put his degree in marketing to good use and had grown the business by over four hundred percent in five years. Seth thought that, even though installing security systems did not sound like the most exciting job in the world, it would only be for a couple months. Besides, he could never really say no to Cam.

He smirked to himself. Since that was the case, maybe it was a good thing Cam had decided to forgo the (extremely) indecent proposition.

“Alright,” Seth agreed.

Cam raised his eyebrow, “That’s it. You don’t want to know the hours, the pay?”

Seth shrugged and smiled a barely-perceptible grin, “Since we already established that the million bucks is off the table, I'm bound to walk away disappointed,” he joked dryly, and then continued, “In all seriousness, though, I’m sure we can work something out.”

“Sweet! Cam and Seth together again. It’s going to be just like old times,” Cameron said excitedly.

Seth shook his head, grinning at his friend’s enthusiasm. Just like old time. He seriously hoped not.

--- ~ ---

Amber sat in Jason and Katie’s front room and yawned for about the fifth time in so many minutes. She couldn’t help it. It had been a long day, starting with her dreaming about him, then the phone call from her mom, and finally being late for work. She felt like her entire day had been spent playing catch-up. She was spent.

If this was any normal, run-of-the-mill get-together, she would probably bow out early to go catch some zzz’s. In fact, she probably would have just made her excuses rather than showing up in the first place. Tonight was not, however, just your average shindig. Tonight, her curiosity trumped her exhaustion. The mysterious Seth Sloan was coming home.

She had known the Sloan family for almost a decade now. She had briefly dated Jason back in the day. Nothing serious, they had had zero chemistry. This non-event had happened several years before he was reunited with the girl he had been in love with for his entire life (and who was now his wife, not to mention one of Amber's best friends), Katie. She and Jason had remained friends after their failed dates and she had gotten to know his brothers Bobby, then Alex, and most recently Riley, pretty well.

Amber had heard a few stories of the legendary Seth Sloan but had yet to even see a picture of him. From all accounts, he didn’t say much, and had been pretty rebellious as a teen. As an adult, she knew that he was part of a specialized, cream of the crop unit in the Marines. But that was about it. Other than that, she hadn’t heard a lot about him. Heck, none of his family had even seen him in the last six years!

She felt another yawn creep up on her. Man, she thought, maybe she should just go ahead and head home, Seth Sloan reveal or no.

“Oooh! You look tired! Does this mean that you and Brent hit it off last night?”

Amber looked up to see Katie’s Aunt Wendy staring down at her hopefully. Amber loved Wendy, as much for her insanely wild fashion sense as for her big heart.

“No, we did not,” Amber said wryly, “I think I’m officially done being set up. I think we can consider Brent the straw that broke the blind-date camel's back.” Amber did not honestly think she could sit through another awful date, set up by one of her friends or customers who swore that she would just loooooove this one. She grimaced.

“Why? What happened?” Wendy sat down beside her.

“Nothing horrible. Brent’s fine if you like emotionally unavailable mama’s boys.”

“Oh, no! He seemed so nice when I took that Karate lesson from him.” Wendy said disappointed.

“He is nice Wendy,” Amber tried to explain, “he’s just not…”

“He’s just not Mystery Man,” Haley said, sitting down to join them.

“Who’s ‘Mystery Man’?” Wendy’s expression brightened at this new development.

“No one,” Amber stated firmly, glaring at Haley. She was not about to go into her one night stand with Katie’s Aunt. That was not going to happen.

Haley clasped her hands in front of her chest dramatically and swooned, “He is the man that Amber judges every other man against, and none of them even come close to stacking up. Which is why none of her dates even have a chance.” Haley lifted her glass of punch and took a drink. Amber wondered what was in the punch, and thought that it just might not be Haley's first glass of the evening.

“Thanks, Hales,” Amber said dryly. She couldn’t believe her friend-slash-employee was blowing up the spot on her like this.

“It’s true, Amber!” Haley insisted, “I’m only saying this because I want what’s best for you and you need to face the fact that Mystery Man is gone. I met Brent, he seemed nice. You should give him another shot.”

“Who is Mystery Man?” Wendy asked again, a little louder this time.

“Oh, are we talking about Mystery Man? I love that story! It’s so romantic!” Katie sat down beside Haley on the couch.

“We're not, actually,” Amber snapped, her voice sounding harsher than she had intended.

They all looked a little shocked by her tone. Amber realized she was probably just being cranky. If they wanted to talk about the man that still haunted her dreams she figured she shouldn’t be a spoil sport. She knew Katie was probably dying to relay the events of the fateful night, and since she had never told anyone the more personal details, she thought it would be harmless.

“Oh, alright, go ahead,” she conceded, nodding at Katie, whose eyes danced with excitement.

“Okay, stop me if I get anything wrong,” Katie started.

“Says the lawyer,” Amber intoned dryly.