Long Road Home by Joann Ross

Heather said with a sigh.
    “Still is, from what I saw on the cover of People in the mercantile.” Unlike most nerd tycoons, he was still wearing the studded black leather, but she guessed the diamond flashing on his earlobe was real these days. “He also just went through a mega War of the Roses divorce with his supermodel wife.”
    “Which makes me glad that he never even knew I was alive,” Heather said.
    “Fortunately, Tom did.”
    “Yes.” Another sigh. This one followed by the slow, satisfied smile of a woman who knew she was well loved. “Sometimes it’s hard to believe that we’ve been together all these years.” High school sweethearts, they’d married their freshman year of college, when Heather had gotten pregnant with Sophie.
    “It isn’t hard for anyone who knows you guys. You’re pretty much the perfect couple. If you weren’t both so nice, the rest of us would have to hate you.”
    Heather laughed. “Maybe I should tell you about the towels Tom leaves on the floor, his inability to return home with everything on the grocery list, and waking up to middle-of-the-night emergency calls because he decided he wanted to be a big-animal vet instead of taking care of dogs and cats. Which don’t require house calls.”
    “If those are your only marital problems, I’m looking forward to dancing at your golden anniversary party.”
    “I’m fully expecting you and Sophie to plan it. And, giving advance warning, I expect it to be a blowout. I also wouldn’t be averse to a destination celebration. Say, on Maui.”
    Which had, Austin knew, been Heather’s dream wedding destination after Marcy Mann, Maddox’s sister, had returned with photos from a family Christmas vacation there when they’d all been in the fourth grade. “You’ve got it.”
    “On another topic, I figured out what to do about you and Sawyer.”
    “Other than me showing up at his door naked and carrying a plate of double fudge sea salt brownies?”
    “While they may admittedly be nearly as good as sex, I seriously doubt you’d need the brownies. But maybe there’s a step in between where you guys are now and that down-the-road scenario. How about the four of us have dinner together Friday night?”
    “That’s your anniversary.”
    “I know. Which is exactly the point. We can reminisce about the wedding and how you were my bridesmaid and Sawyer was Tom’s best man. And then, how, when Sophie was born, you both stood up in church as godparents, and all the other wonderful times we had together over the years. Before Sawyer screwed up by getting scared by that kiss.”
    “You don’t know he was scared.”
    “As a matter of fact, I do.” Heather shook her head. “He emailed Tom that he’d had second thoughts about backing away from the situation.”
    Running away had been more like it. “Seriously?”
    “Would I lie to my best friend? He told Tom that the day after he got back to Afghanistan, but then there was a terrorist attack at his base, and unsurprisingly, he kind of freaked out and wrote you that never mind email right after attending a memorial for the fallen. You know, one of those where the rifle, boots, and helmet make a cross with the dog tags hanging on it.”
    “I know them.” Austin didn’t share that she’d had too many nightmares about Sawyer’s name being the one engraved on a set of metal dog tags.
    “I suspect it was the first time the idea of mortality really sunk in. He didn’t want to ask you to wait for him to return, then have him get killed on you.”
    It made sense. Not for every guy. But it perfectly fit the man who, so many years ago, had passed her that note in class, telling her how sorry he was about her mother leaving and he promised to always be her friend. And had gone on to watch out for her.
    “Why did you wait until now to tell me?” Austin wasn’t going to dwell on might-have-beens. But if only she’d known the reasoning behind his backing away from the door they’d