The Returning Hero by Soraya Lane Page B

who was driving him crazy—who’d driven him crazy for years—was driving him wild now.
    Brett cleared his throat, well past the pain of what he’d endured as a teenager, but still not a fan of dredging up the past.
    “I was eighteen, and they both died in a head-on collision,” he said, wishing he’d just shut his mouth and not said anything. Talking about what had happened back then was almost as bad about talking about what had happened to Sam. “I was at a party, drunk, and I phoned them to come and pick me up. Turns out they both got in the car that night, and if it hadn’t been for me, they would have still been at home.”
    Jamie was staring at him, palms on the counter. “I can’t imagine what that was like for you, Brett, but you can’t honestly blame yourself.”
    “Actually, you’re the one person who probably can understand,” he said. So many people had acted like they knew what he was going through, but Jamie had only just emerged from that place of loss herself. “It’s no different to you losing Sam, it’s just at a different stage in your life. The only thing that isn’t the same is that you had nothing to do with him dying. Me? I’ll never forgive myself for making the call that took them away from me and changed my life forever.”
    “Brett, you were eighteen years old. Teenagers are supposed to call their parents in the middle of the night when they need them.”
    Brett shrugged. “Nothing anyone says to me will ever make me believe that I wasn’t responsible.” He stared at her, watching her mouth as it turned down into a frown. “The only thing that saved me back then was the army. I was surrounded by guys like Sam every day, and they become my surrogate family. They still are, I guess.”
    “So in other words you found a way to forget about what had happened.”
    “I’m the first to admit that I ran away from that life, but at the age I was, I didn’t really have any other choice. Well, not any choice that would have been good for me.”
    And this was why he needed to respect Sam, even in death. He’d been family to Brett, just like the rest of his unit had been, and the last thing he needed was more guilt to carry around.
    He listened to Jamie sigh before she returned to taking the groceries from the bags. “I’d run away in a heartbeat, Brett, so don’t think I’d ever judge you for turning your back on the life you had taken away from you. You were brave to start over, especially in the army.”
    Brett should have stood his ground, just stayed still on the other side of the kitchen, but he ignored his better judgment and joined her.
    “What do you want to run away from?” he asked, voice low.
    “From everything about this life, from the memories, just to start over and pretend like this was all a bad dream. That I didn’t choose to marry a soldier, knowing that there was a chance he’d die like my father did. I still can’t believe that I lost both of them like that.”
    He wished he could offer it to her, wished he was brave enough to just tell her that he’d run away with her if it meant they could both forget and start over.
    “I can’t help you run away, Jamie, but I can help you heal.”
    She smiled across at him, nudged him with her shoulder. He should have resisted, but instead he slung his arm around her and pulled her in for a hug, closing his eyes when she dropped her head to his shoulder and wrapped her arm around his waist.
    “I think you’ve already helped me,” she told him, her voice laced with a softness that made him wish he wasn’t thinking what he was thinking. That he was just a friend wanting to help another friend with no hidden agenda.
    “What do you say I teach you how to cook Mama’s tomato pasta sauce?”
    She loosened her hold on him until her arm fell away, and he made himself let go of her, too.
    “Was your mom Italian?”
    He grinned, glanced at her before taking the tomatoes from the packet. “Sure was. And she’d kill