Teague (The Family Simon 4)

But that night anything and everything had gone wrong. That night his training as a soldier, his street smarts as a journalist—all of those things failed. He’d hesitated when he should have acted and an innocent man had died. An innocent man hadn’t made it home.

At the debrief, he’d been told that he couldn’t have done anything different—that the outcome would have been the same. They told him it wasn’t his fault. That the situation was dire and extreme and complicated.

Bullshit.

He knew it was all on him. He knew it because the guilt was eating away at him. It was beside him when he woke up in the morning and it was there every damn night when his head hit the pillow.

He was already falling away from the normal things in life when he’d agreed to the assignment. Hell, he’d been freefalling for years. Love. Family. Trust. Companionship. All of those things didn’t seem to matter as much. It’s what happened when you lived on the edge, when every day of your life was spent dealing with the reality of drug dealers, human traffickers, and dictators.

Teague knew if he wasn’t careful the man he’d once been would disappear forever. Although he supposed the real question wasn’t when it would happen, but rather….

Did he give a damn?

Chapter Ten

Canada Day came and went with little fanfare in the Campbell cottage. Sabrina took the kids to town to enjoy the parade and her mother-in-law tagged along to keep things real.

Louise: What time did you get home last night?

Sabrina: I don ’t know. Ten maybe.

Louise: No, I think it was closer to eleven.

Sabrina: If you know exactly when I came home, why bother asking?

Louise: Because I ’m your mother-in-law.

Sabrina: That ’s not a reason.

Louise: In my book, it ’s the only reason that matters.

Sabrina dropped Louise off at a lady friend’s for an afternoon of euchre though she suspected it was more of an excuse to drink wine and gossip. The women had planned an evening out and her mother-in-law was spending the night in town. After that Sabrina drove up the lake to the Maylocks. Their daughter Jessica had been begging for Morgan to come for a sleepover and for the first time in Morgan’s young life, Sabrina had said yes.

She smiled as her daughter literally flew out of the car and ran up the steps of Jessica’s home. The two girls hugged fiercely, as young girls will do, and after a quick conversation with Jessica’s mother, Sabrina bent low for a kiss. She got a quick peck, nothing more than a butterfly kiss, and then Morgan disappeared into the house.

How quickly she’d been dismissed.

Sabrina waved goodbye to Jessica’s mother and slid into her car. Harry was in the backseat, quietly playing with one of his action guys. She pulled out of the driveway and glanced at him in the rear-view mirror.

“You okay, bud?”

Harry shrugged, tossing his action guy in the air and catching him.

“It’s just us tonight. Do you want to see a movie or something?”

He shook his head and Sabrina frowned. “Are you sure everything’s all right?”

He shrugged once more and Sabrina let it go, but something was up. Maybe he was coming down with a summer cold or a virus?

They got back to the cottage in time for dinner and she grabbed leftover burgers and improvised, grinding up the cooked meat and adding some spices to make tacos.

She glanced out the window a few times, but the Simon cottage looked empty. The vehicles were still there but since she’d seen Teague, Tucker, and Abby head out on the boat earlier that morning, she wasn’t worried. Not that Teague needed anyone to worry about him.

Especially someone like Sabrina.

So it happened that Sabrina and her little man had a quiet night. They settled on a movie, an old favorite Finding Nemo, and Harry was quiet as he munched away on his popcorn, Bingo curled into his side.

When the movie was over and he’d brushed his teeth, Sabrina sat on his bed, gently caressing his forehead. He gazed up at her with those big eyes of his and she melted.