He had a feeling his life was about to change.
Carlos had been feeling stuck for a while, now. The problem was, his entire life he’d been playing a game: get out of the run-down neighborhood where he grew up, get into college, get into the business world, make a hell of a lot of money.
Now, guess what? He’d won.
; He was standing victorious on top of a lot of prize money. And he kept going to work every day...for what? He had what he’d wanted.
The question was: now what did he want?
He had no idea. The closest he’d been able to come was something different.
And three—no, four, if Colonel Wilson counted—four of his oldest friends, good men he’d served with in the Marine Corps, had found something different out here in the wilds of Montana. So far up that Canada was about three blocks away.
Carlos was going to give it a shot, too. He was mentally labeling it Carlos’ Summer Vacation in the Great White North.
He figured if he hadn’t found a good, fulfilling purpose up here in a month or two, he could move on to something else. Bali, maybe.
Okay, probably not Bali. Maybe some kind of humanitarian mission, digging wells or building houses. Helping inner-city kids. Studying with Buddhist monks.
Something. Something more than money.
For now, though, it was Carlos’ Summer Vacation in the Great White North. He had friends to catch up with, mountains to climb, sunsets to admire, and forests to explore. And family to get to know.
He’d been to Glacier twice before, but once had just been briefly, for their old Gunnery Sergeant’s wedding. The second time he’d still only been able to get away for a couple of days—just long enough to help his old platoon buddy Nate with a problem that his mate, Stella, was having.
Together, they’d gotten her old stalker ex-boyfriend arrested, and hopefully put away for a good long time. Men who spent their time terrorizing innocent women and children didn’t deserve to see the light of day.
There was the turnoff. The car purred down a road that slowly got bumpier, until trees surrounded them, and Carlos pulled up in front of the house where two of his oldest friends now lived.
As he turned the car off, he was struck by a sudden attack of nerves. What the hell? He wasn’t in the habit of being afraid, and certainly not of seeing men he’d known for years.
Determinedly, he opened the door and strode up the walk to the house. Before he could press the bell, the door flew open, and he was looking at the smiling faces of two men he’d known since they were all dumb teenage Marine recruits.
“Carlos!” Ken Turner said, a broad grin on his face. “I can’t believe you’re actually here.”
“Why not?” he asked, coming forward for a backslapping hug. Ken was always exuberant with his affections.
“I would’ve bet you’d never leave the Scrooge McDuck lifestyle behind,” Ken said seriously. “Does swimming through rooms full of gold coins really get old? You can tell me.”
“You have a severely twisted idea of what it was I did all day,” Carlos told him, and turned to Nate.
Nate’s embrace wasn’t quite as energetic, but it was just as heartfelt. He tapped his fist lightly against Carlos’ shoulder and pulled back to look him over. “You ready for the retired life?”
“That’s what I’m here to find out,” Carlos admitted. “I’ll have to find something to do, or I’ll go crazy.”
“Plenty to do around here,” Ken said, and motioned him in. “Come inside, I think Stella’s making tea. And when you don’t want that, we have beer.”
Nate rolled his eyes and led the way back to the kitchen.
Lynn and Stella were waiting—Stella, Nate’s mate, had indeed made tea. Carlos took the offered cup with a smile, not deigning to look back at Ken. “It’s good to see you,” he told her. “No more problems with those wolves?”
She shook her head with a smile. She seemed more confident than she had been when he’d last seen her, standing taller, smiling wider.
Which made sense, because the last time he’d seen her, Nate had called him in to help scare off her ex, who’d been stalking her for months.
“You and Nate made a real difference,” she told him. “He was arrested and he pleaded guilty. He’s going away for quite a while.”