It’s part of the reason I’m so eager to move in with her. Not only is the house I found five minutes from the hospital and ten minutes from the base, but it’ll also mean we’ll be able to spend a lot more time together.

“I saw your dad today,” she tells me, tilting her head back to meet my gaze. The end of her blonde ponytail brushes my arm.

My parents are happy Evie and I are dating. Actually, that’s a massive understatement. They’re ecstatic.

It hasn’t thawed my relationship with them much, though. We went over there for dinner last month, and Evie did most of the talking. I like that she gets along with my parents—especially my father, who can find fault with practically anyone—but it also throws my dysfunctional relationship with them into sharper contrast. I didn’t realize quite how strained things had become between us until I watched them laughing and joking with Evie.

I knew my decision to join the Air Force would piss off my father. I underestimated how much—how it would become the defining characteristic of our relationship. How it would bleed into every conversation with my mother as well—become the burden that none of us could escape.

“Gray?”

I meet Evie’s blue gaze. “Yeah?”

“Did you hear me? About your dad?”

“Yeah. I heard you.”

“About dinner?”

“Dinner?” I echo.

“We’re having dinner over there tomorrow night. I told you last week.”

“When?”

Evie bites her bottom lip. “When you were in the mood to say yes.” She shifts, giving me the real answer. “He’s your dad. And my boss’s boss’s—”

“Boss’s boss’s boss’s boss. Yeah, I know.”

“You added too many.”

I roll my eyes at that. “You’re lucky I love you.”

“You’re lucky I love you.”

Something about this moment—the blonde hair spilling over her shoulder, the dark wood backdrop of the bar, the happy gleam in her eyes—makes my chest tighten with the realization that losing Evie is not an option. Ever.

“Yeah, I am.”

Emmett sets his empty bottle of beer down. Loudly. “Yep. I’m calling it a night. Happy for you two, but wow, is this hard to stomach.”

“Try being related to her,” Noah says dryly.

Harrison snorts before draining his own beer. “I’m ready to go too.”

“I’m going to run to the restroom,” Evie tells me. “I’ll meet you outside.”

I nod, and the rest of us head outside.

“Twenty-five-minute wait,” Harrison grumbles as we wait out on the sidewalk, checking for nearby cars on his phone. “Is there a concert or something happening tonight?”

“No idea,” Emmett replies. “Too bad we know no one who has a car and, in my case, happens to be headed to the exact same place.”

“I can’t give you guys a ride.”