“I would say I understand, but I couldn’t possibly know what you guys went through.”

“Luckily, few do.”

There is a raucous roar over by the pool table where it appears someone just got seriously hustled and everyone else was in on it. We watch the ribbing and laughing, and I get the weirdest sense that everyone in FU-Bar feels like they belong here. Like they all have mutually shared experiences that they can somehow relate to.

And then I wonder why I feel like I belong here when I don’t.

But is it because of that man right there? The one whose dark hair has just fallen over his eyes and who is busy making some couple on the other side of the bar laugh.

“May I ask a personal question, Nix?”

“That depends.”

“Why are you still in Destiny Falls? I mean, I’m sure you have a family somewhere, so why did you opt to stay here after you were discharged?”

He’s quiet for a moment. The sounds of the bar filter in around us. “I think, like Gunner, it’s hard to leave this place. To leave behind the families that are still suffering and to let go of the survivor’s guilt we still feel.”

“I never thought of it that way.”

“The war stays in your heart, Chase, long after the uniform comes off.” He pauses, and then sighs. “Someday, we’ll both leave this town and live outside of it, but for the meantime, this provides a place to heal when we choose to let it.” He pushes his beer away to make room for the food we see Aubrey coming out with. “This is my home. These guys are my home. That man,” he says looking at Gunner, “allowed me to come home.”

And there is something about that comment of Nix’s that sticks with me. Long after I’ve eaten my food, had some more laughs over drinks, and fallen a lot more in lust watching Gunner work the bar. He laughs with some, lowers his voice and leans over to talk to others, all while keeping the bar running.

And it sits with me even after Gunner walks me to my car for a quick goodnight kiss before heading back in to work another couple of hours before they close.

These guys are my home. That man allowed me to come home.

Even as I open my hotel room and enter it.

Is that what I’m looking for?

My place?

My home?

Sure, I have my sisters and love them dearly, but haven’t they all found their own places? Their new homes? The men who have allowed them to make and call it a home?

Is that what they long for me to find?

That person with a shared experience who gets me wholly and completely . . . and still wants a life with me?

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Gunner

IT WAS A GREAT NIGHT.