“Right, and if you need a nudge in the right direction, you talk to me.” She nodded, like that was it. “And here he is.” She practically squealed as Luke walked in, followed by Liam. “Over here, Luke, Liam.” They spotted us, and Dylan rushed over to high-five them.

“Hey, Dylan, ready for breakfast?” Luke asked.

“Yeah,” he answered, then looked up, way up, at Liam. “Are you eating with us, Liam? You should. We have enough chairs. Come on!”

“I was just going to pick something up and take it back to the office, little dude,” Liam answered.

Mom pointed to a chair. “Sit with us, Liam.” He sat. People tended to do whatever she said. I wish I had that power, especially whenever I tried to get Dylan to clean up his toys.

“Where is Rocky? I miss him,” Dylan asked as Luke sat in the chair across from mine. Dylan sat between us.

“Rocky goes to Jed’s ranch when I’m at work. And you are invited to visit him at my house whenever you want. My house is your house.” Jed trained service dogs at his ranch and from what I’d heard Luke’s dog had failed all the certification tests.

Dylan grabbed Luke’s arm and turned it back and forth, examining his tattoos. “I like the forest on this arm better. Why do you have flowers on the other arm? Flowers are for girls.”

“They remind me of a girl,” Luke answered Dylan while looking at me. “They are lily of the valley.” The tiny bell-shaped flowers twined around his entire arm—black ink with white highlights connected the riot of shaded stems. It seemed like Luke hadn’t let go of me like I thought he had.

“Hey, that’s my mom’s name. Lily,” Dylan said, then his eyes got wide as he realized Luke was talking about me. “You missed my mom.” He turned to me. “He missed you.”

“She was my best friend,” Luke said. “I never should have left.”

I sucked in a huge breath as Luke’s eyes burned into mine. My hand started to reach for his, but I quickly pulled it back as my brain caught up to my body. I couldn’t keep reacting to him without thinking, it was foolish.

“Is Liam your best friend too?” Dylan asked, breaking the moment. “Does he live at your huge house? Do you play Xbox together? Were you kids together too?”

“We were in the Army together. He was the squad leader, my sergeant,” Luke answered. “Now he’s just my friend and can’t order me around anymore.”

Dylan looked at Liam with big eyes, impressed. “Are you sure you don’t have gigantism? How tall are you?” he asked.

Liam laughed. “I’m six feet, six inches tall.”