I shook my head. “You know I don’t mind. You’ve been a huge help around here.”

“Things seem to be better for you, too.”

“I feel better.”

“Have you heard from Ryan? No one’s heard from him since he joined that special thing.”

My mouth turned to the side. Most of the time I tried not to think of Ryan, the sand, or the bullets flying every where while he carried his his pipe bomb backpack.

“No,” I said.

Beth nodded. The desk phone rang and she stood, pushing Line One and answering without hesitation. “Nina Grey’s office…no, that file is in the…oh Lord, Sasha, I’ll just come find it for you. How long have you worked here?”

Beth hung up the phone, and I smiled. “Don’t let her take advantage of you. Do you want me to say something?”

“No. I do plenty of that,” Beth said, winking.

“I’m heading home. Will you lock up for me?” I asked.

“I always do,” she said, waving behind her.

Jared stood beside his SUV with a smile, waiting with arms wide. He had let me fall asleep in his arms the last few weeks and then left sometime after. Jack and Gabe stayed out of my head, and I slept through the night, never realizing Jared was gone. He was getting so good at pinpointing when I would rouse he usually slid next to me just before I awoke. Once again, life was semi-normal.

His hand slid over mind as it rested on the console of the Escalade. “Something came for you today.”

“A letter?” I asked, nervous.

Jared let go of my hand, pulling an envelope from his jacket pocket. Ryan had finally written again.

Nigh,

I still think about you every day. Sometimes whether I want to or not. Things have been pretty busy. The new company I’m in is a whole new breed of soldiers. I like it, but I miss you. When I get a chance, I sit and watch the sunset, and think about our game, and the pub, and your stupid temper tantrums. I miss it all. Tell everyone I said hi.

Ryan

I folded the paper back to its original shape.

“Do I have to remind you that this isn’t your fault?” Jared asked.

Ryan’s sudden departure was too much of a coincidence to believe that it wasn’t my fault, but Jared, Kim, and Beth all assured me quite regularly that his reasons were purely financial.

He didn’t write again after that, and I relied on Jared’s intermittent phone calls from Claire to hear of his whereabouts, and that he was okay.