“I know you’re angry. You have been for most of your life. I know you have moments when your anger gets the best of you—”

“I think that’s understating what I did to Colt.”

His father held up his hand. “But for the most part, you’ve tried to lock that anger away by doing everything right.”

“Because if I do, then maybe God won’t steal someone I love from me again!”

Oh.

He didn’t know where that came from and blew out a breath. “Sorry.”

“Dodge, you’re a good man. Of all my sons, I know you’ll do the right thing. You are stalwart and determined and I would trust you with my life.”

Dodge stared at him, the words landing like a burr.

“And I owe you an apology.”

Dodge couldn’t move.

“I saw Colt’s brokenness, and I did too much to protect him from himself and not enough to protect you. I should have seen your fear, saw how helpless you felt—”

“I’m not a coward.”

“Dodge.” His father’s voice softened. “I’m not calling you a coward. But you are afraid. You’re afraid of God not doing things your way. Of being helpless, and of the worst happening. You always have to have a plan because you’re terrified of making a mistake that could screw up your life.”

Ha. “Already done, Dad.”

His father walked over, stared at the picture Dodge had put down. “The day your mother died, I was standing in the ER, beating myself up that I hadn’t brought her in earlier, that I had given in to her desire to go home after those treatments, to be with you all. I thought, maybe if I’d been stronger, braver, or just . . . I don’t know—smarter—then she’d still be alive. But nothing I could have done would have changed God’s plans for her. For our family. And nothing you did would have changed God’s plans for you.”

Dodge shook his head. “I don’t believe that. I could have not pushed back when Colt attacked me. I could have not run off to join the military—”

“And God would have taught you everything he did a different way. Made you into a pilot who could coax a dying plane in from fifty miles out. Made you into a man who would risk his life to save the lives of seven SEALs.”

“What? How did—”

“Master Chief Chester Nez, one of the men you rescued, wrote to me. Said what you did saved the lives of his team.”

“No, two SEALs died in that stinger strike.”