Wyatt was closest. Clay clasped his oldest brother’s shoulders and drilled his gaze deep into Wyatt’s hesitant gray-blue eyes. Last time Clay had seen him, Wyatt had been running for his life, on his way to steal Clay’s savings.

Everything buckled inside, and Clay tugged Wyatt into a tight embrace.

His brother stiffened, then sagged and hugged Clay back. “I don’t—”

“No more of that. No more.” He released Wyatt and turned to Adler, whose sky blue eyes widened.

Clay refused to think about how he’d last seen Adler, and he fell on his middle brother, holding him as firmly as he’d held the rope on Pointe du Hoc, as if his life depended on it, as if the life of his whole family depended on it.

“But—but—” Adler’s voice sounded thick and husky. “I ruined your life.”

“We both did,” Wyatt said.

“My life isn’t ruined.” He stepped back and grabbed Adler’s arm, Wyatt’s arm. “It isn’t. It’s different, but it’s good. It’s very good.”

Adler shook his head. “But—”

“Sit down.” Clay sat on the side of the bed and patted the mattress. “I reckon officers can take orders as well as give them.”

One corner of Wyatt’s mouth twitched. He nudged Adler and took his seat.

“Remember the story of Joseph in Egypt?” Clay pulled his little Bible from the table. “He had every right to say his brothers had ruined his life. They sold him into slavery. He was in a pit, then in prison. Thirteen years. But you know what he said, don’t you?”

Wyatt and Adler nodded with a trying-to-recall-the-verse look in their eyes.

Clay recalled it. He’d memorized it. “Joseph told his brothers, ‘But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.’”

“What good could possibly . . . ?” Adler squeezed his eyes shut.

Where should he start? “So much good. Saved Leah’s life.”

“Who’s Leah?” Wyatt asked.

“My wife.”

They gasped as one. “You’re married?”

“And a father.” Clay pulled out the well-loved photo. “Her name is Helen, and she’s two months old. Aren’t they the prettiest girls you’ve ever seen?”

“Well, I’ll be,” Adler said.

“Congratulations.”

Clay savored the first smiles he’d seen from his brothers in three years. “Neither Leah nor Helen would be alive if you hadn’t done what you did.”

Wyatt’s eyes stretched wide. “What happened?”

“That’s a story for another day.” Clay tucked the photo away. “If I’d gone to college, I wouldn’t have been in the Rangers or on Pointe du Hoc. And that’s where I was meant to be.”

“You really climbed those cliffs.” Wyatt whistled.

Clay shrugged and set aside his Bible. “Only a hundred feet tall, nothing to speak of.”