Falling for my boyfriend’s Navy brother
Chapter 91: Asher
The place
ells like grilled meat and været sy kare, and the grill’s been going in long now there’s a house of heat fetaret or and the sent above the table. I’ve got love of samgyerqual sierling in front of me, the kind that maps when you press it with tags, and Anne’s talking with her handagsafting Peony about the time Rooster tried to cook steak using a blowtorch.
Peing laugh, cmering het mouth with her hand, and God help me, I’m watching her like the’s the only winter of light in this entice prietenest.
She fits hem. I didn’t expect that. She’s in out of place in my world of wear and grim humor and shadowed memorien, but tha’s holding her own, pyra side with curiosity, telt voice peppered with questions, bright with interest
Koester’s been good. He hasn’t mentioned the firelight in Kandahar or the time he got track in the back of a Home with a corpse for twelve hours. He’s hell out the dark shit–the parts that make you look at the would differently. The parts that never leme you. I’m thankful for that, Promy domn’t need to see how far the bow really pers.
So,” Anna leans in, het elbow on the table, “what’s the badest move you’ve ever done in ballet
Tommy tilts hat head, thinking. Her curl bounce a litle, and I have to stop myself from teaching out and tacking in behind her ear
“There’s this one lit,” she says slowly, like she’s deciding how to explain it to people who’ve never danced a day in their lives. “It’s called the fish five.”
Rooster whistles low. “That sounds dangerous.”
Pery grins. “It can be. I have to leap, and my partim catches me mid–air, almost upside down. I’m basically parallel to the floor, and be supports me only by my waist and the upper part of my back. It’s fast and dramatic and really easy to mess up.”
Anna’s eyes widen. “You’ve done that?”
“In practice,” she says. “Never in a performance, But… I’ll have to. It’s part of the Black Swan pas de deux.”
My hands move without thinking, grabbing more grilled meat and laying it onto her plate. She’s already finished most of the vegetables I set for her, and know she gets hungry after rehearsals–she never eats enough before. It’s a silent rhythm now, this looking out for her without words.
“Do you or worry they’ll drop your Booster anka,
Penny’s smile falters just a bit, but she shrugs. “All the time. But it’s part of the job. You have to trust them. You can’t hate mid–up. That’s own te dangerous.”
God, the idea of her getting hurt like that makes something cold tighten in my chest. 1 poke the neat harder than I should.
“She’s got the wildest imagination I’ve ever son,” I say, desperate to steer the conversation somewhere lighter. “Always throwing the weirdest questions at
Penny turns to me, mock offended, “Hey!”
Anna perks up. “Like what?”
I look at, harrowing my eyes playfully. “You asked qe last week if I’d rather fight a hundred duck–sized horses or one har–sized duck”
Booster sports into his beer “Oh my God: What did you say?”
“I haven’t decided. Both sound like a logetical nightmare.”
“I just like to know these things,” Penny nutters, pubbing a piece of meat from her plate. “It’s important”
“It’s lasane,” I conect, and she laughs, bet noke scrunching.
And fuck, I could get ward to this
This table. These people. Her smile. Penny is all light and softness and pink tank tops and curly, shiny bale, We’re all dark and blood and PTSD, str Abrë
Chapter 91: Asher
has been with Boomer long enough that her vorw of the world. lete, with an, sak is firadi, like she was always meant to
changed a little bit. But Penny? She’s still an internt. Sa… Penty. And
1280 beeth, talking and laughing with th
She Irans in again, spark dancing in her eyes, breaking my thoughts. “Thay, okay, I’ve got a new one. Would you rather have fingers for eyelashes et
Boost almost chokes on his dink. “Iesin Christ”
Anna cackles Fingern for eyelashes? What would you even do with that?”
“I don’t know!” Penny anys, loghing. “But think about it. Your sould grab things without even opening your eyes.”
“You’re sick,” I matter.
“You love it,” she fire back without missing a heat, then freezes a little, like the didn’t mean to say it
There’s a pause. Not uncomfortable, lost… charged.
Booster breaks it with a gran. “So this is the girl you’re so mad in love for ”
The air leaves my lungs in a punch.
Penny’s hand stills. Her eyes go wide.
“Rooster,” I growl.
Rooster raises his hands, eyes darting between us. “Shir. Sorry. I just–ch–l misread. Thought–never mind. My boy Tank’s been taking about a grand just assured…”
“You assumed wrong.” I mutter.
eyes at me. She knows. Of course she knows. She’s always been sharper than most.
Penny recovers, laughs a little too quickly. “Well, I do ask a lot of questions. Probably drives him erary”
“More than you know,” I mutter under my breath
We don’t talk about it again. The conversation shifts–back to fool, to work, to old stories about Anna’s vet clinic and the time Rooster got a cat stuck in his hoodie and panicked like a baby.
barely hearing it.
I’m watching her,
The way she talks with her hands. The way she lights up when someone’s laughing at her joke. The way her cheeks tum the faintest pink ne koking.
She’s not my gel.
She can’t be
But at this table, with these people, in this tiny window of time–the almost feels like mine.
And that’s enough
when the catches
