Chapter 46: Asher
The secund the door swings open, the world outside feels like a different planet compared to yesterday morning.
for the
the place apart and kept the souvenirs,
Garbage bins fir abandoned in the middle of the street, half–tipped and trailing trash down the gutters.
Branches, same bigger than a man, are snapped and scattered across lasens end roads.
One car down the street has a whole tree leaning against it, the hood cumpl
in Inil
Neighbors are already outside, armed with gloves and takes and exhaustion, trying to piece the world back together,
I’ve seen worse.
A lot worse.
But judging by the way Penny’s mouth falls open in a silent gasp, she hasn’t.
Neither has Tyler, probably, but he’s better at pretending
She turns to him, wide–eyed, and says, “You drove back in this?”
Tyler shrogs, grinning like it’s a good story for later.
“Yeah. It was tricky. Had to swerve around some stuff. No big deal.”
She frowns, hugging the oversized shirt tighter around herself, but says nothing else.
We start walking toward her house, Tyler launching into some story about the football game last night – who won, who lost, who made an epic fail worth laughing about for weeks.
Penny trudges beside him, yanking at the waistband of the massive joggers shes wearing–mine, still, and way too big for her- her little haffs and frustrated mutters making her sound mine a storm cloud than the actual storm.
If I weren’t so pissed off, I might actually find it funny.
even.
But the truth is I can barely see straight through how hard I’m trying not to grab her and tell her she’s a goddamn idiot for staying with someone who treats her like she’s optional.
Maybe she’s right, though.
Maybe sunay, fun, easy is what she nerds.
Not someone like me
Someone who’d destroy her without meaning to
Someone
who doesn’t know how to be soft without fast being brutal.
I’m tough
Closed off.
Mvan without uying half the time
And hell, I’m leaving again soon anyway.
Heading back to the Navy, back to the life that chewed me up and spit me
Wanting her it’s a stupid, selfish instinct.
One I should’ve killed the second it started.
taught me how to stop trading things
1 shove my hands deeper into my pockets, clench my jaw, and force myself to focus on anything else
the crunch of glass under my boots, the low mummin of voices from the houses see pass,
The world is still dripping, heavy with saim thai ham’t fully drained away, and somewhere overbead, wood creaks against wood–faint but sharp mough s slice through the log in my head.
1 slow down, scanning instinctively
Old ha
The one that kept me alive more times than I can coun
The sound sharpens — a dry, splintering track.
Tyler and Penny walk ahead, still talking, completely oblivious to the danger threading itself above them.
Then I see it.
The tree ahead, heavy and battered from the storm, leaning dangerously toward the sidewalk,
A branch–thicker than my arm is hanging loose, ready to snap.
Another crack–louder now
and the whole thing shifts, the movement so subtle it would be easy to miss.
Except I don’t miss things
“Move, I bark, already surging forward.
There’s no time to explain.
No time to think,
I grab Tyler first, fingers fisting in the back of his collar and yanking him sideways hard enough to stumble.
The Penny-
My hand wraps around her waist like it’s always meant to be there, pulling her tight against my chest as I phot us out of the way.
The beach crashes down with a roar, smashing into the sidewalk where they’d been standing a second earlier, sending splinters and debris flying.
For a beat, everything is still
The world holds its breath.
It sounds a little too loud.
Tyler covers first, letting out a shaky laugh that sou
“Holy shit,” he says, clapping me on the back hard enough to jolt me forward
Holy shi
“Bro! That was some superhero shit right there. Seriously. You saved my ass
Chapter 46: Asher
He whips out his phone and starts taking pictures of the wreckage, abendy planning whatever story he’s going to tell the guys later.
I barely hear him.
Penny is still pressindagainst me
her breathing rapid, her hands fisted in the fabric of my shirt like the doesn’t even realize the’s doing it.
I don’t let go.
Not immediately.
Because the adrenaline hasn’t we off yet.
Because I can still feel the way she fits against me
simall, warm, burakable
Because part of me is still running hot from the thought of how easily she could’ve been crushed if I hadn’t looked up
Peniny tilts her head back slightly, eyes
pupils blown huge with leftover fear
Her lips part, but for a second no sound comes out
Then so soft it’s almost a whisper. —
“Thank you.”
I nod – because I can’t find any words that won’t make things
worse and finally, finally loosen my grip.
She steps back, smoothing
down the oversized clothes like armor, cheeks flushed with more than just leftover fear.
Tyler is still buzzing around the fallen branch, pointing and laughing like it’s the best thing that’s ever happened to him
I glance up at
at the tree
the way more branches still
hang low and battered-
and my
instincts flare again –
“Let’s keep moving.” I say, voice sharp enough to cut through Tyler’s rambling
e rest of that damn free comes down.”
“Before the
Tyler grins, oblivious, and nods.
Penny
my says nothing, just follows as we continue down the broken sidewalk
the distance between us feeling smaller now,
and somehow infinitely more dangerous.
374
ynenus Navy brother
Chapter 47: Asher
