Page 17 of The Seal's Promise
“What makes you think this is just a drive-by? I said I was going to be helping Gran out and would be here indefinitely.”
Wes looked him over. “You unpack your luggage yet?”
“Navy habit, to live out of a bag.”
Wes nodded. “Mm-hmm, did you start that habit?”
Dalton sighed. “I get it, you’re pissed I left, but I was eighteen. The Naval Academy accepted me, and I had to give them four years after graduation. It’s not like I was off being a vagabond. I needed to get out of here and make something of myself.”
“I wasn’t mad that you left, I was mad you never came back.”
“When are you going to give me a break?” Dalton asked.
Wes’s head turned so he could look him in the eyes. “Tell me why you didn’t come home for fifteen years. Then we can get past it.”
“Are we doing family therapy now? Maybe we should wait for Levi and Gran to join us.”
“Maybe we should, because I think there’s a lot more to it than Mom and Dad dying. And if you’re not sure how long you’re staying, that means you’ve already got one foot out the door.”
“It doesn’t sound like you’ll mind too much, Wes. If I didn’t know any better, it sounds like you’d rather I stayed gone.”
“I’m just not looking forward to dealing with Gran’s disappointment. I know she called and said something to get you to come home, but when that gets resolved you’ll leave again.”
“Good to know you won’t be included on that short list of people that’ll miss me. No one wants to be where they’re not wanted.”
“Don’t pull that crap on me. You left us, remember?”
“I don’t know how I could forget when everyone is so hell-bent on reminding me.” Dalton kicked the dirt. He didn’t want to rehash every reason why he left. Not yet, and maybe not ever.
“I’ll see you at Gran’s tomorrow for dinner,” Wes said before walking off.
Maybe Dalton did need to make things a bit more permanent, even if it wasn’t forever. It was going to take at least a few months to get all the appointments his gran needed, and to find her someone to help around the house and get her to agree to accept the help. Maybe that would be enough to get Wes to forgive him.
He searched the crowd as the game hit the fifth inning, but everyone was lining up for the food trucks and concession stand. He spotted Brooke next to Miles laughing at something, but then her head turned and she caught him watching her. Or maybe she was looking for him and he caught her. She was another reason for him to stick around Sandy Point. He wanted to know what she meant about being left behind.
CHAPTER TEN
Brooke
Quiet before the Storm
Brooke had feltlike a fool calling Dalton out on his hasty departure from town fifteen years ago, and now she regretted revealing that she’d cared. But lashing out at him seemed to work because she hadn’t seen him for days. She half wondered if he’d already left town again, until she arrived at her parents’ after work to pick up Max and heard all about how Dr. Dalton Hart was the big hit at career day.
“Ya, and he brought in his stethoscope to let us all try it. Then he handed out stickers. Look.”
Max lifted up his water bottle that now sported a red sticker with the familiar physician’s logo, a pair of angel wings, a staff, and two snakes.
“It means healing. We all got one.”
“It sounds like it was a very exciting day,” her father said. “I heard Dalton was a SEAL, but I didn’t realize he went to medical school as well.” He looked at her with interest.
“Did you know that, Brooke?” her mom asked.
She sat down at their eat-in kitchen table where they already had dinner waiting, a perk of their insistence on helping her out during the week with Max. Her dad was also a great chef.
“He stopped by the hospital last week and we caught up briefly. He won’t be in town long,” Brooke said.
“I think he’s staying forever, Mom,” Max said.
