Free Carolina Home by Virginia Kantra Page A

Christ’s sake. At least she knows Dawn’s folks.”
    Luke flipped his lighter without speaking. A flame jumped against the dark.
    “I thought you quit,” Matt said as Luke cupped his hand around the cigarette.
    “I did.” Luke inhaled slowly, closing his eyes.
    Their dad had smoked, too, Matt remembered, every time he went on active duty, in Lebanon and Libya and the Gulf, no matter how much Tess nagged him about it. Cigarettes were a way to cope with boredom, sleep deprivation, and the stress of combat.
    Not to mention the shock of coming home.
Congratulations, it’s a girl.
    Luke blew a long stream of smoke out over the water, light against the dark. “Dawn left a letter,” he said at last. “With the will.”
    “A letter,” Matt repeated carefully.
    “She wanted me to raise the kid. Not her parents.”
    Matt raised his brows. “But our parents raising the girl is okay?”
    “Don’t bust my chops. You never minded accepting their help with Josh.”
    He’d minded, Matt thought. But he hadn’t seen a choice.
    “They were sixteen years younger then. And so was I. Anyway, I didn’t dump a baby on their doorstep and run.”
    Instead, he’d come home from college, where his future had once stretched as bright and unbounded as the ocean.
    “Taylor’s not a baby,” Luke said. “She’s ten. Hell, she’ll be in school half the time.”
    “The bigger they get, the bigger their problems. You should be here.”
    “Not an option,” Luke said.
    “Bullshit,” Matt said. “You could get hardship leave.”
    “I have a responsibility to my men.”
    “I hate to break it to you, bro, but you’re replaceable to the Marines. Your men can find another squad leader. Your daughter can’t find another dad.”
    “I know what I’m doing over there. I don’t have the first clue how to be a parent.”
    Matt shrugged. “So you learn on the job like everybody else. You can’t do that in Afghanistan.”
    Luke ground out his cigarette on top of his can. “The kid will be fine without me. She doesn’t know me. Doesn’t need me. Hell, she doesn’t even like me.”
    “Maybe you should work on changing that.”
    “If something happens over there, she’s better off not knowing. This way she won’t miss me.”
    “If you believe that, you’re an idiot.”
    Luke reached for another beer. “I can take better care of her by doing my job. At least she’ll be provided for.” He smiled crookedly. “Hell, I’ll be home in another three months. Plenty of downtime between deployments for us to get to know each other.”
    “Provided you live that long,” Matt said quietly.
    “Yeah.” Luke tipped back his beer, his throat muscles working in the moonlight. He lowered the can. “That’s what I want to talk to you about. If anything happens, I need to know you’ll be here.”
    “We all will. You know that.”
    “Yeah. But you said yourself Mom and Dad aren’t getting any younger. You done good with Josh. This kid…If the shit hits the fan, I’m counting on you, bro.”
    Matt’s chest hurt. He cleared his throat. “I’ll be here.”
    Luke met his gaze and smiled. “Back to back?”
    “To back,” Matt promised solemnly.
    It was the rallying cry of their childhood. Growing up in a military family, moving from base to base, the three Fletcher siblings had always stood by each other.
Back to back to back.
    There was no question Matt’s life was about to get more complicated.
    And no help for it.
    “Does Meg know yet?” Matt asked. “About Taylor?”
    “I called her.” Luke rolled his eyes. “She asked if I updated my will.”
    “And?”
    “Well…She told me to buy more life insurance.”
    Matt swallowed a laugh.
    “I HEAR YOU’RE seeing Matt Fletcher,” Gail Peele remarked the next morning as she rinsed her coffee mug in the teacher’s lounge.
    Allison froze, her tea bag suspended over hot water. “Who told you that?”
    “Suzy Warner told me Pam Gordon saw you two together at the Fish House