Free Remembering You: Pushing the Boundaries, Prequel by Audra North

called her “the Lang girl”, like he knew her too. But how? They’d been strangers yesterday, all of them. Of course, Davis had grown up here, whereas Ben had only moved here after he’d finished training and gotten a job in Greenbriar. Maybe Davis did know something.
    Ben met Davis’s eyes. “You knew her already?”
    Davis shrugged. “Nah. She’s too young to have been in school with me. But her dad’s a fucking legend. My dad used to talk about him a lot—he grew up with General Lang and they were friends throughout elementary and high school. Dad told me how the guy had come from a family of eight, lived in some one-room shack off of Childress Ave., and he was the only one who did anything with his life. My dad said he got the hell out of his shit-poor life and ran off to join the Army as soon as he turned eighteen. Pulled himself up rung by rung by being the hardest working, toughest son of a bitch you could imagine.”
    Davis’s dad had been on the Greenbriar police force too. Davis had always wanted to be an Army MP, like Nina’s dad, but when his older sister had a baby at barely sixteen, Davis had put his dreams on hold in order to stay behind and help out his family financially.
    At nearly thirty-two, Davis was simply too old now to do what he’d always wanted to do and too weighed down by family obligations to even consider doing anything else. And because of that, he was perpetually scowling.
    Interesting, though, that this “toughest son of a bitch” Lang had such a beautiful daughter.
    “What about Nina’s mom?” Ben threw his towel in the dirties bin and tried not to look too desperate for information.
    Davis rolled his eyes. “Shouldn’t you have asked her all these questions?” But when Ben didn’t respond, he sighed. “The mom seemed nice enough. My mom didn’t interact with Nina’s mom much, since by the time Lang dropped her off in Greenbriar and went back to wherever he was stationed, I guess he’d earned enough to buy a place in Wallingford, which isn’t exactly in my family’s league. But I saw Mrs. Lang around a few times. Really pretty. I remember Mrs. Perkins—the nosy old lady whose husband used to own the hardware store—once told my mom Mrs. Lang was a South American heiress who was disowned when she married Lang. She died, though, you know.”
    Ben frowned. “Of course I know. We did detail for her funeral together, remember?”
    Davis shook his head. “Not Mrs. Perkins. Mrs. Lang. She died over a decade ago. You hadn’t moved here yet.”
    Nina’s mom was dead? That was surprising. The mere mention of Nina’s father seemed to upset her, and Ben had assumed General Lang had come back here to live with his wife. Why was Nina back here with him?
    Wait a sec. “What do you mean, Lang dropped off his wife in Greenbriar?” In Wallingford, no less. The richest suburb around.
    “Well, that’s exactly what I mean. Showed up during one of his leaves, bought a place, moved her in—she was pregnant, did I mention?—then left again. Came back maybe twice a year on leave, then was gone again. My dad used to meet General Lang for drinks when he was in town. The guy might have been a great MP, but he had to work hard at it. Didn’t give him much time for his family.”
    While Davis’s father was the quintessential family man, which was probably why he’d never left Greenbriar. Generations of Davis men had been camping out in this city for hundreds of years, and family loyalty had kept the younger Davis tethered here.
    Ben tried to imagine what kind of relationship Nina had with her father. Nothing he came up with was very positive. He frowned. She was a puzzle. All those psychology classes and negotiation trainings weren’t helping him when it came to her.
    Davis racked weights on the bench-press bar and lay back, then motioned for Ben to come spot him. He lowered the bar to his chest, puffing out as he raised it again.
    Ten reps in silence, except for the sound of