They were swimming in her backyard pool. Misjudging the distance he needed to jump away from the diving board, Mikey had flipped off of it, smacking his face in the process.
Later that night, he’d bragged to his friends about the three stitches he’d received...and the sympathy date he’d scored out of the whole ordeal.
Olivia’s bottom lip quivered, and when she looked back up into those eyes—her brother’s eyes—she realized she was seeing them for the first time in ten, long years.
“Mikey?” she whispered his name.
He smiled wider, making his dimples cave in deeper. “Yeah, Junebug. It’s me.”
Olivia cried out and leapt into her brother’s arms. She squeezed him as hard as she could, sobbing loudly, and not caring one bit.
For a moment, the two didn’t move. They stood in the middle of Jake’s living room, trying their damndest to give each other a decade’s worth of love in that one hug.
When she eventually pulled back, Olivia ran her hand slowly across his hairy jaw.
“How is this even possible?”
Mike looked down at her and tried to explain. “Ten years ago, Jake and I had just finished a job with Delta. I went in for the debriefing, like always. But instead of the standard questions, I was put into a room with a man I’d never seen before. He was with a non-military government agency. Long story short, he was putting together a special team. An off the radar, deep cover team. Originally, I was told it would only be a year or two. But the government being what it is, ten years later, I’m still in.”
Olivia was dumbfounded. “I can’t believe this. All this time...I thought you were dead.”
He looked at her regretfully. “It was necessary, Liv. For my safety, sure, but more importantly, for yours and Pop’s. If the people I’ve been taking down knew who I really was, they would have been able to use you and Pops against me.”
“But...I don’t understand. Why? Why did you agree to do it?” Without warning, Olivia’s joy over her brother being alive transformed into an uncontrollable anger. “We were your family, Mikey. I’m your sister. How could you just walk away like that? From me...from Pops?”
Mikey’s look softened, but he only said, “I told you. It was complicated. The job was—”
“Fuck the job!” Olivia blurted out.
She ignored her big brother’s raised eyebrows, knowing he’d never heard her curse like that before. Well, too damn bad. She wasn’t a little kid anymore, and she was hurting.
“What about me? Do you have any idea what losing you did to me? Or Pops? It nearly killed him when that car pulled up to the house, and he saw the chaplain walking to the door.”
She swiped more tears away, and for the first time since she’d stood from the couch, she glanced in Jake’s direction.
“And what about him? Jake was your best friend, Mikey! Your teammate. How could you do that to him?”
She did a double-take, glancing at Jake again. To him, she asked, “And why aren’t you as pissed off as I am? Why aren’t you yelling at him, too? Or punching him in the face or something! You should be. He left you, too. He...”
Then, it hit her. She suddenly understood why Jake wasn’t more upset, and that realization shredded her.
Feeling like someone had just kicked her in the gut with a steel-toed boot, Olivia inhaled sharply before whispering, “Oh, my God.”
Panic filled Jake’s eyes, and he quickly tried to explain. “Listen, Liv—”
She cut him off. “You”—she had to swallow before continuing—“you son of a bitch.”
There was no mistaking the guilt smeared all over his lying face. “Olivia, please...just—”
“How long?” Her voice was surprisingly controlled now. Jake’s, however, was not.
“Sweetheart, just let me explain—”
“Answer me!” she screamed. Streaks of new tears marked her face. “How long have you known my brother was still alive?”
Jake took a deep breath then shattered her world. “I found out a month after his funeral.”
Olivia let out a laugh of disbelief, and then covered her mouth, thinking for a moment that she was going to throw up.
“This whole time? You’ve known this whole time, and you never told me?”
“I couldn’t—”
“Bullshit!” she yelled. Jake at least had the good grace to flinch from the outburst. “How many times, Jake? How many times did I cry on your shoulder? How many nights did I call you, bawling my eyes out because I’d had another nightmare about losing Mikey, and I couldn’t go to Pops because I knew it would only upset him even more? God!” Olivia put her hands to her forehead. “I’m such an idiot!”
“You’re not an idiot,” Jake ground the words out.
Olivia ignored him. “I sure bet you had some good laughs after those phone calls, huh? Poor, clueless Olivia—”
“No, Goddammit, I didn’t laugh. It tore my heart out to see you hurting like that. All those nights you called, I’d be up until daylight because I felt so guilty for not telling you the truth. I’d damn near decided to tell you, but—”
Mikey broke in, “Whoa, you were going to tell her? What the hell, man?”
“The dreams stopped,” Jake said, ignoring him.
Olivia shook her head, and she smiled sadly. “They didn’t stop, Jake.”
Confused, he said, “But...you never called again. Not because of a nightmare, anyway.”
Frustrated, Olivia had to force herself not to scream. “Because I realized you had a life and didn’t need some college brat bothering you all the time! It was bad enough I couldn’t sleep. There was no reason for both of us to be miserable. So, I just learned to deal with it on my own.”
Jake stepped toward her, but she put her hand up to stop him and took a step back. Withdrawing from him like that hurt him. She could see it in his eyes, but she couldn’t bring herself to care.
He fisted his
