"Why?" She honestly looked puzzled.

Slowly, I replied, "Because they're important to me. We grew up together."

She nodded and took my hand. As we walked to the porch door Everly gazed up and all around, taking in as much as she could before we reached the deck.

Nick was always the easiest person to spot. His personality matched his height. His height matched his voice. His voice was like an alarm. And his ink was a story of where he had been, and where his beliefs lied.

"Death before dishonor" marked his chest.

"SEMPER FI" marked his upper right arm.

Stripes and stars colored over his heart.

And the secrets he shared with my favorite nurse took over the inside of his left arm, because it was the most hidden place on his body, closest to his heart. Nicholas Petros was not the kind of man who paraded around his treasure. He was the kind of man who'd kill someone for simply trying to find where his treasure resided. It wasn't something he was taught as a military man. It was something that simply came into the world with him, and bloomed inside of a little girl named Tatum Quade. The only tell was that the ink on him, matched the ink on her.

I grinned at his surly expression when we reached the table where he sat smoking. "If you're waiting for me to salute you . . . yeah . . . not gonna fuckin' happen."

He laughed, blowing out smoke. He glanced quickly to Everly, our hands, and then pretended as if he hadn't. "Are you a doctor yet, Cal? Because I have this really itchy patch on my balls I need you to take a look at . . ."

I put up my hand. "Your sack itching is between you and the men you choose to love in the barracks."

Nick choked out his laugh. Stomped out his cigarette in the red ashtray so he could extend his hand to me. "Good to see you, brother."

"Yeah, yeah." I shook his hand. "Don't get all sappy because I acknowledged your balls."

He smiled, but glanced to Everly again.

I lifted her hand in mine. "This is Everly. Ev, this is Sergeant Nicholas Petros. My partner in crime since we were in elementary school."

He loomed over her as he stood to shake her hand. An ant before a giant.

Smiling he said, "My apologies in advance for everything that might happen this weekend, Everly."

She smiled a little, and shook his hand.

"Where's my favorite Tater Tot?" I asked.

"Apparently," Nick said, sitting back down, "Your Pop only stock piles the hard shit these days. My angel of a wife is on a beer run."

"I could have picked up beer," I said. "You should have called me before we got up here."

"That's a really funny joke, Cal. You on a beer run."

"Lest I remind you, I am a Cornell Weill med student. I think that means I am capable of reading fuckin' labels on beer bottles."

He only laughed as a reply, lighting up another smoke. "Anyone? Anyone?" He offered to Everly and then to the other end of the table. Amelia "Sweet Kisses" Vanguard leaned over to pull a cigarette free, pool water freshly rolling off her back. "Thanks, Serg."

"Everly?" he offered. I glanced at Amelia as she lit up. She smiled as she took a puff, and then said, "Hey Cal," as she exhaled.

"Hey."

I turned back to Everly as she shook her head at Nick's Marlboros.

"No one," Tatum huffed, sitting down three grocery bags on the table. "Calls my husband Serg. Especially not half-naked wretches like yourself."

"I'm only being friendly, Tatum." Amelia said. "It's a stupid cigarette."

"We're not friends, so there's no being friendly. Piss off." She looked at me, a frazzled, disheveled mess from the heat. "What? What are you looking at?"

"I think it used to be my best friend. But I'm not sure."

"Oh fuck off, Callum. Why in the hell would you bring her here? I thought you had a little thing for-"

"Tatum," I cut her off. "This is Everly. I brought Everly."

Her whole face softened. "Oh." She looked at Everly Anne. "Oh."