Falling for my boyfriend's Navy brother novel Chapter 96

brother

Chapter 96: Penny

It’s just after ten in the morning when I step into the little coffee shop two blocks from the studio. My tote bag is heavy with extra pointe shoes, i vare bottle, and the thick rehearsal schedule folded like a sacred map in my planner. No school today just six full hours at the hare and in the air and fo even dreading it. Not really.

I order a blueberry score and a medium latte, wrap my arms around myself as I step aside to wait for the coffee.

It’s been a week since the boys left.

A week of quiet mornings. A week without that familiar thud of footsteps on the stairs, without his voice behind Tyler’s laughter. A week since he left me with a knot in my chest I haven’t been able to untangle. I haven’t texted. Neither has he.

The silence feels too loud.

“Penny?”

I turn so fast I almost knock my bag into someone. Anna stands a few feet away, dressed in a soft brown trench and jeans, her hair swept up into a loose braid, a coffee already in her hand. She looks surprised. Then she grins.

“Hey you,” she says.

We hug. She smells like lavender and dog shampoo and something woodsy.

“I didn’t know you came here,” I say.

“I drop off the clinic’s deposit on Tuesdays,” she replies. “How are you?”

I smile as best I can. “Good. Tired. Rehearsal’s gonna be long today. Six hours.”

“Six hours?!”

I nod. “Six hours of Swan Lake, bruised toes, and Luc making jokes in half–French, half–English.”

She laughs. “He seems sweet.”

“He is.”

We talk for a minute–she tells me a story about a Labrador who ate three socks and needed surgery, and I try not to picture it. Then I ask without really meaning to: “How’s Rooster doing?”

Her smile softens. “Better,” she says. “His arm… well. The muscles have atrophied some. He lost a lot of tissue after it got nearly burned off. He will need more surgery down the road, but the pain is mostly gone.”

My stomach dips.

“What do you mean burned off?” I ask, my voice almost gone.

Anna freezes, her mouth opening slightly. “Asher didn’t tell you what happened? Why they’re on leave?”

I shake my head slowly. “No…”

She sighs, like she’s weighing her words carefully. “Then it’s not really my place. But… Asher and Eric–they’re two out of four who made it.”

“…Made it?” I echo, already knowing what she means.

“There were thirteen when the mission started,” Anma says gently. “Only four made it back. And only one of them without permanent damage. Physical damage, that is.”

Chapter 96: Penny

Thirteen.

I feel like I’ve been shoved into ice water. I can’t breathe.

That’s why he came home.

That’s why he looks at the world like it’s made of glass.

I don’t know why I say it—but it slips out. “I haven’t spoken to him since he left my house last week.. dinner three weeks ago.”

Anna’s eyes soften even more. She tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “I know.”

I blink. “You… know?”

Actually we haven’t even spoken that much unce

She nods. “Asher told Rooster. He was, is, pissed at him–for saying too much about the so–called girl he’s in love with.”

I blink again. It’s like my whole brain short–circuits.

I nod slowly and look down, my scone clutched in my hand but forgotten.

“Penny, Anna says quietly. “You’re one of the smartest, strongest, most accomplished young women I’ve ever met. But I need you to do something”

I look at her.

She steps a little closer, voice low. “Try to open your eyes. See what’s actually happening. There’s no other woman. Not in the past, not now.”

I stare at her, confused. Her words feel like puzzle pieces I can’t make click.

Anna shakes her head with a fond smile. “Think about it, sweetheart.”

Then she leans in, gives me a soft hug, and heads toward the door, her coat fluttering behind her like she’s part of some secret I’m only beginning to understand.

“Penelope!”

My name rings out across the café, sharp and clear above the low murmur of voices and the hiss of the

espresso

machine.

I blink, startled. Right. My coffee.

I walk over to the counter, murmuring a soft thank you to the barista as I take the warm cup between my hands. But the moment I sit back down, I don’t drink it. I don’t even look at it.

My thoughts are a mess.

No woman.

Those two words play on repeat in my head like a scratched record.

But the question buzzing under my skin is… did she mean not anymore? Or not ever?

Because if there was never a woman, then why would Rooster say what he said?

Was he just teasing? Or… did I miss something? Am I completely clueless? Blind?

Or is Asher hiding something?

I don’t know what scares me more–the idea that I’ve imagined all of it, or the possibility that I haven’t.

Chapter 96: Penny

I shake my head and try to pull myself together, but the spiral is already starting. My thoughts jump tracks like an out of control cam

But that’s not even what’s bothering me the most.

It’s what Anna said. Quiet. Almost like a side note. But it stuck.

Four out of thirteen.

Four.

Which means nine of them didn’t make it.

Nine.

Nine people he trained with. Ate with. Slept near. Fought beside. Gone.

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