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your way out of it. I don’t like you right now because of how much of an asshole you’re bein’. I don’t want you in my house right now.”
    He narrows his eyes at me when I point to the door. “Seriously?”
    “Dead fuckin’ serious, Knox. I don’t have a problem with you because you’re tryin’ to keep me from getting’ hurt. My problem is that you waltz in here and act like you own the place. Gentry is here helpin’ me and he hasn’t once forced anything on me.”
    “I didn’t realize that when I walked in.”
    “You didn’t realize it because you decided what had happened before you even walked through the door. Did you forget how to be a decent human being while I was overseas? Because all you’ve done since we walked into the bar last night was act like an asshole.”
    As he stands there and stares at me, I watch the anger begin to boil under his cool exterior. Finally, he realizes that I’m not going to budge and he shakes his head, stomping toward the door.
    “Go see Ariana,” he yells over his shoulder.
    “I’ll go see her when I am damn good and ready to.” The door slams behind him, rattling the walls from the force. “Damn it!” I scream.
    “I didn’t mean to cause issues with you guys,” Gentry finally speaks up after Knox peels out of the driveway. “I don’t want you fightin’ with him because of me. I could have said something and told him to shut the hell up because he doesn’t know what he’s talkin’ about, but I won’t deny my past. He’s just tryin’ to keep you from gettin’ hurt.”
    Sliding up onto the stool again, I take a deep breath before looking at him again. “I don’t think that fight was just about you,” I admit quietly. “That was a long time comin’. All he sees is how weak I am now. He doesn’t know how to stop pushing and he crosses lines even when they’re clearly draw them out for him. I know he means well, but I’m a big girl and make my own decisions.”
    He hands me my fork and tells me to eat before the medication I took makes me sick so I start picking at the food again. Dropping down on his elbows, he leans across the counter in front of me. “Everything we do in life—all three of us—is about pushin’ the line you’re comfortable with. Sometimes you can leave that behind when you walk away from the job for the day. But sometimes you can’t. It’s inevitable that it’ll cross into your personal life now and then so don’t hate him for it.”
    “Why are you so fuckin’ smart while I’m so hungover? It’s hard to wrap my head around everything you just said.”
    He laughs quietly and pulls his plate over in front of him so he can pick at it while we talk. “You tell me when you’re sober enough and I’ll tell you again.”
    “Deal.”
    We both finish eating around quiet conversation about nothing and I couldn’t be more thankful. I’m tired of talking about what happened to me. I’m sick of thinking about what I could be doing right now, or the fact that I could be dead if the bullet had hit differently. I need to be normal. I need to get used to it since I have to live as a civilian now. As much as I don’t want to change anything , I have to change everything .
    Stepping up behind me, the heat from Gentry’s body warms my back and I find myself on the edge of my seat wondering what he’s thinking about doing. When he finally touches me, it’s nothing sexual. I’m a little disappointed for some reason but I decide I’ll analyze it later. Shifting my hair so it’s all behind me, he grabs the hairbrush off the counter.
    “What are you doin’?” I ask, my whole body freezing as he starts working through the knots from the bottom up.
    “Just sit there. There’s no fuckin’ way you’re gettin’ through this mess with one hand.”
    “That bad?”
    “Worse,” he chuckles.
    As much as I don’t want him to be doing this because it’s too intimate and because it made me feel weak while I was in the