𝑴𝒆𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝑻𝒐 𝑩𝒆 | ✔

Chapter 45

*Erin's POV*

The later it got, the more nervous Jay got.

"Hey." He was sitting on the couch, picking on his pants and I put my hands on his shoulder to massage them a bit.

"Hey you." Jay leaned back and ran a hand over my arm.

"Is it still okay if I stay or do you want some time with him to catch up?" I didn't want to be a burden to him but would have lied if I said that I didn't want to stay to maybe get to see a side of my boyfriend that I didn't know just yet.

"Please stay." Jay smiled at me sweetly and I couldn't help but lean down an kiss him.

"I love you." I whispered and then went to get changed.

I heard him chuckle before I closed the bedroom door.

The doorbell rang but I wanted to give them at least a few minutes before I joined them so I scrolled through my phone for a while before I opened the door.

"There you are." Jay's face lit up when he saw me and I sat down next to him on the couch.

"You guys got a really nice apartment." Mouse was looking around while sipping on his beer.

"Technically it's her place but I crash here like all week." Jay but his arm around me and I nodded.

"Right. As you already did with me and my tent." Jay's friend said mockingly and Jay blushed a bit.

"So you got a history of living at other people's places, huh?" I teased him, which made him go even redder.

"I always thought that he was scared of nothing, until I discovered that apparently he doesn't like it to sleep alone when he gets the chance to have people around. So one night I lie there in my tent, everything is still, and all of a sudden my tent opens." I looked back and forth between the two friends.

"Not my problem if you're not able to hear me approach you." Jay held his hands up defensively.

"I almost made it your problem because I shot you." Mouse added and grinned.

"You would have never hit me." Jay looked pretty pleased with the statement.

"Maybe. But it would have woken up all of the other guys and maybe one would have mistaken you for an enemy." Mouse shrugged and Jay looked like he agreed.

"Whatever. I saved your ass several times and always wondered why I did it because you never seemed to appreciate it." Saving each others life made a friendship definitely more solid.

"But that one time, when they got us... you could have been more careful there." Jay's fingers stopped running over my arm for a second before he noticed and picked it up again.

"That was just a stupid situation." This conversation made him uncomfortable but I felt like Mouse didn't notice or didn't want to.

*Jay's POV*

I instantly regretted that I invited Mouse over because I had no interest to be reminded how that one time our mission went south.

"You two hungry? Because I am and I thought we could order some pizza." Lindsay had noticed how I was feeling and I was glad.

"Sounds good." Mouse said and I nodded.

She left to order and we stayed quite for a while.

"How's your PTSD doing?" He broke the silence and I looked up.

"Sometimes better sometimes worse. Being with Erin helps alot though." I took a sip of my beer.

"I'm glad you found someone to be with, Jay." Mouse knew that I always struggled with getting flashbacks and there been several times where I woke up, soaked in sweat and he was the one to wake me up.

"Be right back." I got up and walked to the kitchen were I could hear Erin's voice.

Just when I walked in she hung up and so I pulled her close to my chest to kiss her.

"You okay?" I couldn't overhear the worry in her voice.

"I'm now." I leaned down to kiss her again and didn't really want to let go of her but couldn't let Mouse wait forever so I pulled away.

"I think I'll just stay here and give you two a little time because when I'm around there are thinks you two don't talk about that need to be talked about." As much as I hated it, she was right.

"Pizza will be here in twenty minutes or so." I dropped back on to the couch.

"I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable in front of your girl. I though she knew." I wanted to brush the topic off.

"She knows that I was in the military but not all the nasty details." I had spared her from the story about our abduction and torture but I knew that she had seen and felt some of the scars from that time.

"Probably better that way." Mouse stopped talking when Erin walked into the hallway because the pizza was here and we got up.

"I got it." I payed the delivery guy.

*Erin's POV*

We ate in silence and the guys didn't look at each other but neither did Jay look at me.

"So... how did you two meet?" I broke the silence and a smile appeared on Jay's face.

"We were both too late for your first training session and so our instructor paired us up, probably thought we would just fail but we didn't." Mouse snirred.

"We managed to stay together when we went on our first tour and since then did everything together until I quit military and came back to Chicago." Jay added to the story of his best friend.