dead.”
Charlie and Matthew looked at him, shocked.
“It’s a war over there,” David said. There was an edge to his voice that Matthew had never heard before, not even during the many phone conversations they’d had during David’s deployment, times when his unit had taken some serious casualties. “You guys don’t even know.”
“Was it the Taliban?” Matthew asked.
David shook his head. “It was us. Some chickenshit asshole who didn’t know his ass from his elbow called in air support all wrong. The coordinates he gave were about as wrong as they could be. Saba’s village was wiped out. Her husband and older son were killed right in front of her.”
“Jesus,” Charlie said. He reached out and put his hand on David’s shoulder. “That is fucked up.”
“Shit happens,” David said. “That’s what she would tell you.”
“That shit ain’t right though,” Matthew said. The pain his younger brother was in was clear to him. “We’ll do our best to make her welcome here.”
David smiled. “That’s kind of you bro, but we won’t be staying all that long. Texas is too hot right now. We’re going to be looking for somewhere a little cooler.”
“I thought it got hot in Afghanistan,” Charlie said.
“Nope. They get snow,” David said, looking out over the horizon. “More than you might think.”
Ada took Matthew to the side that afternoon. “I’m going to do a special dinner. I mean, it was going to be good anyway, but now that Saba and Hafez are here, I want it to be even better. Did you want to give Jenn a call so she can come out and meet everyone?”
Matthew blinked at her. Calling Jenn hadn’t crossed his mind once, not even to relay the news of the morning’s coyote hunt. “Do you think I should?”
Ada looked at him intently, studying her brother in law’s expression for a long moment. “Well, do you want to see her?”
Matthew shrugged. “I guess.”
“Matthew.” There was a firm note in Ada’s tone; it surprised him. She spoke so gently most times. “Jenn deserves more than I guess. If you’re not into her, that’s fine, but let her go. Don’t keep her hanging on the line with I guess.”
“It shows, huh?”
“It’s been showing.” Ada smiled. “Charlie thinks the sun rises and sets on her shoulders, because she knows just about everything there is to know about horses.” She shrugged her shoulders. “But that isn’t going to make her be the right woman for you.”
Saba walked by the window, holding baby Hafez in her arms. “I never expected David to come home with a wife like that,” Matthew said.
“I don’t think any of us did, but it’s a thing that happens a lot,” Ada replied. “When you spend five, six years of your life in a foreign country, you’re going to look around and get to know the people. Love happens.”
“But it takes time,” Matthew said. “And Jenn’s not a person who takes her time.”
Ada flattened her hand over her stomach. “She has her reasons.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Matthew asked. A thought struck him as he remembered the encounter the two of them had had at the rodeo. “Don’t tell me she’s pregnant.”
“Oh, no!” Ada shook her head. “Jenn’s not like that. But she does want to have a family, sooner rather than
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