Up until that letter it had been a no brainer. He’d head back and beg Rose on his knees if he had to, but this changed everything. He would be forced to attend any and all Moreno family functions now. After everything they’d done for him, how could he refuse? As much as he knew there’d be hell to pay if he caused any trouble at one of their gatherings, he was certain his reaction to seeing her with someone else would be just that—trouble.

“There you are, Moreno.” Will smiled as he walked toward him then looked down at the burning paper. “What’s with y’all burning letters around here?” He walked up closer and stepped on some of the ashes that had begun to blow away. “You’re the second guy I’ve seen doing that this week.”

Vince glanced up at his friend’s smiling face. Will hadn’t been given a choice. He’d be deployed to Iraq in a few weeks. He’d been happy about Vince getting his first choice of bases, but Vince could tell after all they’d been through, he was hoping Vince might actually choose to go to Iraq with him. “Guess who’s going to Iraq?”

Will’s eyes opened wide. “You’re joshing?”

Smiling, but not feeling the least bit of contentment, Vince nodded. “Well, it’s not a one-hundred-percent thing, but I’m letting them know as soon as I can that I changed my mind about San Diego.”

Will’s smile flattened. “Anything you wanna talk about?”

After months of holding it all in, Vince finally opened up and told his bunk mate a little about Rose. Of course he’d been drinking at the time, and he was feeling particularly pissed that she still hadn’t responded to any of his letters. Drunk or not, it felt good to finally let some of it out and not just on paper like he did with Lorenzo. Even with Lorenzo he never actually told him just how bad he was hurting. He was afraid his brother might take matters in his own hands and try to fix things himself.

Will was now the only other person who knew how much suffering Vince had gone through because of Rose. Vince shrugged, feeling choked up but refusing to let it show, so he looked away before speaking.

“She’s got another man now.”

At first Will said nothing then he cleared his throat. “You sure about that?”

Vince nodded. “Yep, my brother heard her talking about him. It’s been months.” He stopped talking because his voice nearly betrayed him, and he was suddenly wishing he hadn’t said anything. He refused to even look at Will, now afraid he’d see just how deeply this affected him. Vince had always known he’d been at Rose’s mercy. He just had no idea how badly it would hurt to finally accept that he’d lost her.

Since he first read the letter, he’d held all he was feeling in, and now the boulder-sized knot lodged in his throat threatened to explode. Feeling the pain and scorching jealousy inundate him, he stepped on what was left of the ashes on the ground. Someone else was now kissing the lips he thought were his forever.

After months of holding on to the hope that their love would withstand even a separation like this, all the hope he had lay on that ground with the rest of the ashes. The last of the remaining uncharred pieces of paper lifted with a gust of wind and blew away with them the last ounce of self-preservation that he’d held onto so firmly those last few weeks.

He’d wanted nothing more than to do everything right—anything that would get him back to Rose as soon as possible. Now an angry rebellion began a slow boil inside him.

Will spoke now, and as usual he went on and on—words of encouragement. Something about maybe once Vince got back from Iraq, Rose would be single again—how this might be just a rebound guy. None of that mattered to Vince. He’d been slowly dying since he’d been away from Rose. He’d never considered himself a weak person, but he had to concede now the only thing that’d kept him going all this time was his belief that her love for him was as perpetual as his was for her, and like him, she’d never move on. But she had…months ago.

Just like that she’d snuffed out any desire or reason at all to return home. Even Lorenzo had straightened out and would be graduating from school soon. He didn’t need Vince anymore either. He’d be fine without him. Vince decided to keep his thoughts to himself from now on because Will was the epitome of optimism. Vince would go to Iraq now, but at this point he didn’t care if he ever came back.

Then Will let him in on something that he hadn’t mentioned before, “Me and Missy Anne broke up before I enlisted.”

Vince stared at him. All this time, the way Will spoke of her, he acted like everything was just fine between them. “I was an idiot. Her pa had been trying to set her up with some friend of the family for years: a real cowboy who owns a cattle ranch and everything, the kind of man her dad thought she deserved, not some trailer trash hick like me. I wasn’t even allowed to come over to her place.” Will pulled off his hat and scratched his head. “The whole time she assured me she loved me and didn’t care what her pa wanted—she wanted me—she loved me. Then one weekend, things got kinda weird. I couldn’t get a hold of her all weekend. When I finally did, I found out her family had some big weekend thing at their ranch, and that fella her pa had been trying to set her up with was there all weekend.” He shook his head. “I’ll tell you, Vince. I saw red. I was so hot I yelled and cursed like she’d never heard me curse before. Then I went and did the stupidest thing that week and enlisted.” He chuckled. “Yeah, I showed them.”