Total pages in book: 122
Estimated words: 115997 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 580(@200wpm)___ 464(@250wpm)___ 387(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115997 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 580(@200wpm)___ 464(@250wpm)___ 387(@300wpm)
I deflected every single question about the deployment, not because she didn’t deserve reciprocity as she shared the details of her life, but because I didn’t want that shitty year to claim so much as a second of the time I had with her.
The hours passed with the ease of breathing, and when everyone was ready to leave—everyone except us—we somehow managed to say goodbye.
I hugged her close, the girl I’d survived the impossible with, the girl I would have given my right arm to actually have a shot with. “Fly safe tomorrow, okay? I won’t be there to haul you out through the emergency exit.”
“I’ll try my best.” She sighed and hugged me back, fitting against me with the kind of perfection that didn’t exist in my world. “Don’t die over there.”
“I’ll try my best.” I rested my chin on the top of her head and closed my eyes, breathing in the scent of salt air, lemons, and a perfume I couldn’t place but would never forget.
It felt like she’d taken back the missing piece I’d found when I saw her tonight as she walked away with her girlfriends, headed toward the vacation rental she’d told me about earlier.
She was nearly out of sight when Torres and Rowell finally walked out of the bar after paying their tabs.
“Dude!” Fitz exclaimed. “You guys missed Plane Crash Girl!”
“What?” Torres took one look at my face and then tracked my line of sight.
“That was Izzy.” I watched until she turned the corner.
“No shit?” Torres’s eyes flared wide. “I missed meeting the one and only Isabeau? I saw you out on the patio, but I didn’t want to interrupt if you were hitting on . . .” He shook his head. “That was seriously her?”
“Seriously her.” I nodded.
“What fucking plane crash?” Rowell asked, and we headed to the car.
I told them the story as I designated drove half their asses back to post while Fitz took the others.
It took me hours to get to sleep that night, and once I did, I dreamed about her. No plane. No river. No ambulances. Just her.
My phone rang the next morning as I finished my run, and I didn’t recognize the area code, but I answered, my chest heaving from the nine miles I’d just covered. “Hello?”
“Nate?”
The smile on my face was instantaneous. “Izzy?”
“Yeah.” She laughed nervously. “Look, you’re not leaving today, are you?”
“No.” I stared at the stack of boxes in my barracks room, already packed for storage. “Why? Everything okay?” Juggling the phone, I stripped off my shirt and threw it in the pile of the last load of laundry I’d do tonight.
“I didn’t get on the plane.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
NATHANIEL
Kabul, Afghanistan
August 2021
I had just pulled my Kevlar over my head and fastened the Velcro when three pounding knocks sounded on my bedroom door. There was a more-than-furious woman waiting for me on the other side when I opened it.
“What the hell do you mean, I’m not going with you?” Izzy yelled up at me, her hands fisted on her hips. She was dressed for another day in the office, in black linen slacks and a blouse that cut across her collarbone, but the heels made me smile. And that perfume? Swore to God, Izzy was the only woman I knew who could pull off Chanel in a fucking war zone.
“How do you even know I’m going anywhere?” I asked, bracing one hand on the doorframe and the other on the handle of the door.
She glared up at me, her eyes lingering on my combat gear, and then she hoisted a brow. “Because Orange or Blue, whatever the hell his name is supposed to be, told me that he’d be standing guard outside the conference room today while we work, and I’m more than aware that you wouldn’t switch out babysitters unless you were leaving,” she snapped, fire in her eyes.
“One, it was Sergeant Black. Two, we’re not going to argue in the hallway like a pair of dramatic college kids.”
“Fine by me.” She ducked under my arm and marched into my room, folding her arms across her chest as she took in the space. It wasn’t a suite like hers, just a single with a private bathroom, which was the next-best thing I had to being stateside. As accommodations came, this was the Ritz-Carlton of Afghanistan.
A sigh ripped through my lips as I recognized that there was no throwing Izzy out of my room without making a bigger scene, and I shut the door to give us privacy. “I thought you wanted to get Serena back. I pulled a shit ton of strings to make a flight happen, and I’m going to see if she’s still up there, hence why I asked Sergeant Black to keep an eye on you since none of your entourage has meetings today.”