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Blue eyes narrowed.
Pool-blue eyes that at first sight had me intrigued, then they’d held me captive, now I was ensnared. So totally captivated I would’ve thought I was insane if I didn’t know she was it for me. She was the one I’d give up everything for. I got it now why men left the military, why they cut their time at the Agency short—all the deployments, workups, time away from your family. I never got it. I’d thought those men just didn’t have it in them to stick, or they’d caved to their women bitching. I’d been wrong. If I’d had Nebraska way back when I was still in the Navy, I would’ve finished my contract and been out. If I’d been with her while I was with the Agency, I would’ve left. The woman she was, she wouldn’t have bitched but I would’ve quit to be home with her.
I’d never have to make that choice and that was only a small part of what made her perfect for me. Nebraska Michaels was my equal in every way. But still, if she wanted me to quit, stay home and be a house husband raising our kids so she could continue doing the job, I’d give her just that.
Her hand lifted, cupped the side of my neck, then she engaged her finger and I knew she was tracing the vertical tattoo that started behind my ear and ended right about my shoulder blade. She’d never done that before. Once I’d felt her kiss it, but never had she gently glided her fingertip over it.
“Loyalty.” A soft, sweet, whispered word. “Taking care of me.”
“Always.”
“I’m okay because I know even if I’m not you’ll be there later to make sure I am.”
Damn fucking right I would be.
I didn’t say that.
She dropped her hand and turned back to her parents and walked into the room.
As Nebraska.
No Dove in sight.
“Hey,” she called out when she got closer. “Has the doctor been in yet?”
I stood next to Nebraska at her father’s bedside holding her hand while Anna ran down Charlie’s injuries. I was right; he had a long row to hoe until he was fully covered.
“I’m going back to Connecticut with Charlie,” Anna announced.
Nebraska’s hand flexed.
“I’ll be there at least a couple of months while he recovers,” she went on.
At that Nebraska’s hand squeezed.
“With Maddon… gone and Dmitri no longer a problem I’m free… we’re all free. I’m not hiding anymore.”
The tightness of Nebraska’s grasp became bone crushing.
“I’m not asking. I don’t have the right. But if the time comes and you want to call me, I hope you will.”
“I’ll call.”
Anna didn’t miss the gift Nebraska gave her, nor did she squander it or push.
All she did was smile.
It was real and it changed everything about her.
Like her daughter, Anna could say a thousand words, none of them voiced, all of them conveyed with their eyes.
She’d missed her daughter. She wanted to heal the breach, and if Nebraska gave the barest hint she was open to connecting she’d be all over making that happen.
I hoped Anna had it in her to do that in a way that was healthy for Nebraska. Though as jacked as the situation had been, as fucked as it was that Anna had left her, the lies and secrets that came after all fucked-up in their own way. Anna loved her daughter. Loved her enough to leave her to protect her. So, bottom line with that was she was a good mother and I didn’t have anything to worry about.
“Sweetheart.” Charlie’s brittle voice drew Nebraska’s gaze to him.
The guy sounded like hell, and not only because he was hopped up on pain meds and had tubes and wires coming out from under his hospital gown.
