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“Absolutely.”
“The trade show lasts pretty late. Are you good if we left to come home early on Friday, say depart around o five hundred?”
Alex did the math in her head. If they left at five o’clock in the morning, pacific time, and the flight is roughly five hours—with the time change, they should arrive in Virginia Beach sometime between one and two o’clock. That would give her plenty of time to get ready for the following day, especially since all she needed to do was show up.
“I think it sounds like the perfect plan.”
She walked over and hugged Tink. “Thank you.”
He winked. “I do anything to make sure our princess is back in time to marry her prince.”
Alex, and Ace both, groaned and rolled their eyes. Tink laughed while Derek stood there shaking his head.
“That was cheezy. You know that, right?” Derek said to Tink, but Tink didn’t care. He just shrugged his shoulders.
???
It was late when Alex noticed that Ace wasn’t anywhere in sight. Most of the guests had already gone home, but a few of the guys had stayed and were sitting at one of the tables with Bear and a few guys from his team. She caught Potter’s eye, and as if knowing who she was seeking out, he nodded toward the beach.
Once she made it outside and down the pathway to the beach, she slipped off her shoes and left them by the stairs before she made her way toward the water where Ace stood.
It was a clear night with a light breeze blowing in off the ocean. As she approached, he turned and flashed her a smile. He held his hand out for her to take. She slipped her hand in his and snuggled into his side. They stood like that for minutes watching as the moon rose over the vast ocean.
She heard him take a deep breath.
“Everything okay?” She asked.
He squeezed her a little tighter.
“I just realized something,” he told her, and she looked up at him as he glanced down at her.
“What’s that?”
“When you leave tomorrow, that will be the first time that you’ve left me.”
She wrinkled her forehead. “What do you mean? I’ve gone on business trips before.”
“Yeah, but you took those when I was either deployed or at a training.”
She thought about that for a minute, and he was right.
“I never realized that either.”
He took another deep breath and released it. “God, is this how you feel when I leave?”
“I don’t know. How do you feel right now?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “A guess a sense of loneliness knowing you won’t be home when I get off from work, or you won’t be there next to me in bed when I wake up. And I always worry about you, so there’s that too.”
She smiled. “I guess it’s sort of the same. But it’s not just when you’re being deployed. It’s every single day you walk out of the house because I know in the back of my mind that you could get called out at a moment’s notice. Sometimes even without enough time for me to say goodbye.”
He ran his knuckles down her cheek. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry. I knew what I was signing up for when I fell in love with you.”
“Fuck…”
He pulled her in front of him and cupped her face as he looked into her emerald green eyes.
