Page 104 of SEAL of Valor

Silence envelops us, our only companion, the chirping of crickets and katydids.

When I was a kid, I’d slip out my window and climb onto the roof, just so I could listen to their calming noise. Back then, I always told myself that if I could hear the katydids, then everything would be okay.

Mainly because I’d convinced myself that, when my dad was drunk and on one of his tirades, they would hide, too. Of course, as an adult, I realized it was just that I couldn’t hear them over his yelling. But they still bring me this odd sort of comfort.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Reese asks, looking over at me.

“Just listening to the katydids.”

She smiles. “Me too. There’s something so peaceful about them, don’t you think?”

“And about sitting here with you.” I look down at her and smile, hoping she can see all of the love I’ve been holding onto all these years.

Love that I so desperately want to show her for the rest of our lives.

Chapter 31

Reese

Sitting here beside Weston, on the bed of his truck, is a dream come true. Countless times over the years we were apart, I reminisced about this exact thing. Sitting with him on a tailgate, beneath a blanket of stars.

Now, we’ve traded the stars for a barn roof, but it’s still perfect.

More than.

“So tell me something about you that I don’t know. Something from the time we were apart.”

He laughs softly. “I don’t know that I have anything interesting to tell.”

“You were a Navy SEAL who went on off-books missions for a secret government agency. I’d say you have a story or two to tell.”

He chuckles softly and eats a fry. “Okay, there was this one time we were in a little village in the Middle East. Sawyer and I were trying to gather intel on some US players there who shouldn’t have been, but neither one of us spoke more than a handful of words in their language. Anyway, I told him that the map wasn’t in our packs, then sat back and watched him try to ask directions using only charades. It was only after he ended up getting yelled at that I told him I had the map the entire time.”

“You did not!”

I laugh, recalling the memory of Sawyer trying to mime his way through asking how to get across town. “I did. He got me back pretty good a few weeks later, though.”

“How so?”

“He rigged my room with a microphone and spent two nights waking me up every hour with a creepy voice calling my name.”

“You fell for it?”

“I was sleep deprived,” he defends. “That’s the only reason he got me.”

“Sure it is.” I bump his shoulder with mine.

“What about you? How is Charleston?”

“Eh. It’s okay. Veterinary school was fun. Hard, but fulfilling. I never really had any friends until I met Ash, though.” I swallow hard, that betrayal hurting far worse than it probably should.

“I’m sorry, Reese.”

“She pretended pretty well.”

“I know how that feels.”

I smile up at him. “I know you do.” We remain like that, just staring into each other’s eyes for a while. “My first day on the job, though, this little girl brought in her pet cat who had been hit by a car. It didn’t look good at first, and the other vet on staff wanted to just put it down. I refused, though, and stayed up with that cat for forty-eight straight hours.”