Page 41 of George’s Big Day

“Hello, George,” Jory greeted me, smiling as Hannah joined him, flopping down—somehow still gracefully—beside him.

“What’s going on in here?” I asked.

“We were filling Kurt in on the perils of being in love with a hero.”

I glanced over at Jill Mancuso, blond, tan, beautiful. A California girl by birth and temperament, kind, sympathetic, in love with the endless summer. Noah Wheeler, with his soft brown eyes and now graying chestnut hair, handsome in an understated, classic way, a man who worked outdoors, who loved nature. And finally Jory, with his dirty-blond mop and surprising brown eyes, his smile radiating warmth as he gazed at his daughter. He was strikingly beautiful, with his cheekbones, his coloring, and his expressive brows.

“I’m sorry?” I asked, walking over to Kurt, so relieved when he immediately put down the cup of tea he was drinking and took my hand. “What are you talking about?”

“The other partners,” Jill began, “they’re heroes too, so they intuitively understand. Like Efrem, who was with Homeland, and Owen the brilliant hacker, and Miro Jones the marshal. Mr. Sutter, whom I met downstairs, is technically still in our club.”

“What club is this?”

“The regular people.”

“Oh, none of you are⁠—”

“You misunderstand,” Noah said, stopping me. “Jill’s not saying we’re less than, just that we’re mere mortals living with heroes.”

“Not a knight among us,” Jill said with a grin.

I remained quiet.

“We all love soldiers,” Jory said flatly. “All of them go off to do battle every day. Some, like you, put on real armor, while others, like the chief deputy, only on occasion. Jill’s husband, and Noah’s, they’re heroes who go out into the world and fix, in many different ways, what is broken. They face head-on the choices other people have made, and again, like you, put their lives on the line for the greater good.”

“No, I’m not like them. I’m a soldier, and mostly the person who coordinates private security and⁠—”

Kurt scoffed, and I turned to him.

“We’re being honest right now,” he said, squeezing my hand. “In some capacity, you protect people every day. You step between them and bullets, run into danger, and go to the scariest places in the world to bring others home.”

“Kurt, I⁠—”

“Don’t tell me you’re not a hero,” he said, his voice going out on him for a moment. “Please.”

“I’m a soldier. We’re all the same. We have to keep our country safe.”

“Which I get, or I thought I did. But it’s hard for me to know that anytime you’re deployed, you might not come home. That’s not so easy to live with.”

I crouched down beside the couch. “Yeah, but that doesn’t mean you don’t want me.” I was terrified of his answer.

“Of course not,” he said, reaching out and taking my face in his hands. Drawing me forward, he kissed me gently.

“Aww,” Hannah said with a long sigh.

Kurt smiled as he leaned back. “I knew the job was dangerous when I signed on, so I’m ready to hold my breath while you’re gone.”

“I promise you, I will⁠—”

“There is, however, a caveat.”

I could not have stopped myself from scowling at him for a million dollars.

“You will be a hundred percent honest with me going forward,” he stated, and I could hear the warning in his tone. “I will always know where you are when you’re not on a mission so that I can come to the hospital and see you.”

I could finally breathe. “If it’s within my means to do, I will contact you.”

“Explain that.”