Page 39 of Her Honorable Hero

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“I don’t deserve you.”He felt like a weight that he hadn’t even known had been perched on his shoulder was suddenly gone. He hooked his arm around her shoulders. “Let’s go to bed.

“Now I’m hungry. How about pancakes?” Miranda suggested.

Oh, he was fucked. If she was buttering him up with pancakes, then she wanted something, and he knew what it was.

“Seriously, I’m tired.” He faked a yawn.

“I want pancakes,” she said as she reached in the pantry for the syrup and the pancake mix.

“You want to talk some more,” he sighed.

“Correction, I want you to talk some more. I spilled my guts, but you’ve never really told me what it was like when you climbed down the cliff.”

He thrust his hand through his hair. “Please, I’m begging you, let’s go to bed.” He kept a smile in his voice. Maybe charm would work. She watched as she continued to mix the batter.

“I’m making pancakes. I’m making enough for both of us, you can stay up and eat some with me, or you can go to bed. Your choice.”

God, she was a stubborn wench!

“I already told you I was mad at God. What more do you want from me?”

She set down the whisk and leaned her elbows against the counter and looked at him. She bit her lip. “I remember bits and pieces of what you told me when I was in the hospital, but that’s all. It’s just bits and pieces. I guess I unconsciously knew this was a tough subject for you, so I didn’t ask more. I didn’t ask the tough stuff But now that we’re at it, I just want to know. Is that so wrong?”

“You didn’t remember what we talked about in the hospital?”

She shook her head.

How come he hadn’t realized that?

“I want five pancakes,” he said.

She gave him a relieved grin and turned back to the batter.

Three Years Earlier

Holding onto Hope,Griff saw Miranda’s desperate attempt to stop her fall. Her pale hand clutching blanched green stalks of sea grass was the last thing he saw before she toppled over the side of the cliff.

He knew it was at least a hundred foot drop, but it was graded, so it was possible she’d landed on some resting spot before hitting the beach below. He had to get to her.

“Billy, take Hope.” He tried to thrust the baby at the young man, but now she was hanging on for dear life.

“No!” Hope shouted with a tearful scream as he pried her hands from around his neck to give her to Billy.

The train was making a deafening sound as it tipped even more. Griff heard the tortured yell ‘No’ rip out of his throat right along with the child’s cries. He looked down at the window at his feet. The space between the window frame and the sand was now miniscule. There was no way he could possibly squeeze through.

“Billy, I need you to find this girl’s mom. She should be that way.” Griff pointed the opposite way from where Billy had come.

“Okay.” He took the screaming baby. “Here’s my phone. Mason wanted to talk to you,” he told Griff above the baby’s cries. He started to rock her and stroke her back. “Mason’s going to call when he and Drake get onto the top of the rail car.” Billy shook his head. “I mean, the side of it.”

“I know what you meant,” Griff assured him. “But how will he know which one we’re in?”

“I told my buddy Jaden to stay up top and direct traffic.”

The rocking seemed to help. Hope’s crying was turning into snuffles.

“What’s the mom’s name?” Billy asked.