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After leaving the restaurant, they walked hand in hand along the beach toward her house, a luminous moon shining down on them.
Hope glanced at Alex before diving into the deep end.
“I want you to know how much yesterday meant to me, and last night too. But Alex, I still have some questions about you.”
He squeezed her hand, defensiveness nowhere to be seen. “Ask away. I need to start dealing with this. It isn’t easy, but I’ll do my best.”
“You told me you were a diver in the Navy. I thought at first you went around picking up anchors or something. Yet you were wounded while in Syria—that doesn’t sound terribly diving-related to me. Since you told me, I’ve been trying to figure why a diver would even be in Syria.”
She stopped and turned to him. “Alex, who are you?”
He drew her into his embrace and kissed the top of her head. “A man who loves you very much.”
She glanced up at him with a small smile, a warm flush rising at hearing those words. “I love you too. Now stop evading the question.”
He steered them down the beach, walking slowly. “I don’t mean to. I’m sorry—you get so used to not talking about stuff that it’s hard to bring it up.”
She fought to keep her face still at that.
You’re the last one to be throwing stones here, Hope.
Alex paused, his brow furrowed. “I believe there are things worth fighting for, and dying for if necessary. I was a Navy diver, Hope—it’s just not all I did. I was part of Navy SEAL Teams for over fifteen years. We were hunting an ISIS cell in Syria when we were ambushed. That’s when I got wounded.”
“Oh. You were a Navy SEAL?”
He nodded.
“That makes a lot more sense than looking for anchors.”
He laughed, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Actually, you’d be surprised how often people lose things that would be very bad if they fell into the wrong hands. I did a fair amount of finding lost items.”
That gave her an icy feeling in her stomach. Then she stopped. “Why didn’t you tell me yesterday when you told me about your wound?”
His face clouded with pain. “I should have. I’m sorry. Telling you about my wound . . . was hard. Really hard.”
He ran his hand over his face, rubbing fiercely and meeting her eyes. “I’m really proud of being a SEAL. What I did out there was important, and I was damn good at it. Then, in one night, everything was gone.”
She squeezed his hand but let him continue uninterrupted.
Alex heaved a sigh. “When you tell people you’re a SEAL, they tend to ask a lot of questions. If you tell them you were one for fifteen years, they wonder why you stopped. Until I met you, I just couldn’t go there.
“When we were on that beach yesterday, I didn’t want it to be about my past—I wanted it to be about who I am now. Talking about that day is still really hard.” He stared at her, his eyes naked and wounded. “But I’m trying, ok?”
“I know you are. And I love you for it.” She brushed his lips with hers. “Are you not supposed to talk about what you did? Is it classified?”
“Some of it is, but being a SEAL? No, it’s fine.” He paused again before looking at her. “You know that saying about fight club?”
She smiled. “The first rule of fight club is don’t talk about fight club.”
“Yeah. It’s more like that.” Shrugging, he continued, “I’ve been calling myself a Navy diver since I made SEAL Teams at age nineteen. You get used to it after a while.”
Hope sighed. “Now I’m really going to have to give you a raise.”
He laughed and pulled her close, lowering his mouth to hers. Hope ran her hands through his short hair, kissing him back hard. Eventually, she pulled back and looked into his vivid eyes.
Alex stared intently at her, then raised a brow. Without his saying a word, Hope understood he was asking if she had anything to tell him. She turned around in his arms, leaning back against him.
It’s time. How much more could he possibly do to prove he’s different?
