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I see the relief wash over him. “Yes, yes! I wanted to tell you for so long. But you told me once that you didn’t want someone waiting home for you. That you’d rather focus on the mission. You said you didn’t think you could handle it.”
“I said that?”
“Yes. When we were in Savannah.”
“Oh, God, Millie. I didn’t mean it that way. I mean—” He chuckles suddenly. “—I didn’t think I could handle West Point or Ranger School or any of it. That didn’t stop me from trying. I’ll always try for the things I want. And dammit, what I want is you. And I will never stop tryingfor you, Millie.”
My heart squeezes inside my chest and I go up on my tiptoes, aching to kiss him in the way I never thought I’d be able to again. He reaches around me, letting his strong arms envelop me, and he lifts me from the ground.
I smile without even letting my lips part from his.
When he sets me down, he brushes away the tears that are streaming down my cheeks.
“I love you, Millie. And I know it won’t be easy now that rotation has shifted, but I’ll find a way to see you as often as I can.”
“Good, because it will be free meals at Millie’s Breeze-In Diner for you any time you come out here.”
“Does that mean you bought it?”
“Yes!” I grin as I exclaim it, so grateful to finally be able to share this with him because I suddenly realize it’s the only thing that makes it all seem real to me. “It’ll take a while before it’s official. And my hours are going to be a nightmare during the transition. But I’ll come to Savannah to visit you any chance I get, even if it’s not as often as I’d like to.”
“I’ll put up with you, if you put up with—” He stops as his phone rings.
When he pulls it out, in the darkness of night, there’s no avoiding the words that have popped up in a text.
Red Corvette.
Oh, God. No. Not now.
Notever.
He looks at me, his eyes filling with regret. “I have to go. I only get—”
“Two hours to be back on base.” I nod. “I remember.” I cup his face with my hands and press a kiss to his lips, one that will last for as long as it needs to.
And then I dig deep down into my soul and find that burst of strength I know I have.
“You go do what you need to. And then, you come home to me, Dax.”
He rakes his fingers into my hair, angling my face upward to him and looking at me as though he’s committing the sight of me to memory.
“Iwillcome home, Millie.”
“I know you will,” I assure him, remembering Ava’s words as I lose myself in the intensity of his gaze on me. “Because you’ll be in big trouble if you don’t.”
