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“What if they don’t cross that bridge?” I murmured, wincing as I asked the question. “What if they don’t accept it?”
She paused for a moment, then turned into me again. Her expression was placid. Her face, smooth and beautiful.
“Dakota, my family’s all but disowning me right now for not wanting to come ‘home.’ My father thinks my place is in Greece, with everyone else. My mother can’t accept that I actually want to stay here.”
“But didn’t they bring you here in the first place?” she asked.
“Yes. And they raised me here too. But now that my enlistment is over, they expect me to fall in line. To return to my place in the family, as tradition dictates.”
She scoffed. “Whose tradition? Theirs?”
I shrugged. “Tradition is tradition. It gets passed on.”
“And it gets broken too,” she said. “When outdated.”
I thought about the last conversation I had with my parents, and how angry they’d been with me. I’d tried telling my father that Jace and Merrick weren’t just friends or comrades, they were also brothers. He’d responded by practically spitting into the phone. My mother had tried to convince me with tears, next. She’d told me my onlyrealbrothers were all waiting for me at home.
The memory created a knot in my throat, just as it had at the time. But I knew how to swallow knots. I’d learned that trick long ago.
“Dakota this isn’t about me,” I said gently. “I’ve already made my peace with things. My decision was easy, because my family ishere. Jace and Merrick are blood to me. True brothers, in ways that few people in this world could possibly understand.”
“I understand,” she whispered.
“I know you do,” I smiled. “But you need to make your own peace, with your own family. Peace with your parents. Peace with Tyler.” I pulled her even closer, feeling the comforting softness of her body molding itself against mine. “I can tell you it’s not easy, because I’ve already done it. But it’s something you’ll have to do on your own. It’s the one thing in the world we can’t help you with.”
I pulled back a little, to gaze into those crystal blue eyes. Right now they reflected the silver moonlight in ways that were unimaginably beautiful. But her expression was still stoic, still unfazed.
“I love you, Dakota,” I told her, as my own eyes went glassy. “I love you with all my heart.”
Her lip quivered, and her eyes twitched. But she remained strong. Proud. Beautiful.
“As a SEAL I’ve always been fearless, even in the face of overwhelming odds. Hell, I’ve even cheated death. More than once, too.”
I brushed her cheek with my finger, and it came back wet. The same could be said of my own cheek.
“But the only thing in the whole world I’m afraid of right now,” I whispered, “is spending the rest of my life without you.”
