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“You take care of yourself.” Her voice cracked with emotion.
“I will. I promise. Thanks for the cookies. The guys will appreciate them. You’ll make me the most popular guy in camp.”
Britney hadn’t baked him cookies or even asked about sending a care package like Elizabeth had. Everything was different with this deployment. The woman he was leaving behind. Flying out on a commercial airline, which would delay him getting into a mission mindset. He’d previously served with two of the men in Charlie Company and his explosives guy, Cruz, was replacing another injured member, but, for the most part, he didn’t know these men or how they operated as a team.
He’d need to earn their confidence and get up to speed quickly—for the safety of them all. Injuries sustained by Charlie Company’s captain and two of his team were stark reminders of the dangers of operating in that part of the world. There weren’t Medevacs available for immediate extraction or combat hospitals staffed with skilled trauma surgeons and life-saving supplies. He’d never been afraid of dying, but this deployment he had serious motivation to come home safely.
He’d listed Elizabeth as a joint beneficiary with his dad in case anything happened to him. He didn’t tell her. In the event of his death, he wanted her to have the money to take care of Boss and supplement her mission with The Oasis. Writing his death letter to her had been the hardest, yet easiest, he’d ever written. He prayed she wouldn’t ever read it—even if it was a damn good letter.
“I love you, and I love what we have going on,” he told her.
She hugged him tighter. “I love you too. More than I imagined possible.”
His heart swelled under her smile. “When I get back, it’s going to get even better. I want to take you somewhere. The time I came to the Friday night dinner, you mentioned wanting to see the Northern Lights. It should be the perfect time to see those. Or pick a place. I’ll go anywhere with you.”
“And I’d go anywhere with you—except where you’re deployed.”
“Trust me you don’t want to go where I’m going. It’s hot. There’s no AC. There’s no indoor plumbing. It stinks. And I’d be distracted and fighting off the men who’d all be staring at you.” He winked rather than go on to mention the poisonous spiders and snakes and armed gunmen. “I’ll get in touch as soon as I can. There’s a five-hour time difference, but we’ll try and set up a regular date. We can do karaoke night.”
“Oh, that’d be . . . fun.”
“You’re gonna turn the speakers down if I do, aren’t you?”
“I hadn’tplannedto.” She spoke slowly, and a smile spread across her beautiful face.
“I’ll think of some duets we can do. Right now, I want to kiss a girl,” he sang, lowering his mouth to hers.
They kissed, ignoring everything and everyone around them until Boss nuzzled his snout between their legs. John slipped his fingers under Boss’s collar and eased him back.
“Get in the car, Boss.”
Instead, the dog pulled toward the baggage cart.
“Afraid not. Stay with Elizabeth. She’ll have treats for you.” He led Boss to the car and wrangled him inside.
“Thanks for the ride and taking care of him. He may mope around for a few days, but he’s got you. He’ll be okay.”
John kissed Elizabeth again, then pushed the cart toward the entrance. He stopped to look back at her watching him instead of leaving. After he checked his bags, he went to his gate to wait for the first of his three flights and twenty-three hours of travel to Chad. He cued up the new song list he’d started and sent the first song to Elizabeth as his daily reminder he’d be thinking of her and missing her.
ChapterSixty-One
LOVE SHACK – B-52’s
John settledinto the makeshift communications room in their camp—sometimes referred to as the Love Shack. It was the only place the guys got five minutes of privacy other than the latrine, which was not where you wanted to video chat with your girl. He set up his laptop and checked the lighting before initiating the call to Elizabeth.
“Hey there, darlin’.” He basked in her sultry smile. The first week or two apart had been the hardest, but they’d settled into a routine with daily messages to keep connected.
“How’s your week been?”
“Good, other than the guys giving me a hard time about singing “Miss You Like Crazy” after you sent me that yesterday.” It was worth any teasing, though. Today he’d sent her “Made to Love” by one of her favorite artists, TobyMac. They’d both broadened their musical repertoire over the past month with their daily song exchanges. “Um, were you not quite ready for our date?”
“Because I’m fully clothed?” She stared at the camera, reading him like a book. “That’s because we need to talk first.”
Uh, oh. In the history of the world, nothing good ever followed those words. Dammit, he’d been doing his best to stay connected with Elizabeth these past two months. He hadn’t seen this coming. His core tightened and he steeled himself.
“We’re fine, but it’s about Boss.”
“What? Is he okay? What did the vet say?” It should have been a relief that it wasn’t about them, but now panic of a different kind formed a knot in his throat. She hadn’t mentioned any concerns after taking Boss in for his routine check, dental cleaning, and updated rabies shot.
