The Military Wife (A Heart of a Hero, #1)(92)

His lungs worked, heaving in one deep breath after another.

The nurse poked his arm. “Did you hear me, Caldwell?”

“Leave me alone.” His tone was harsh. Later, he would apologize. Maybe. It was hard to accept the fact that Noah was packed away in a casket on his way home with no light, no heartbeat, no life.

The promises he’d made Noah circled like carrion. Bennett would take care of Harper and their unborn child. But she could never know it was him. The man who should have died.





Chapter 23


Present Day

Harper shifted on Bennett’s lap as the story of Noah’s death rewrote itself. Or, more accurately, filled in the blanks. Noah had sacrificed his life to save Bennett. Fate had twisted and knotted their lives together like a kindergartener trying to macramé.

She shoved the useless what-ifs away. She loved Bennett, but that didn’t supersede her love for Noah. While they were both exceptional men, they were very different. If Noah had lived, she hoped their relationship would have deepened and grown as they matured. As it was, she’d matured without Noah, and as a different woman she’d found Bennett.

Life was all about timing and could change with the speed of a bullet.

“Do you hate me? Do you wish he’d lived and I’d died?” Bennett’s voice was rough and his eyes shined with unshed tears. Three months ago, she’d have sworn he wasn’t capable of such emotion.

“Of course not.” She rubbed his cheek, the hair scratchy in a good way. “Life has a way of giving us what we need at the right time.”

He slumped over her, his grip biting. “I thought for sure you’d leave me.”

With a jolt, she understood. Everyone in his life had left him through choice or death. She tightened her hold on him with a matching fierceness. “Never.”

A knock on the doorjamb brought them out of their reverie, and Harper shot off Bennett’s lap. Darren looked worn down, his eyes red rimmed, but the ghost of a smile touched his lips. “Sorry to interrupt. I was hoping—if it’s not too much trouble—you’d run me up to the hospital to see Allison and the kids.”

“Course not. You feel steadier?” Bennett asked.

A real smile manifested itself, although it was dry. “You mean, am I getting ready to off myself?”

“Well, yeah.” Bennett only shrugged.

“No.” He held up a white envelope, his hand trembling. “Alex suggested I read the letter I wrote to Allison. Tell her everything. I’m not sure she wants to hear it or if she can handle it, though.”

Harper exchanged a telling glance with Bennett. She touched the back of Darren’s hand. “Allison is the strongest woman I know. She can handle it and then some. Tell her. Trust her.”

Darren nodded, and Harper hoped he would have the strength to follow through and share his burdens with Allison. She followed the two men to Bennett’s truck and wondered if it was training or birth that set men who chose to be SEALs apart. Their independence and mental steel was both a strength and a weakness. When times got more than they could bear, it was nearly impossible for them to ask for help.

At the hospital, the transparent relief on Allison’s face before she pulled Darren into her arms portended what was to come. Somehow she seemed to sense how close she’d come to losing him for good.

“Y’all go talk. Bennett and I will hang out with the kids.” Harper tried to impart to Allison without words how important this moment was. Allison hung on to Darren’s hand and nodded.

After they retreated to a small chapel to talk, Harper pasted on a smile and picked up the pack of cards on a rolling table. “Did you guys know that we have a trickster in our midst?”

Sophie pushed taller on the pillows, her eyes big and blue against all the hospital white, including the bandage that wrapped her head like a turban. “W-who?”

She held out the cards to Bennett. “Let’s see what you’ve got, Grizzly.”

Bennett entertained them for more than half an hour. Even Libby was transfixed by the sleight-of-hand tricks. Bennett was a natural with the kids.

He’ll make a good father. As soon as the thought popped into her head, a blush spread like wildfire, and she flapped her shirt to keep from breaking out into a sweat. They hadn’t discussed the future, but much like she’d known Noah would be an important part of her life the day they’d met, she knew Bennett was here to stay.

The implications were obvious but too startling to examine.

“Hey. You okay over there?” Bennett had backed away from the bed and was shuffling the cards from one hand to the other.

“Just peachy,” she said with a forced smile.

“W-will you…”—Sophie struggled for long seconds with the next word—“t-tell me a story, Harper?”

“Of course I will. What would you like to hear about? Sleeping Beauty? Rapunzel?” Harper lay down on her side in the bed with Sophie, careful not to jostle the IV or tubes.

“N-no princesses.” Sophie didn’t meet her eyes as she played with the end of Harper’s ponytail.

“How about a story about a little girl who’s strong and brave and tames a dragon even though no one thinks she can?”

Sophie smiled and nodded, settling against Harper’s chest. Harper closed her eyes and let a story ramble from her mind to her mouth. She wasn’t sure how long she talked, but after she uttered the final “and she lived happily ever after” the silence that followed was peaceful. Sophie was lax and breathing deeply, Libby and Ryan were sitting close to the bed staring at Harper raptly, and Bennett leaned against the wall wearing a slight smile.