I swallowed hard. “What are you here for?”
He looked at me, his voice soft as he said, “Her heart.”
I asked the next person. And the next. And the next.
Until finally I looked down at my mother.
“Did you hear that?” My voice cracked. “You’re going to save seven lives today.”
I trailed my fingers over her hair.
“You’re not going to be there to help me get married,” I said. “You’re not going to be there to help me raise my future baby. You’re not going to be there to look at my pictures, give me a ‘yes’ or ‘definitely not’ on whether I should share it on Facebook anymore.” I swallowed hard. “How am I supposed to live without you, Mom? How can I be here and you’re not? I’ve never lived without you before.” My voice sounded like I’d smoked a thousand cigarettes a day as I said what I said next. “I’m sixteen, Mom. I didn’t get to keep you long enough.”
I touched the pin on her chest, pressing it with just one finger. “You’re my best friend. Always have been, always will be.”
With that, I backed away, and they forced Joe to go with me.
“You can take her in now.”
The nurses and doctors moved as one, the OR filling with so many people that I was scared they wouldn’t all fit.
Leaving me alone in the hallway with just Joe.
At least, I thought I was alone.
When I looked back toward where I came, one lone figure stood there in uniform.
***
I woke up from my nightmare. My memories. My plague.
That was the first day that I saw the military man.
But it wouldn’t be the last.
“We’re here,” Dax said, startling me out of my thoughts.
I blinked, then looked around at my neighborhood.
The one that I’d once shared with my family.
“Thank you,” I said, bailing out of the cruiser.
Just as I did, Derek parked my car in the driveway.
In my mother’s spot.
I tried not to hyperventilate.
I succeeded. Barely.
But only because Derek tossed my keys at me, hitting me in the face when I failed to catch them.
Derek didn’t even notice. He was already half the way to Dax’s cruiser.
I bent down and picked them up, ignoring my headache.
“No problem,” I said to nobody. “Thank you for the ride.”
With that, I walked inside, slamming the door closed behind me.
The moment I did, I smelled the familiar smell of my home.
The one that was beginning to fade the longer that my dad stayed dead.
The smell of gun oil wasn’t so prominent anymore.
Neither was the smell of my dad’s cologne or my mother’s perfume.
There was no sound of the television in the study anymore, or my mother’s humming along as she sewed on her sewing machine.
There was nothing.
Just… nothing.Chapter 2Give that bitch a wedding. Bitches love weddings.
-Things your sister doesn’t like to hear
Derek
Two months later
“Do you take this woman to be your lawfully wedded wife?” the preacher asked.
I missed my future brother-in-law, Dax, answering because my eyes were busy being trained on a certain black-haired goddess in the third row.
The shit of it was, Avery would look at me, sneer, and then turn away.
Except I wasn’t able to stop staring.
There was something seriously wrong with me.
I couldn’t make myself pay attention.
“The rings?”
“Derek,” my sister growled.
I pulled the rings out of my pocket and handed them to my sister, who then handed one over to Dax.
“Sorry,” I muttered.
My sister, Rowen, had decided to forgo the usual bridesmaids as did Dax with his groomsmen. I was standing up with Katy on Rowen’s side, falling down on the job of holding the rings. Harleigh, Dax’s sister, stood at his side.
“…with this ring, I thee wed,” Dax said.
My eyes once again moved to the woman in the third row.
Jesus Christ, where did she get that dress?
It fit her like a fuckin’ glove.
It was red, fit her curves like it was made for her, and God, I couldn’t wait to see her high heels.
“You may kiss the bride.”
I kept my eyes on Avery, unwilling to watch my sister kiss a man.
It was bad enough to know that they’d done it. I didn’t need to see them kissing.
Avery stood up with her camera in her hand and continued to take the pictures that she’d been taking throughout the ceremony.
I wasn’t sure why she’d sat down when she had, but now that she was up, I could see her shoes.
And yep, she rocked them just like I knew she would.
They made her legs look long as fuck and pumped her calf muscles up and made them look strong and sexy.
Who the hell knew that calf muscles were sexy?
Because I sure as hell had no idea that I would be attracted to someone’s calf muscles, but there I was.
“Ladies and gentlemen, may I now introduce to you, Mr. and Mrs. Dax Tremaine.”
The preacher man’s words had me yanking my gaze back to where it belonged, and I swallowed hard when I caught my sister’s eyes.