Page 135 of Forged By Sacrifice

And I knew that I’d do whatever it took to keep her laughing for the next hundred years, and I wished on all the stars that shone out the window that we would have that long and more.

The story is all done, but if you want to check out a little bonus epilogue with Mac, Georgie, Truck, and Jersey, you can download it here:

FORGED BY SACRIFICE: BONUS EPILOGUE

Want to see how the whole gang first came together? You can read the standalone, Anchor Novel, Guarded Dreams, on Amazon now (and it’s free in Kindle Unlimited). https://amzn.to/2LJHHic

Keep reading for a sneak peek at the first two chapters.

You’ll see a bit more of Mac, Georgie, and all the gang in the next four Anchor Novels that you can add to your “To Be Read” shelf in Goodreads now.

Avenged by Love – Truck & Jersey’s story

Damaged Desires – Dani & Nash’s story

Branded by Love – Brady O’Neil’s story

Unmasked Dreams – Dawson and Violet’s story

Eli

GIRL LIKE YOU

“Turn out the lights and let me breathe you in,

Your eyes are so diamond, body so gold,

And I don't want to let you go,

I've never met a girl like you.”

—Performed by Jason Aldean

—Written by Boyer / Mirenda / Tyler

The heat and humidity assaulted me as I stepped out of the rented truck and looked up at the house on the shore of Aransas Bay. I groaned inwardly. I was so screwed. The guys weren’t going to let me live this down.

Somehow, the house had escaped Hurricane Harvey with only a few dents and bruises, but there’d been some reconstruction needed. The remnants of that renovation were obvious in the oversized trash container full of debris outside the two-car garage that took up the bottom floor of the home.

The house desperately needed a paint job. The color was, at the moment, a crazy mix of beaten yellow, raw wood, and leftover white. That was what the guys and I were here to do: paint the house.

I heard Mac and Truck grumble as they slammed the doors behind me.

“Holy fuck, Els-worth, what have you gotten us into?” Mac threw out. He only broke out the Els-worth when he wanted to make a point. He knew I hated it. Call me Eli, or Wyatt, or hell, even my full name of Elijah James Wyatt, but just don’t call me what the asshole lieutenant had our freshman year.

I turned to both of them. Mac was built like a linebacker. He barely fit in the cargo shorts and T-shirt he was wearing, looking as if he might go all Hulk any moment and tear the things apart. You could barely see his normally black hair under the crew cut he sported. His muscles flexed as he reached into the bed of the truck to pull out the military-style bag that we all had with us.

Truck—well, really Travis, but no one had called him that since freshman year—just shook his head at me. But his brown eyes were already flashing with mischief beneath the shaved head that made his ice-blonde hair practically invisible. His square frame was just as built as Mac’s, but he’d earned the name Truck for a reason. He blew through anyone and everyone that challenged him…just like a semi-truck. Together, they were Mac Truck. No one messed with them.

Except me. I couldn’t help it. I’d been born to razz them. Especially with their “ship-like” nickname that everyone called them when they were definitely not in a relationship.

If I harassed them too much, they’d try to give me shit back, and my frame might not be as thick as theirs, but I had enough of my own muscles to more than hold my own. For some reason, neither of them felt it a requirement to challenge me very often. But this…this house was going to make them challenge me for the entire eight days we were there.

“You said you wanted to stay on the beach as cheap as possible. Free is as cheap as it gets,” I retorted.

“But I didn’t say I wanted to work my ass off for eight days. We’ll be doing enough of that on the Kennedy,” Mac said.

He was right that the cadet cruise on the TS Kennedy that Texas A&M’s Maritime Academy made mandatory during the summers was nonstop work. I loved it, but not everyone did. For me, it was a glimpse at what I’d been striving and hoping for since I was a kid…to be on a boat, with a unit, making a difference.

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