Page 70 of Second Chance Serenity

Haven’t heard from him since.

“Silas tracked you through the swamp,” Lance says, “and has agreed to come on temporarily until we manage to get all of this figured out.”

“You’re an asset, my friend. How is your niece?”

“Good. She’s spending time with Andie and Mrs. McGinley right now.” He shoves his hands into his pockets.

“All right. We need to get to the office.” Lance takes Eliza’s hand as she stands. Then he gently touches my arm with his other hand. “I’m grateful God pulled you through again. Life wouldn’t be the same without you.”

As they leave, I stare at the door, hating that I can’t follow.

CHAPTER 22

Reyna

“How are you holding up?” Bianca takes her cup of coffee and sits at a two-seater table in the hospital cafeteria.

“I’m tired, but otherwise okay.” I join her, even though I’m more than ready to be back in the room with Michael. Leaving his side was hard, but after everything we went through, my mind is a mess.

“I can’t imagine why you’d be tired,” she replies with a grin.

I like Bianca. She seems to call it like it is, and there isn’t much of a filter there, but her candid honesty is refreshing. “Thank you for saving him.”

“There are very few things I wouldn’t do for those guys. They’re great men.”

“They are. You all served together?” I’d gotten half a story, but there hadn’t been a lot of time or energy to give me the rest.

“Briefly. I was stationed overseas at the same time they were. Pulled bullets out of them a time or two.”

“You were the one who saved him after the?—”

“After the IED? Yeah. It took a team of us.”

I think about the scar on the side of his face. Of the way I’d held Margot as she broke down after hearing the news. I’d barely managed to keep myself calm when all I wanted to do was lie down and cry with her.

I don’t think I’ve ever prayed so hard in my life, until now.

“When he came out of the anesthesia, he asked for you.”

“What?” My stomach twists.

“He kept saying your name over and over again. ‘Reyna. Reyna. I need Reyna.’ I hadn’t known who you were, but it finally made sense why he never looked at me the way I’d wanted him to.” Once again, her candid honesty is unexpected.

“You have feelings for him.”

“Had,” she corrects. “We’re friends now, barely, but I did have a good little crush on him for a while. He is one of the nicest men I’ve ever met. Someone who’s kind straight down to his soul. You don’t often meet ’em like that.”

“I can’t argue.”

“Can I ask what happened between you two?” she asks. “I never got the story, and given how much I know he loves you, and how clear it is you love him, I can’t quite figure out what went wrong. I’m nosy. Blame my upbringing.” She laughs awkwardly but doesn’t continue.

“He left without a word,” I tell her. “I woke up one morning, and he was gone. I didn’t even know he’d joined the military until his mother told me. I remember just standing there, staring at her as though she was going to start laughing and tell me it was one big joke.” I take a drink of coffee. “One minute he was there. The next he was gone. And I was furious.”

“Men can be really, really stupid.”

I laugh. “Isn’t that the truth?”

“How do you feel now? About him, I mean. Obviously, there are feelings still there. And for the record, this is just me being nosy, I am not in the least bit interested in him in that way anymore.”

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