Page 51 of Harry

She turned to stare into his eyes, and he noticed tears. At first, he worried that he’d hurt her, but then a smile spread over her face.

“Thank you,” Rory said.

“I’m the one who should be thanking you.” He went up on his elbow and stared down into her face. “You’ve given me the best gift anyone can ever give.”

Rory shook her head. “I’m screwed up, and my brain is still playing tricks on me. I’m a mess.”

“You’re my beautiful mess, and I love you. You trusted me. You really trusted me to love you, and I think that’s the most beautiful thing in the world.”

“How can you say exactly what I need to hear?”

“I don’t know. I just want what is best for you. For us. I know we have a long way to go because we need to get to know each other, and you need to recover, and I have my work and everything else, but I have faith that this is right.”

She ran her fingers over his shoulders, then up his neck to his face. She pulled him down for a kiss. It was sweet and perfect. This was exactly what they needed. One thing he didn’t want was to get ahead of himself, so he kept thoughts of forever out o this head. Rushing Rory would put too much pressure on her, but he wanted it all with her.

Excitement filled him, but he didn’t want to scare her, so he lay beside her, not holding on too tightly.

“I think I need to rinse off,” Rory said.

“Can I join you?”

She nodded. “Of course.”

The next morning, he was up early to head to base. Rory stumbled into the kitchen, wearing one of his t-shirts. His heart accelerated.

“That looks way better on you than it ever did on me.”

She snorted and grabbed a mug for coffee. “I have therapy today, and then I think I want to start looking for somewhere to apply for a job.”

He paused, studying her body language. “Are you ready?”

She turned and took a sip of her coffee, then nodded. “I think I am. I’m just going to start looking at what I could do. It would be a while before I actually got any job.”

He moved to her and took her coffee mug before pulling her into a hug. “As long as you think you’re ready. You don’t have to, but I understand wanting to do something.”

“Yeah, it’s hard not having anything to do.”

He kissed her, then stepped back because he had to leave, and holding her longer would only make him late. “Text me to tell me how therapy went.”

She nodded as she picked up her mug, looking a little distracted. “Sure.”

A part of him didn’t want to go, but they would spend time together this weekend. The drive to the base didn’t take long. They began their day with a run and then time on the obstacle course. After their shower, they were pulled into a meeting and were briefed on a developing situation.

Midway through the meeting, things turned tense. He feared they would be sent overseas. Normally, he wanted to go, but if he left now, what would happen to Rory? He shouldn’t feel this way. He took his duty as a SEAL seriously, but he didn’t want to leave Rory right now. He needed to get his head on straight.

Close to five, they left the conference room. He grabbed his phone from the cubby and checked messages. Rory said her session went well. He breathed out a sigh of relief.

“Hey, Harry, what’s wrong?” Bear asked.

His head whipped around. He didn’t know Bear was right there. “Nothing.”

“Bullshit. You were worried during the meeting. I could see your agitation. Don’t tell me nothing is wrong when you were obviously distracted in the meeting.”

He pushed open the door and stepped out into the heat. Normally, the ocean breeze cut the temperatures, but the air was still like they were in the doldrums. It didn’t bode well.

Harry let go a sigh and shrugged. “I’m letting this situation with Rory get to me. While we were sitting in there, I was worried we would be sent over.”

“I get that. I worried when I first got with Ingrid. Her ex was a risk I couldn’t deal with. You know how it was back then. We were all searching for him, trying to make sure he wasn’t coming for her.”

---