Page 26 of Defending Casey

Chapter 5

Wakingup just shy of dawn, Hale rolled over and saw the notification on his phone that he had a text from Hank Patterson less than an hour before. Hank was the man who’d created the Brotherhood Protectors, it was thanks to him that Hale even considered coming home. His whole team owed Hank a debt of gratitude along with Jake Cogburn. Both men had allowed them the opportunity to continue working with and supporting each other. His Green Beret team had been incredibly tight knit. You couldn’t face the kind of danger that they had as a team without knowing each other inside and out. It was a brotherhood in every way, shape, and form.

It was the same reason that they’d made the decision to leave the service when they did. Together.

It was just another example of having each other’s backs.

When the service turned against them, they still had each other.

Sitting up in bed, he dropped his feet down to the ground and cast a glance at the other side of the bed. It was empty, hardly disturbed by his sleep. Living in a barracks had trained him to sleep still, hardly tossing and turning like he did for much of his life. Now, he could only imagine what it would be like to wake up and see Casey asleep on that pillow, her dark hair nearly covering it.

Storing that dream away in his head, he picked up his phone and opened the message app.

HANK: Give me a call when you have a minute.

Clearing his throat, he hit the speed dial for the head honcho of the Brotherhood Protectors and only had a moment to wait before the call was picked up.

“Hondo! Glad you got my message.”

“Yeah, surprised you’re up this early.”

Hank’s chuckle was quickly followed by a peal of laughter. “Emma’s up early. She had a fever last night that kept us up and then when it broke, she crashed into sleep. She woke up a few hours early though and she’s full of energy now.”

Hale couldn’t hold back a groan at the idea. “Glad the fever broke, but any chance you two are going to find the time to catch up on sleep?”

“I just sent Sadie up to take a nice long bath and grab some sleep. I’ll try to do the same later in the day.”

“Good luck on that.”

Hank’s voice softened. “Yeah, I’ll be lucky if it happens. So I got your message about medical insurance. Who do you want to add to your policy?”

Hale heard Emma giggle right as he answered. “I have a daughter, Nora.”

“Well, that’s a surprise.”

“To me too.”

“Well, I’m sure you’ll tell me how all of this happened soon, but let’s get some basics down first…”

When Hale arrivedat Casey’s home a little while later, he got out of his truck and reached over to the passenger seat and lifted out the flowers he’d picked up after having breakfast at Mattie’s Diner. Casey had invited him over for breakfast, but he had so much on his mind he wasn’t sure that he could have carried on any sort of conversation at the table.

This was better.

Easier.

Sort of.

With the flowers securely tucked under his arm, he walked up the steps to the porch and knocked on the doorframe.

The look on Nora’s face when she saw him at the door made him feel like he was weak in the knees. Their daughter could light up the world with her smile.

And Casey? When he put a bouquet of flowers in Nora’s arms, she gave him a watery-eyed smile. When he held out the other bouquet of flowers, she had to wipe at her eyes and missed a tear that coursed down her cheek.

Hale didn’t even know he’d moved until he felt the warm flush of her skin against the pad of his thumb and heard the screen door click shut behind him.

The rest of their time in the house was a rush of activity.

David appeared and took the bouquets of flowers into the kitchen to put them in water as Casey sat down on the couch and wove the baby’s breath from her own bouquet into Nora’s hair. The braid formed under Casey’s talented hands and the matching beaming smiles of both of his loves made his heart pound happily in his chest.

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