Page 87 of Warrior's Walk

“Here, babe, drink this.” He offers me the steaming cup of coffee, and I take it gratefully, savoring the first rich sip.

“Thank you. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

“You’re never going to have to find out,” he swears.

I want to believe him because it’s what I want to hear, but then I remember how we argued before and I can’t help but wonder how long forever means to him.

I finish off my coffee and push to my feet. My leg aches, stiff from sitting for hours. “I’m gonna go to the bathroom.”

The one in my mama’s room is jam-packed with medical equipment not being used, so I make my way down the hall, limping as I clutch the safety railing on the wall for support. I feel like I’ve stepped into another world. The hustle and bustle of the hospital, nurses laughing and eating lunch behind the desk, patients being transferred to various departments, visitors with children—none of it has anything to do with my mama, which feels foreign to me, bizarre even. My whole world revolves around her and right now, with her being sick, with the threat of losing her too soon, I can’t even fathom how life goes on or what people would have to laugh about.

There’s no life for me outside of my mama’s room.

I finish my business in the bathroom and shuffle back to her room, realizing I missed something while I was gone. Riggs looks devastated. He’s chewing his bottom lip to pieces, a frown forming between his eyes.

“What is it? Is it my mama?” I can see his throat working like he’s having difficulty swallowing, and he scrubs his face.

“Just got a call from my command.”

“And?” My heart’s gonna beat right outta my chest, like a horse galloping from its stable.

“You know how, in the reserves, we get called up every month or so for a weekend of training?”

A dead weight drops to the bottom of my stomach. I can feel him slipping away from me. “Did you get called up?”

He nods. “But not for the weekend. It’s annual training. Two weeks.”

I can’t lose him now, not when everything is falling apart. He’s my rock. My lifeline. I’ll lose my fucking sanity without Riggs keeping me anchored. “When do you leave?”

“0600.”Fourteen hours.I have fourteen hours left with him. “I’m going to run home and pack. Tie up a few loose ends at work. Mandy is on his way to stay with you. I’ll be back in an hour or two.”

“Riggs, you can’t sleep here tonight. You need to rest.”

“I told you, I’m not leaving your side, not until they drag me away.”

Fucking tears rush forth again, and I don’t even try to swipe them away this time. He pulls me close, and I bury my face in his shirt, soaking it with my misery. “Promise me you’re comin’ back to me.”

“I promise you, soldier. I swear to fucking God I’m coming back.”

Over his shoulder, I glance at my mama. She’s awake, watching us with a sad face. Great, as if she doesn’t already have enough sadness on her rail-thin shoulders.

“Rhett, give me a minute alone with Riggs, please.”

Her request surprises me. What’s she got to say to him that I can’t hear? “Yes, ma’am.”

I walk out of the room and shut the door behind me. Minutes later, Mandy, West, Brandt, and Nash approach, and I can hear their booted footsteps from all the way down the hall.

They don’t say nothing in the way of a greeting, they just crush me in a group hug. The tears fall harder. It feels good.It feels like a release, although there’s no end to my suffering. It just keeps multiplying, like a rash spreading throughout my body until it immobilizes me.

“Do you want to come back home while he’s gone? I’m right next door and I can check on you.”

I don’t ever want to go back there. It was never my home. I don’t ever again want to sleep in the bed where my mama was slowly dying or eat in the kitchen where she passed out. I shake my head.

“Then I’ll come stay with you at Riggs’s place. I hear he’s got a hot tub,” he jokes.

He lets me go, and I suck a deep, unsteady breath into my lungs. I could try to be strong, to say I don’t need him, how it’s not necessary, but I’m not even going to lie like that. I do need him. “Sounds good,” I croak, sounding like a bullfrog.

Brandt leans his hand on my shoulder. “I know he’s leaving, but that doesn’t mean you’re alone. You’re not. You’ve got more support than you probably want. We’re here for you the whole way, and Riggs is coming back. He’ll be back before you know it.”

---