Page 61 of One Last Promise

“Okay, you win.”

“Oorah.” She looked at him, grinned. “Sorry, Navy. I know you guys aren’t pansies. The Navy corpsmen deploy with the Marines, so there’s that.”

“Thanks. Except I was a chopper pilot, so I didn’t have to dodge any bullets.”

“On the ground. I’ll bet you dodged a few in the air.”

“I did a tour in Afghanistan, so yes. Managed mostly to not get shot down.”

Shoot, he should have said that differently, because?—

“Mostly?”

Her body warmed his, and he wasn’t shivering as much. “We got a call that a couple spec ops guys were wounded. I flew in to evac them and ended up getting grounded.”

Silence.

She turned, looked at him.

He glanced at Hazel.

“She’s heard my stories. She knows about war.”

Not the war he’d seen. He drew in a breath. “I was transporting the wounded out when I got shot down. I managed to get out and took one of the guys with me, but my chopper was blown up, and I spent four days hoofing it to safe ground, carrying my soldier to safety.”

“Through enemy territory.”

“Pretty much, yes.” He had done a great job of keeping the memories out of his head, at least the last few years. But sometimes . . .

“So you’re a hero.”

“No. I screwed up. It was myjob to rescue him?—”

“Wow. Savior complex much?”

He looked at her, stiffened. “I?—”

“Moose. It was war. You do what you can, and you keep going.”

His mouth tightened. “I’m not a savior. But I had a job?—”

“Okay, Navy, you need to let that go.”

He looked back at her. “Ihad to be rescued.”

Her mouth opened, then closed. “I get it. You can do the rescuing, but getting in over your head . . . that’s not the Moose way.”

“I could try to climb out.”

“Calm down, Moose. I get it.” She kissed the top of Hazel’s head. Looked back at him. “I’ve spent most of my life trying to make sure that everyone is okay. Pearl. Hazel.” She lifted a shoulder. “If anyone understands the guilt—it’s me.”

Oh.

“Is that why you left the Navy?”

He swallowed, his chest suddenly tight. “The man I carried out reminded me a lot of Axel, and I . . . I started having nightmares. And then . . .” He sighed. “I just needed a change.”

“So you came home and started a rescue service.”

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