Page 38 of Searching for Valor

Of course.

She found his name in her contacts and hit the call button.

chapter

thirteen

Zak ignored the call.

He didn’t particularly care to talk to Izzy, and he was busy. He put the phone face down on his kitchen island and stared at the stack of paperwork in front of him. The adoption forms, the letters, the background checks—all of it was supposed to bring him and Anna closer to completing their family, but right now, it just felt like a mountain of obstacles. They’d gone through this all when they’d adopted Bella and Poppy, but it turned out that international adoption was a much more complex and exhausting process.

He rubbed a hand over his face, trying to shake the exhaustion that had settled deep in his bones.

Anna was in the other room, playing with Poppy, their seven-year-old who was fast approaching her eighth birthday.

Jesus.

Eight.

How was she eight already?

His little girl was growing up way too fast.

Laughter floated through the house and he soaked it in, wishing he could hit pause on this moment and live in it forever.The sound of his girls giggling together was the sweetest music he’d ever heard.

He pushed back from the island, the stool scraping against the hardwood floor.

He needed a break.

Following the sound of giggles, he found Anna and Poppy sprawled out on the living room rug, surrounded by a colorful array of ancient Legos that at one time had belonged to him. Ranger was sitting on the couch, keeping one eye on them and another on the front window, always watching for threats. That was part of the reason they got along so well. They were both paranoid bastards.

Meanwhile, Winston, Anna’s Golden Retriever, lay asleep on his back by the fireplace, all four paws in the air and a stuffed toy in his mouth. He’d wake up occasionally to squeak the toy a few times before falling back to sleep.

It was perfect.

A few years ago, Zak hadn’t believed he’d ever have happiness like this. Or even that he deserved to be happy like this. He’d done a lot of awful things in the name of Uncle Sam, and he’d paid for it with his leg and his sanity. But Anna had shown him that he was worthy of love, that he deserved a second chance at life. She’d fought for him, even when he’d pushed her away, determined to drown in his own misery. She saw the man beneath the scars, both physical and emotional, and she’d never given up on him.

And now he had this. His family.

They were just missing Bella, their oldest daughter, who had moved to LA at the end of August to attend college.

And they were also missing a sweet baby boy with dark hair and chubby cheeks who had spent all of his short life in an orphanage in Pakistan, a refuge from Afghanistan. A boy he desperately wanted to call his son.

Anna looked up from the Lego creation she and Poppy were building, her eyes crinkling at the corners as she smiled at him. “Hey, you. How’s the paperwork going?”

“It’s going. Slowly. I needed a break before my brain turned to mush.”

“I know. I was reading through it this morning, and it’s… a lot.”

“Yeah, but it’ll be worth it.”

“Daddy, look!” Poppy held up a misshapen structure, her blue eyes sparkling with pride. “It’s a rocket ship!”

Zak crouched down beside her, inspecting the vaguely phallic creation with an exaggerated frown. “Hmm, I don’t know, Popstar. It looks more like a?—”

Anna sent him a look that clearly said,“Don’t you dare.”

He smirked at her and finished, “—like a masterpiece!” He scooped Poppy up into his arms and spun her around. She squealed with delight, the Lego rocket ship still clutched in her small hand.

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