Page 22 of Callahan

I didn’t feel amazing. I felt like I was barely keeping my head above water. Still, I smiled, tucked my hair behind my ear, and said, “Thank you,” as I braced myself for what was in the backpack. I nodded toward the bag he was holding. “What do you have for me?”

His gaze moved from my face to his lap. “Right.” He swallowed hard, then began, “Shawn loved you so much. I hope you know that.”

“I do. He made sure I was taken care of financially, and he hadn’t even known about Conor.”

“He asked me to witness his will, but I suggested he have Captain Davidson do it, since he was our ranking officer.” He fished around the backpack then stopped. “When I wouldn’t witness his will, he made me promise to give you this from the safe in his bedroom closet at his parents’ house.”

Pulling his hand from the bag, Adam produced a wooden heart-shaped box and handed it to me.

My breath caught in my throat at what I suspected it was. My suspicions were confirmed when I slowly opened the lid to reveal a round solitaire diamond ring.

“You were right. He was going to ask you to marry him,” he murmured softly. “He just never found the right time. But he wanted you to know he meant it when he told you he was going to make you his wife someday.”

Tears streamed down my face as I removed the ring from the black velvet and held it between my index finger and thumb, letting the light reflect off it.

“He was such a good man,” I whispered. “He would have made a great dad.” I quickly added, “And husband.”

Adam nodded. “I have no doubt he would have loved that.”

“I wish he would have known about Conor,” I said wistfully. “I wanted to wait to tell him in person. I didn’t want him to be distracted. I guess, in a way, it was a blessing I hadn’t told him. I would have always wondered if I’d somehow caused him to lose focus and that’s why...”

He reached over and grabbed my hand.

“It wouldn’t have mattered. There was nothing those guys could have done to stop that RPG from hitting their Humvee.”

****

Adam

The only thing that could have been done differently was if they hadn’t had to come rescue us in the first place. And that was entirely my fault.

My Marine brother missed out on being a husband and father because of me.

I was about to stand to leave for Brian’s house when Conor’s cries came through the baby monitor sitting on the kitchen counter.

Lainey pushed the ring back into the slot in the box and set it on the coffee table, then stood up.

“I’ll be right back.”

She brought the baby out and sat back in the chair with a receiving blanket tossed over her shoulder.

You’d think the child was starving, the way he smacked his lips between his cries as she got him situated in her lap.

“Oh my goodness,” she laughed. “Are you hungry, baby boy?”

She placed the blanket over her chest like she’d done earlier, and soon, Conor’s cries turned into grunts of contentment as he nursed.

And suddenly, I was envious of an eight-week-old.

I had no business lusting over this woman while she nourished her child. My dead friend’s ring was sitting on the table in front of us for fuck’s sake. What the hell was wrong with me?

I put my hands on my knees and leaned forward in the universal gesture that I was about to get up.

“I probably better get going.”

“Oh, don’t go yet. Stay and keep me company.”

And even though I knew I should, I couldn’t tell her no.

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