Page 81 of Only Her (K2 Team)
“Now you’re going to make me cry,” he teased.
“That might happen before the night ends,” she mysteriously said, pushing off him. “Time for your present.” She showed each of the animals her new ring. “What do you think, guys? We’re going to be a family.” She did a little dance, twirling around the room, waving her hand in the air.
He could have eaten her up right then, she was so damn cute. On one of her spins, she scooped up the present she’d taken from under the tree earlier and handed it to him. He took it and moved to the sofa. It hardly weighed anything, and he shook it as a delaying tactic simply because he knew it would drive her crazy.
“Is it an empty box?” Did she just growl?
“You’ll never know if you don’t open it, will you? And stop laughing.”
“Can’t help it. Your happy is contagious.” Before she climbed out of her skin, he unwrapped the present and opened the lid. Sitting on silver tissue paper were three brown-leather dog collars with ID tags, and he picked one up. Tooled on the collar was the name “Pretty Girl.”
Riley grabbed the box out of his hands, eyed the remaining two, and picked one up, handing it to him. That one said “Sally.” His heart ached, knowing what the third one said. It was thoughtful of her to include a collar for Layla, but he wished she hadn’t. This wasn’t a night for a reminder of the dog he’d lost.
“I don’t...” He cleared his throat. “I don’t know what to say. Thank you.”
Her eyes softened as if she understood his pain, and she picked up her phone, turned the screen away so that he couldn’t see it, and texted someone. He waited for her to explain, but she only held out her hand, palm out as if telling him to stay. Confused, he watched her walk to the door.
“Be right back,” she said.
“What’s going on?” he asked his dogs, not bothering to include the cats as all three were batting ornaments under the tree.
Five minutes passed, but he stayed where he was as he held the collar for Layla in his hand, staring at it. It wasn’t possible, was it? Yet, he couldn’t imagine that Riley would be so cruel—even unintentionally—by giving him such a gift. Hope tried to blossom, but he crushed it. He would know if Layla had been found because Wizard would have e-mailed him.
Another thought occurred to him, and he hoped to God he was wrong. Had she gotten him a new dog, thinking to replace Layla? Would she believe that would make him happy? Sally tilted her head, her gaze focused on the door, and then Pretty Girl did the same, giving a whine.
Cody’s fingers tightened on the collar. What he did know based on their reactions was that there was definitely a dog on the other side of that closed door. His heart thumped a stomach-lurching beat as he waited for it to open. It finally did, and Sally and Pretty Girl went wild at seeing Layla pressed against Riley’s leg. They ran to their long-lost friend, barking wild greetings. Layla left Riley’s side, meeting them halfway across the room, and the three dogs yelped and jumped around each other, tails wagging like crazy.
Blood rushed to Cody’s head as he stood. There had never been a time in his life when he thought he might faint, but he supposed there was a first for everything. “H-how?” He swallowed the lump in his throat. At hearing his voice, Layla’s ears perked up, and her eyes zeroed onto him.
“Layla,” he managed to say past the lump in his throat. He knelt and about sixty pounds of dog landed on him. Laughing at the furious licks to his face, he wrapped his arms around her, and looked up to see Riley watching with tears running down her cheeks.
“Merry Christmas,” she said.
“How?”
She sat on the sofa, pulling a handful of tissues out of her pocket. “I knew I’d need these.”
“I don’t even know what to say. You have... you have no idea what this means to me.” He stood with Layla in his arms and sat next to Riley. “How did you do it?” His other two dogs, knowing they weren’t allowed on the furniture, crowded against his legs. As for the cats, Pelli had gone to the top of the tree when the strange dog had entered, Merlin had perched himself on a bookshelf, and Arthur was cat-creeping toward the newcomer.
“It’s Logan and your team you really need to thank. From what I understand, Jake was talking to someone named Wizard, or maybe Lizard... you people and your names.”
“Wizard.” He buried his nose in Layla’s fur, breathing her in. She’d obviously been bathed and groomed since leaving Afghanistan, because she hadn’t smelled this good even when he’d been there with her.
“Right, Wizard. So, Wizard happened to mention during the conversation with Jake that he was as certain as he could be that he’d found Layla. Coincidentally, Logan was in Jake’s office at the time, and it was Logan’s idea to bring her here without telling you. According to Maria, who I got the story from, Logan wanted to be certain it really was Layla before getting your hopes up. Since the team knew Layla while you were in Afghanistan with them, they figured they’d be able to recognize her.”
“Why didn’t any of them tell me after she’d arrived?”
Riley shrugged one shoulder. “Because I asked them not to, thinking she would be the best possible Christmas present ever for you. Also, I wanted a few days with her at the clinic to check for the kind of problems a dog coming from a third-world country might have. She’s been wormed, had her shots, and been defleaed. She’s underweight, which isn’t surprising, but she’s in good health considering.” Riley scratched Layla’s chin. “Remarkably, she seemed to love getting bathed, like she knew she had to get all pretty for you.”
And dammit, he fucking cried.
Riley peered out the window of the limo that Logan had hired to drive past the best Christmas lights in Pensacola. Obviously, the driver knew where all the coolest lit houses were. Although it was a little crowded with five of the biggest men she’d ever known, along with their significant others, she had never had a better Christmas. Cody had his arm around her and she lifted her hand, curling her fingers around his. On New Year’s Day, she and Cody would attend Ryan and Charlie’s wedding. Ryan and Charlie had picked that particular day because, as they said, “It was a day for new beginnings.”
She and Cody had decided on a spring wedding, when life sprang anew. In the last few days, as she’d gotten to know the K2 team, she’d learned that each of them had a story, one that had a happily ever after, but didn’t have an end. That was her fantasy, anyway, that there was no end to true love, even into eternity.
EPILOGUE
Riley huddled with the women who’d become as dear to her as blood sisters. Their men were coming home today after a successful mission to get a group of doctors out of Syria. It was Cody’s third mission since coming to work at K2. The first one that Logan Kincaid had been concerned about Cody being involved in had gone off without a hitch. According to Maria—who knew everything there was to know about secret K2 stuff—Cody had performed to Logan’s expectations. Riley had never thought otherwise.
