Page 27 of Forever Yours on Christmas Eve
She wanted only the good stuff when it came to Sev.
“How are classes?” he asked, his voice taking on a serious edge.
She sighed as she propped up her phone, using two hands to arrange the roses and the baby’s breath that accompanied them. “Miserable?”
“Kels,” he said, his voice now sad and not what she wanted to hear. “I’m sorry. Have you tried talking to the professor?”
“Pffft,” she said, rolling her eyes. “Every time I go to her office hours, I feel stupider than I did when I first went in.” Kelsey had tried everything she could think of to better understand the material, but the professor only looked at her like she was incapable. It was something she’d never been on the receiving end of before.
“You’re not stupid,” Sev nearly growled, causing a bit of a shiver down her spine. Some for bad reasons, but others for very, very goodreasons.
“I know,” she said, taking her phone and crossing back into the living room, flopping back down in her chair once more. “How’s life treating you up on base?”
“Good,” he said, taking her change of topic and running with it. Although there was a little bit of hesitation in his voice. “Seems we’re going to be taking a trip again in a couple of weeks.”
“All of you?” she wondered.
“Nah,” he said, shaking his head. “Just a few of us. I was actually pretty lucky to get assigned. It wasn’t something I was expecting.”
“Well, that’s good, right?” she said, loving the feeling of hope filling her chest cavity, even if it wasn’t for her own life. “It means someone’s taken notice of what you can do.”
“I think so,” he said, again, hesitant. Then silent.
“Sev, what is it?” she encouraged him. “What’s holding you back?”
He sighed heavily, the end turning into a chuckle as he looked straight at her through the phone. Even though she knew they were separated by miles and miles, that searing look still made her think she could reach out and stroke his cheek.
“I get the feeling this is more of a test than it is an application of what I can really do. I mean, there’s a chance I’ll be able to show off some, but it really feels like someone wanted to see just how we’d do in a particular… situation”
Situation.Kelsey remembered her father saying stuff like that as she grew up, which was code forplease don’t ask, I can’t tell you the details.
No matter. It wasn’t thesituationshe was concerned about.
It was Sev.
“You know, I remember a time when my dad had arranged a bunch of different units for training,” she recalled. “It wasn’t so much to test out your abilities to do your job as it was to see how you interacted with a whole variety of people.”
Sev nodded, following along.
“In the end, I remember hearing him talk with some of his closefriends about different members and their leadership capabilities. Some were best at following orders, while others showed true leadership potential.”
Sev gave her a half-smile. “And the rest?”
“Oh, the rest were a hopeless mess,” she exaggerated, giving him a big smile. “Sent home to scrub toilets with their toothbrushes.”
“Well, good, you’ll know where to find me,” he said, laughing at her joke. And while she laughed too, she knew that wasn’t going to be the case. Sev could follow orders, but he also inspired something in folks. Something that made them want to do whatever he asked of them.
Her included.
She knew that the reason he was pulled for thistestwasn’t because he was a follower. It was because they saw leadership potential in him.
And judging by the hopeful look on his face, he knew it too.
Who knew it would be possible to feel so good for someone gaining accolades and climbing toward their future, and also feel so awful because all she could do was slip down the branches of that tree one by one.
“So what do you have planned for the weekend?”
“Nothing,” she said, rather emphatically. “Well, actually, that’s not true. I’ve got to bone up on one of my classes. I’ve got a project coming due, and I want to make sure I’ve got some extra time. Account for mistakes and all that.”
