Page 120 of Sacrifice (Corrupt Empire 2)

Talking about Ben was easy. Talking about us? Not so much.

“Did you tell embarrassing stories in your speech?”

I smiled. It had been the perfect summer’s day for them. That was despite me telling all their guests how our unit had left a naked, passed out Ben outside our staff sergeant’s quarters after he’d got drunk and sobbed to us about how much he loved Skye.

“Yes and he roped me and the boys into helping him propose to her. She came to base one weekend and he got us to wear these t-shirts under our uniforms which spelt out ‘Will you marry me?’. So we all line up and she’s like, ‘Ben, what are they doing?’ and when we all started to take our uniform shirts off, she was about to go off on him, but he was down on one knee. The fucking fool was crying like a baby trying to get his words out.”

“Seriously? What did she do?”

“She said and I quote ‘You little fucker’.”

Avery snorted, letting go of my hand to put hers over her mouth.

“She dragged him off the floor, slapped him around the head and told him to take her back to his quarters so she could give him her answer without us all staring at the two of them.”

“That’s not exactly the most romantic way to propose.”

I wasn’t sure talking about proposals and marriage was the best idea considering we still needed to have a conversation about that topic ourselves.

“What do you think is romantic then?”

I looked over at her as we’d stopped at a red light. She squirmed a little in her seat.

“I don’t know. Just not something in front of other people.”

That was hardly a surprise. She didn’t like being the centre of attention. Except when she was the centre of mine. Then she liked it a lot. It reminded me we hadn’t had sex for days. She was always asleep when I came to bed and even yesterday, she’d spent all day painting in the living room. She passed out on the sofa when we were watching TV so I tucked her up in bed even though I wanted to kiss her awake and make love to her slowly.

I had to remedy this situation between us. We needed to reconnect and that started with a conversation about what she’d said last weekend.

I pulled up in the hospital carpark and we got out. I called Ben, who said he’d meet us outside the maternity unit. When we got up there, he was pacing outside the double doors.

“Thank fuck you’re here,” he said when he spied us.

I gave him a pat on the back when I reached him.

“How are you holding up?”

“Badly… Hey Avery.”

She gave him a quick hug, smiling.

“Are Skye and the baby okay?” she asked.

“Well, Skye is screaming bloody murder every time she gets a contraction, but the midwife reassured me everything is fine.”

He pressed the button on the doors and spoke to the receptionist who let us in. He pointed over to an open door.

“That’s the waiting room, Grant’s in there. I should get back.”

I nodded, taking Avery’s hand and leading her towards the room. Ben ran a hand through his hair before he turned away and walked a little way down the corridor to where we could hear a woman screaming. I felt sorry for him.

Skye’s dad, Grant was sitting in a chair by the window with his phone in his hand. He looked up when we walked in.

“Hello Aiden.”

“Hello Grant… This is my girlfriend, Avery. This is Skye’s dad,” I replied by way of introduction.

He stood up and took Avery’s hand, shaking it.

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