Page 39 of I Promise You
“Huh.” She bobs her head as if she’s impressed. “Well…” She looks at her sleeping daughter, pushing her hair out of her face. She has red hair and freckles on her nose.
She’s adorable.
“Her fever broke about ten minutes ago after she was swabbed for the flu.”
“That’s excellent news!” I exclaim. “She’s good to go home. The results came back negative. She doesn’t have strep or the flu. It’s probably just a virus that has to take its course. Tylenol for the fevers and make sure she’s getting lots of fluids and rest.”
“Well, that’s a relief. She’ll probably be better in a few days then. Enzo told me I overreact, but I can’t help it. Whenever they get sick, I freak out.”
“That’s understandable. I would be the same way…” My heart sinks when those last few words leave my mouth. I clear my throat; my smile disappears and I try to push the thoughts of losing my baby deep into the back of my head.
It takes me back to the day I went to the doctor’s office for the first time, alone because Danny was on deployment and my mother still didn’t know.
Maybe I wasn’t ready to come back to work.
Noel notices the awkward shift in my behavior and changes the subject.
“Enzo and I met in a bar, just like you and Danny.” She stands, grabbing her purse.
Noel has short brown hair, slight silver hair poking from the root, and hazel eyes. She’s taller than me.
“You did? Which bar? It wasn’t El Devine, was it?” A small laugh escapes me as I roll my eyes, expecting her to refuse.
“It was. It was my bachelorette party.” She blushes, raising her brows and shrugging as if the memories are now hitting her. After ten years, Noel still blushes as she thinks of the day she met her husband.
“No way. Wait, your bachelorette party? Like you were engaged to someone else at the time?” I try to control my face.
What a ballsy move.
“I know, I know. I’m not a slut, I promise. Or maybe I was. I don’t even know anymore. We’ve been together ten years already.”
She lets herself get lost in the recollection. She stares at the ceiling and lets her feet hang over the bed.
“I literally had my engagement ring on my finger when he came up. I had a shirt that saidbride to be, and that still didn’t stop him. I hadI’m takenwritten all over me. But Navy SEALS are stubborn as hell, which I’m sure you’ve realized by now.” She finally looks at me, shaking her head with a giddy curve of a smile.
“Danny Rider? Stubborn? No way,” I say sarcastically as the blue-eyed operator enters my vision. The night I saw him drinking alone at El Devine in his baseball cap, I should havenoticed he was a broken soul then, but I didn’t. I was too mesmerized by his presence.
“I think you’re with the most stubborn one out of them all. Danny is…he really isn’t bad like I know he thinks he is. He is the most giving, even if he won’t admit or see it in himself. I will say this. I’ve never seen him so consumed by anything or anyone in his life that wasn’t his job.”
Butterflies swirl in my stomach.
“How long have you known Danny?” The way she talks about him, I feel like she’s known him her entire life.
“As long as I’ve known my husband. Almost ten years.” She sighs.
I purse my lips.
“Enzo is wise, the peacemaker of the team. He holds everyone together when the morale is low. I love that about my husband. He tries to keep the team from killing each other when times get tough. Kane is the golden retriever, sensitive yet intense when he needs to be. And Lopez…well, he’s the youngest one out of the group and has a lot of growing up to do, but as far as I know, he’s a goofball. A Mexican cowboy from Texas.”
She knows them all so well. I only genuinely know Danny and Kane. Lopez and Rooker are mysteries.
Wait, she’s been a military spousefor ten years?
“You’ve been living this military lifestyle of constant deployments for ten years?”
I’ve only been with Danny for a few months, and it’s all too much. The constant worry, the anxiety I feel whenever I look at my front door. I can’t handle it.
“Yeah, ten years have flown by. It’s funny because I told him the night we met I didn’t ever see myself being tied down to a man in the military. Yet he charmed me as soon as I looked into his hazel eyes. I told him,” she lifts her index finger, "one, I’mwith someone already. Two, I will never date a military man. And you know what he did?”
