Page 90 of If You Say So

Could see the panic in his face.

Then Luca had his hand over my mouth, and he was pulling me solidly into his chest.

But I got a few more words in before he did.

“Do you know what it feels like to have someone come back from the dead?” I asked. “Because I

do. I know what it feels like…”

Then I was crying again.

I wasn’t sure what all happened after that because Luca was dragging me away again.

I was throwing up again.

And I was fairly sure Ortiz was still ripping Tim a new asshole.

Or maybe a second new asshole, holding my words against him.

When I finished this time, it was to find Luca smiling.

“What are you laughing about?” I sniffled against his chest.

He had two massive wet spots from where my face had been pressed against his gray t-shirt for

my crying jags.

It looked weird, but he still worked it.

I chanced a look over Luca’s shoulder and didn’t find the man that’d been yelling at Tim anywhere

in sight.

Tim, however, was talking to a man that was inspecting the helicopter.

“I just yelled at someone really important,” I said to Luca. “My dad’s going to hear about it.”

Luca started to squeeze me.

“Your dad will hear about it?” he asked.

My dad had been a drill instructor before he’d gotten out of the military.

He knew a lot of people, and even though Dad wasn’t in the Navy, I had no doubt in my mind that

he’d know about what I’d just done by the end of the day.

It was inevitable. Someone, somewhere, will have known who I was. And will have known who

my father was.

Word would spread, and it wouldn’t take long for the right person to hear and to tell my…

My phone rang.

I didn’t even bother to sigh as I looked at the readout.

“It’s my dad.”

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