Hallowed Ground

“Everyone okay?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Rizzo answered.

“We can see daylight back here,” Will added. I turned in my seat to see bullet holes in the sliding doors. Fuck.

“Seems like a good day to die,” I muttered.

“Roger that, Dustoff one-two, we’re trying to cover you,” Gunman radioed. They came in closer, laying down fire along the ridgeline.

I scanned the valley floor as my heart threatened to pound out of my chest. “There,” I said, pointing to a relatively flat section. “We can put down there.”

Captain Trivette nodded, her full concentration on the bird. We passed just over Jagger’s crash site on descent, but from its angle, I couldn’t see anything but the belly of the aircraft.

Ping! Ping! Glass cracked. My head snapped to the left as Captain Trivette heaved forward, blood streaming from her helmet.

She’s dead. Holy shit, she’s dead.

Her body slammed into the controls, putting us into a dive.

“Shit! We’re hit! Fuck!” I gripped my controls and pulled back, but I couldn’t compensate for her body weight on hers. There was no way to recover, not this close to the ground. “We’re going down! Brace!” I yelled, but it was too late.

December. Her name was my only prayer.

The ground rushed up to meet us at a terrifying speed.

There was nothing I could do to slow us down, to change the angle, to—

Chapter Twelve

EMBER

I grabbed two bottles of water out of the fridge and met Paisley outside next to the fire pit after our morning hike. “We could have stayed in Alabama another few days. I wouldn’t have minded,” I said as I took the chair closest to her.

We’d spent most of the weekend at Fort Rucker for her graduation, and even though her parents were stationed in New York, it had been nice to hang out with Morgan for a couple days.

I’d kept the conversation with Will to myself.

“Thanks,” she said, taking one of the bottles and twisting the top. “I just wanted to be in our house. I feel him here, you know?” Her hand rubbed over her belly absentmindedly.

“I understand perfectly. We might not have been here long, but it’s our home. His clothes are here, his pillow, our life.” I took a sip of my water, relishing the coolness in the Tennessee heat. “Remind me why you decided hiking was a good idea?”

She laughed. “It’s good for us. You’re not getting out of it, either. We’re going again in the morning. Besides, school is over, and you have almost three months until you fly to Turkey. We have to fill our time productively.”

“I’m still not sure I’m going,” I admitted quietly. “I mean, I’m ninety-eight percent sure I am, but there’s still this tiny part of me that says not to. You’re pregnant, and the guys are deployed, and I’m, what, going off gallivanting in Turkey?”

“We can’t always be wrapped up in them. Not if we’re supposed to thrive in this life. We can love them—heck, you and I both know that was never a choice, not with men like ours—but we need our own lives. We can’t lose ourselves in them.”

“It’s really the chance of a lifetime.”

Paisley leaned across the distance that separated our chairs and took my hands. “Then you go. I’ll be fine. Morgan can come for the rest of the summer, and you’ll be back at the beginning of October. I’m stronger than you think.”

“I know you are. I just don’t want you to be alone in this.”

She smiled, radiant with a happiness she seemed to carry with her at all times. “One, I’m never alone.” She patted her belly. “Two, the guys might not be here, but they’re with us. But you and I…we both have amazing adventures coming. You owe it to yourself to go.”

“What if something happens?” I whispered.

She squeezed my hands. “That kind of heartache wouldn’t care where you are, Ember.”

She was right. Where I was had nothing to do with what Josh was doing. If anything, going now would use our time apart to the best advantage.

I checked in with Sam while I gathered up the pile of grad school applications I’d been avoiding, but hearing Grayson in the background made me miss Josh even more, so I made an excuse and got off the phone. Sam was happy, and she deserved to be. She didn’t need my issues pulling her down right now.

Settling in with the applications, I cued up the DVR to catch up on what I’d missed while studying for finals.

Maybe it was because it was a Saturday, but I missed him more today than usual. Saturdays had always been our days. Even when we lived far apart, it was the one day of the week I woke up with him and fell asleep in his arms.

What was he doing? I’d texted hours ago, but he was probably still on shift. I grabbed my cell phone and shot off a quick message.

EMBER: I BET YOU’RE FLYING, BUT I WANTED TO TELL YOU A QUICK I LOVE YOU.

I hit send and fidgeted on the couch. Without school, and Turkey still three months away, I was sure to go out of my mind.

Paisley knocked and came in without waiting. “Okay,” she drawled. “I cannot sit in that house today. Let’s go shopping for the nursery?”

I sighed in relief. “I’m so in. Let’s get out of here.”

Chapter Thirteen

JOSH

“I’m so glad you’re home!” Ember ran from our kitchen and jumped into my arms. She was all sugar and sunlight, her curves filling my hands perfectly.