Pamela Clare - Striking Distance

Her world had changed so quickly that she hadn’t fully comprehended it, hadn’t yet come to appreciate it, her grief over Klara making it hard to see anything else. No, things hadn’t turned out exactly the way she’d hoped they would. Still, the pieces of her life were finally falling into place, so many of her fears swept away.

Klara was seeing and doing things she’d never done before. She had a mother and father who loved her, who would give her a safe home, and two big sisters who adored her. She would go to school, learn to read, and grow up to make her own choices about how to dress, how to live, whom to marry. It was everything Laura had ever wanted for her and more.

And Javier.

He’d left the Teams and was free to start a new life for himself. He hadn’t said much about what he wanted to do next or how long he planned to stay in Denver. But she knew he loved her. Whatever he wanted to do, wherever he wanted to live, she would make it work for both of them.

She’d had a lot of time to think during those long weeks after he’d left, and she knew what mattered most to her. Yes, her career was important, but life was too short and uncertain to spend focused on a job. When Kimball had held that knife to her throat, she hadn’t been sorry about time she wouldn’t spend in the newsroom and articles she wouldn’t get to write. She’d regretted not having had more time with Javier.

Her gaze fell on the laundry basket, his socks and boxer briefs mixed with her panties, their jeans tangled. She hadn’t been looking for a man, hadn’t been looking to fall in love. But somehow, in the midst of her pain and fear and grief, life had seen fit to give her this precious gift.

And from far away she heard her grandmother’s words.

Allt kommer att bli bättre med tiden.

Everything will get better with time.

AFTER SUPPER, THEY went for a walk along the river to help work off the jet lag, the evening air cool and fresh, golden light spilling over the mountains. The Platte was running high and fast, swallows dipping down for water, cottonwood trees standing on the far bank, their leaves shivering in the breeze.

Javier held Laura’s hand, savoring the moment as they talked about everything and nothing in particular. It felt good just to be with her like this—nothing to do, nowhere to be. Then she asked a question that caught him by surprise.

“If you went back to Coronado and told NSW you’d made a mistake, do you think they’d take you back?”

Did she want him to go?

“Probably.” He’d had more than one friend who’d turned in his Trident only to show up a few months later in uniform again. “Why do you ask?”

“You loved being a SEAL. I hate to see you walk away from something that means so much to you. I don’t want you to regret that later.”

So she was still feeling guilty that he’d left his career behind.

“Come on.” He led her off the path and walked toward the riverbank, where they could talk without cyclists whizzing by. He sat on a rounded boulder and drew her down beside him, her hand still in his.

“I didn’t resign just because I was about to go off and break international law, bella. I gave the Teams fourteen good years, and I realized it was time for me to go.”

“But three months ago you were so determined to get back to active duty.”

Yeah, he had been. But that had changed.

“You were right about me—you and Nate. Part of the reason I joined the Teams was to prove to myself and my family that I wasn’t a loser. I guess I thought I could somehow make up for what happened with Yadiel if I was just good enough. I realized that nothing I did—no amount of medals or successful missions—could bring him back or change who I am. I realized that if I wanted to build a life for myself outside the navy, I needed to start now. I’m thirty-eight and not getting any younger.”

“What are you thinking of doing?”

He was glad she asked. He’d been meaning to bring this up. “Not sure yet. McBride said he might have a place for me on his team as a deputy U.S. Marshal on the state’s fugitive task force. Tower wants the two of us to form our own security company now that Tower Global is gone. I need to think about it.”

“So . . . would that mean staying in Denver?” She spoke the words with a deliberate casualness that made him smile.

He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “I walked away from you in Dubai, bella. I won’t make that mistake again.”

“Is that your not-so-subtle way of suggesting we drop the ‘no strings attached’ clause from our relationship?”

“I want strings, Laura.”

She arched a blond eyebrow. “What kind of strings?”

“Nothing too crazy. I was thinking maybe I could have a couple of drawers for socks and underwear, maybe a rack in your closet, some space in the bathroom, my own parking place. Maybe I could even be your steady guy.”

She was smiling now. “You want to move into the loft and go steady with me?”

He raised his hands to her face, cupped her cheeks, told her what was really in his heart. “Or you could marry me instead.”

Her eyes went wide, her pupils dilating.

Adrenaline?

“I know it’s a big step from no strings to rings, bella, but I fell in love with you that first night in Dubai. It just took me a while to realize it. I thought there’d be time. I thought I’d find you, but then you were gone. This love we feel for each other, it’s special, and I want to take hold of it with both hands.”

Laura looked into Javier’s eyes, the intensity she saw there making her pulse race. He’d just asked her to marry him. She hadn’t expected this. Not yet, anyway.

She had to swallow the lump in her throat before she could speak. “Are . . . are you sure? I’m on a terrorist kill list. Do you really want to live your whole life—”

“Looking over my shoulder?” His gaze traveled over her face. “Yeah, I do. In case you haven’t noticed, bad guys don’t scare me. What scares me is the idea of not being here when you need me.”

There was one other thing.

“You come from a big family with lots of brothers and sisters. Are you sure you won’t regret not being a father?”

He looked as if he might laugh. “I want to marry you, not your uterus. If I want to spend time with kids, I’ve got a dozen nieces and nephews. But there’s also a sweet little girl in Stockholm who means a lot to me. I didn’t have a thing to do with bringing her into this world, and I won’t raise her. But I held her life in my hands for a few priceless hours, and there’s a part of me that considers her ours. I want us to watch her grow up together.”

Tears blurred Laura’s vision, his words touching the most tender part of her, the tightness in her throat making it hard to speak.

He frowned and wiped a tear from her cheek, apparently misunderstanding. “If it’s too soon, I understand. I didn’t mean—”

“Yes.” She answered without the slightest hesitation or the tiniest shred of doubt.

“Yes?” He seemed confused. “You said yes.”

She laughed. “What did you think I was going to say?”

“Well, I . . .”

And she understood. “You didn’t plan this, did you?”

Like everything about him, it was spontaneous, sincere, straight from his heart.

“I wanted to ask you one day when the time seemed right, but we started talking and . . . Hell, I don’t even have a ring.” He looked into her eyes, his knuckles caressing her cheek. “I’m naked here, bella, just laying myself out for you, telling you how I feel.”

Something inside Laura melted to see this big, strong man so completely vulnerable. “What you’ve done for me . . . I never thought I’d feel this whole again. You helped me put the pieces of myself back together. But if my whole world fell apart again tomorrow, the piece I couldn’t live without is you. Your love has been my salvation, and I don’t want to live an hour of my life without you.”

He ducked down, kissed her slow and deep, then drew back, a look of astonishment on his handsome face. “¡Anda pal carajo! I’m going to marry you. Who’d have thought that a woman as classy and beautiful as you would end up with a Boricua kid from the South Bronx?”

Before Laura could say a word, he scooped her up in his arms and swung her in a circle, shouting for the world to hear. “¡Wepa!”

She shrieked, laughed, then found herself on her feet again, held tight in his arms.

“You won’t regret this, bella.”

She smiled, kissed him. “I know.”

They turned toward home, walking hand in hand.

For someone who’d never wanted to get married, Laura suddenly couldn’t wait. “We could get a license tomorrow and get married on Saturday.”

“Nah, that won’t do. Mamá Andreína would kick my ass. If my abuelita is not at the wedding, we’re not married.”

“So what you’re telling me is that this is going to be a case of ‘My Big Fat Puerto Rican Wedding’?”

He chuckled. “See what you got yourself into?”

But Laura wouldn’t change it for the world.

Seven months later

Private island of El Conquistador Resort

Off the eastern tip of Puerto Rico

LAURA WALKED HAND in hand with Javier toward a pair of waiting beach chairs, the sea breeze catching her hair, sand warm against the soles of her bare feet. She looked up and down the beach for Erik, Heidi, and the girls. “Do you see them?”