Page 35 of Building Courage

The casual, unemotional way she spoke set off alarm bells in his head. It was the same controlled tone SEALs used when in the thick of a firefight.

Something major had gone down. But at least her reaction to his call at the park was less of a mystery now.

Brynn continued. “My idea was to travel the country and do a kind of video and photographic journal of Americana, the culture, and the beauty of each state; maybe do a picture book later. That’s how I started out. I needed the focus to cancel out the negativity, but then I started taking up different challenges along the way and started the podcast, which was supposed to be an avenue to promote my photography business. But somewhere along the way, it morphed into something more.” She shrugged. “Then Natalie contacted me and offered me a job, and you know the rest.”

He didn’t think he had even come close to knowing a fraction of what he wanted to know about this, but she was obviously uncomfortable with the subject, and he couldn’t really push. She’d begun to trust him. Otherwise, she’d have made an excuse not to stay for dinner the last time or agreed so readily to come tonight. It was going to take time. Time he might not have if he deployed.

“What have you been up to since our last scuba lesson?” she asked.

He’d been hoping to ease into it. “Desert maneuvers.”

“You got some sun today.” She brushed her fingertips along his forearm.

The electric feel of her touch raced through him. A craving for more struck with such ferocity his voice was husky when he spoke. “Yeah, even after using sunscreen.”

He saw the shift in her expression when her mind made the leap.

*

Brynn’s mouth was suddenly dry. “Are you deploying?”

“Possibly. It isn’t certain yet. I have someone in mind who can work with you if it happens. In the meantime… I can’t dive with you because there’s a twenty-four-hour window after a dive before I can fly. If I fly without giving the extra oxygen in my bloodstream time to dissipate, I’ll get the bends.”

She understood that. She’d read about it during her research, and he’d warned her of the same thing. “And how long will you be deployed?”

“It could be a week, a month. I won’t know until I’m told.”

He’d warned her he could ship out at a moment’s notice, but she just hadn’t expected it to happen. “I’d rather wait for you to get back.”

“If it’s a month, it will only leave you three months to prepare. The guy I’m going to ask is a good diver. He and his wife dive together all the time. She could work with you, too. It will only be until I get back.”

But she’d already begun to trust Tucker. “I’ll have to think about it.”

“Fair enough.”

They finished the meal, and Tucker cleared the table with speedy efficiency.

“Did you wait tables in another life?” she asked.

He smiled. “It was my job growing up. Let’s wait a while before we have dessert. I have something in the backyard I want to show you first.”

She was very aware of the way his hand rested against the small of her back as they exited the back door. When he guided her around the pool, she realized where he was taking her and actually smiled. A free-standing hammock was positioned under the shade of the neighbor’s tree, along with two Adirondack chairs. The bow-shaped metal frame looked sturdy, and the heavy rope and canvas hammock had an obvious nautical design.

“What do you think?” he asked.

“I think it’s perfect.”

“Go ahead and try it out. Since you suggested it, I thought you should be the first to test it.”

She sat down in the center of the hammock and swung her legs up at the same time she reclined on the surface. The whole thing rocked back and forth but stabilized quickly.

“It looks like you’ve had some practice doing that,” he commented.

“My parents have a hammock on the back deck.” She folded her hands beneath her head and looked up through the branches of the tree to the cloudless azure sky that was just starting to grow soft as evening approached. “My brothers and I all enjoy it. In fact, we’ve had more than one argument over who gets the hammock.”

“Why not buy more than one?” he asked.

“Where’s the fun in that?”

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