Page 185 of Sloane

“You’re right. I shouldn’t have said anything. O’Brien just came to me in a dream last night and gave me shit for not marrying you when he wasn’t able to marry his girl.”

My heart hurt for him. I knew he was struggling with the loss of one of his men.

“I’m so sorry, Sloane.”

A single tear rolled down his cheek, and knowing how much he was hurting made my eyes well with my own.

“I never got to pay my respects,” he whispered. “I should have paid my respects.”

I reached across the table for his hand.

“Baby, you were in a coma. How could you?” I squeezed his fingers. “It’s not too late. We can go visit his grave, and you can stop and see his family. I’m sure they’d appreciate that.”

“You don’t think it’s too late? Wouldn’t that be opening old wounds?”

“They lost a son, brother, friend, boyfriend… those wounds are never going to heal. I think they’d be honored if you came when you were able to.”

“I’ll look into where he’s from and where he’s buried. He might be at Arlington, so it might be two separate trips.”

“Yeah. But maybe not if his family wanted him close by so they could visit him regularly.”

He looked at me thoughtfully. “Is that what you’d want? Me buried close by so you could visit my grave?”

“No, I want you close by so our daughter has a father to walk her down the aisle, and I have someone I can grow old with.”

“I’m a Marine, Ash. I don’t know how to be anything else.”

“Have you even thought about other possibilities? You have a degree. You’ve been in a leadership role for how long? There’re companies who’d be clamoring to hire you.”

“Name one,” he challenged.

“I can’t off the top of my head. Maybe you should look into it.”

I was almost ready to beg him to consider it, but then I realized, just like I couldn’t force him to want to take on the role as Millie’s dad, I couldn’t force him to retire. It was something he had to want for himself, or he’d resent me forever.

I’d take a broken heart from letting him go over one that was slowly destroyed piece by piece because he grew to hate me over time.

****

Sloane

Was she right? Could I do something else?

I’d been so hell-bent on staying a Marine that I hadn’t even allowed myself the possibility there might be other options.

~~~~

O’Brien continued to haunt my dreams, and I made a few calls about where he was buried. Ash had been right—his family had him interred in his hometown in South Carolina. Maybe if I went to pay my respects, he’d finally stop haunting me.

Then Ryan invited me to lunch, and showed up with a woman who looked a helluva lot like Grace but wasn’t actually Grace.

And she had a proposition for me.

I somehow knew there was a higher power at work, and I’d better pay attention.

Chapter Sixty-Eight

Ashley

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