Page 109 of Delta Force Defender

And it wasn’t a do-over. They didn’t need one.

But starting now, they were going to do it right. They were going to love each other forever, openly and honestly and always.

At last.

Caradine couldn’t wait to see how they saved each other next.

Twenty-seven

Blue married Everly while it was still technically summer. Alaska had other ideas, dressing up Grizzly Harbor in fine fall colors with the requisite cold, foggy mornings, rainy days that sometimes yielded to the moody sun, and deep, thick nights that hinted of the dark winter to come.

It was Isaac’s favorite time of year.

On the wedding day itself, all the friends and family who’d made the trek from the Lower 48 to celebrate the tough ex-SEAL and the woman who had been his neighbor as a child were treated to a little bit of the kind of Alaskan splendor that made Isaac prouder than usual to be born and bred right here, where he stood.

The bride was gorgeous, of course. Her smile was so big and wide as she walked down the aisle they’d made on the hill overlooking the water that it made everybody else smile, too.

Especially Blue, waiting for her in his dress blues.

And Isaac thought that the rest of his Alaska Force friends and colleagues stood a little taller, because one of their own was taking this step none of them could have imagined possible a few years ago. Not for Blue—and not for any of them, either.

Because when an individual had seen as much as they all had, sometimes it was tempting to imagine they’d never see anything else. Isaac knew that all too well.

But everything was different now.

Isaac stood at attention while Blue and Everly said their vows, high above the waters of the harbor. And Alaska put on a show for them, with whales spouting in the distance and a sunset so magnificent it made everyone gasp.

Still, his eyes were for the caterer of this wedding, who stood at the back of the gathered assembly.

Scowling, naturally.

And Isaac was an expert on those scowls. This one was Caradine pretending not to be moved by the ceremony taking place—or the jaw-dropping sunset, for that matter. And if he wasn’t mistaken, and he very rarely was on this subject, she was also ever so slightly stressed out about the fact that she was going to be feeding all these people.

Something she would rather die than admit.

And when her eyes met his and her scowl deepened, he knew that one was all for him.

They were figuring it out, one step at a time. The first thing Isaac had done, that night on the rock, was take Caradine back to her apartment. Where they both reacquainted themselves with each other on her bed, the way they had the first night they’d met.

And all those nights afterward.

Are you going to throw me out?he’d asked lazily, a long while later, when they were both sprawled out and breathless.

I’m thinking about it,she’d replied, grinning at him.Just for the sake of historical accuracy, you understand.

He’d done his best to convince her that history was best when it was revisited but conscientiously updated to fit the modern era.

And that was the first night that he allowed himself to fall asleep while he was lying next to her. Then stay asleep, with his arms wrapped around her and his head near hers, for the whole of the night.

He hadn’t actually known that was possible.

Good God, Gentry,she’d said the following morning when she’d woken him up, which had to be the first time in as long as he could remember that he’d had to bewoken upby another person.I thought you were dead.

But the truth was, Isaac felt fully alive.

Alive and kicking for the first time since that plane had gone down so many years ago.

In that vein, he’d called up his sister. Amy had come out to Grizzly Harbor, and the two of them had made the trek out to Uncle Theo’s cabin, where they’d spent a surprisingly pleasant night. And then all three of them had gone to the blue house there on the hill and cleaned it out at last. Until it was a house again, a potential home, not a sad grave marker to two people who would never, ever have wanted to be stuck in stone.

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