Letters from Home (Entangled Flirts) (7 page)

Chapter Twelve

“Just another day,” the woman whispered, a warm presence at his side. Her fingers wove through his, the touch a reminder. Of what? His brain couldn’t think. Like a fog swirling through the morning air against the trees and hills, his thoughts wouldn’t form. And his eyelids were too heavy to open.

Pain in his side throbbed and worked its way up through his shoulder. He arched away from it.

The touch returned. Where the hell was he?

“Maybe some more Demerol,” she continued in that soft, mellow voice. He wanted to see and tried to sit up. God, what was wrong with him? “Everything’s going to be okay. Back you go, soldier.”

Soldier? Had there been an attack? They were supposed to be out of Kandahar—pulled out. Where the hell was
Joey?
Where was that kid? He was supposed to report. No. He was dead, dead. Killed in action. His heart raced. Moving in sixteen hours. Troop transport over the border into Kuwait. Who was in charge? What happened? Why couldn’t he remember?
Think!

Sharp pain behind his eyes.

“Dad. Help me. He must be dreaming. He’s going to hurt himself. Where the hell is the nurse?”

No women on the front lines. Why was she here? They would kill her. He’d seen it all, seen too much. She never should have joined. She wasn’t safe here, no one was safe…

Her voice moved around him.
Beep. Beep. Beep.

“Damn it!” he murmured, fighting against unconsciousness. But the fog buried his panic, and he sank down, down into oblivion. “Go home, Lena.”

…

At the click of the door closing, Zack came to full alert.

Cool air brushed his cheek. The incessant beeping of the EKG was already starting to give him a headache.
I have a heartbeat.
Then he remembered. The truck. It hadn’t killed him. First, he moved his feet. He stretched the muscles in his legs next. So far, so good. He clenched his fist, felt an ache in his shoulder.

Slowly, finally, he blinked his eyes. Blinds covered the windows, a light in the bathroom was on, and a soft glow from the light above his head revealed his best friend, Mike, sitting in the seat at the foot of his bed. “Hey,” he croaked.

“Holy shit,” Mike stood up faster than Zack’s brain could register. In two long strides, he was out the door. “Doctor!”

Zack took a deep breath. Once, then twice. He wanted to move, needed to move. He started to sit up, but a pain in his side made him wince.

“Mr. Benson, you should lie back, you have several cracked ribs.” A nurse came through the door, and a doctor hurried in, a stethoscope looped over his neck. He stepped up next to Zack and placed the cold metal of the round listening device against his chest.

He found Mike’s gaze on him.

“Elena…” he managed to say. Why did his throat hurt so damned much?

Mike hesitated.

The pounding in Zack’s head throbbed against his temple.

“She left.”

Zack lifted his arm to check his watch, but his wrist was bare. He fixed his gaze on Mike.

“It’s January 3rd.”

“Gone?” He couldn’t have missed her. God couldn’t be so cruel.

“She has a flight in thirty minutes, out of Red Bluffs. Mayor Parker is flying her to Sacramento where she’ll get a plane to Texas.”

Zack leaned forward and reached for the IV.

The doctor pushed him back as Mike picked his phone off the table.

“You need tests, Mr. Benson, and rest.”

“Take it out,” Zack demanded, his voice starting to come back.

“I can’t—in good conscience—do that.”

“I can’t reach her on the phone,” Mike spoke up.

Zack stared at the middle-aged man with the white jacket and sympathetic eyes. Every second was the possibility of not seeing her. Each moment, a replay of last year. “Can’t keep me—”

“Head injuries can be very tricky, Mr. Benson. You could do more damage—”

“Tape it up, I’ll come back.”

Zack held the doctor’s gaze steady. He wouldn’t admit to the searing pain in his left temple or the dull throb in his left hip. He’d been through more hell than this and survived. Lena was not getting away from him again.

“Mike, clothes.”

The doctor scowled and checked his watch. “I have an extra pair of scrubs in my office. Please, give me five minutes to do a quick assessment and put my mind at ease while the nurse goes to get them.”

Zack would have objected, but Mike agreed for him. “I’m going to pull the car around. I’ll keep trying Lena’s phone. Do what the doctor says, Zack. I’ll get you there. I promise.”

A lump formed in his throat as he nodded. The tight feeling as he fought the swell of emotion riding through his veins rocked him. She’d been here. He’d heard her voice, felt her touch.

Christmas was done. Leave was over.

“Look to the right.”

Zack followed the sequence of instructions, familiar with the quick assessment. He’d given plenty of them to his soldiers over the years. He wasn’t in great shape. No denying it. His head hurt like a mother—but he wasn’t going to die.

And that was enough.

He pushed forward and swung his legs over the side of the bed.

“There is one thing,” the doctor began.

“Scrubs,” the nurse interrupted as she came through the doorway with a wheelchair. “Do you need help?”

Zack took the greenish blue material and snaked a leg in. Then he stopped. “What the fuck—”

“That’s the thing.”

A catheter.

“Get it out.”

“It’ll just take a moment.”

A chuckle shook his shoulders, and it felt good, even if it did remind him of the beating he’d taken, reminded him of seeing Lena that morning and waving to her. The chuckle became a laugh and then a painful cough as he was told to lie back and the nurse exposed him.

Humility. Nothing more humble than being a patient with a tube in your—

The nurse removed the catheter, then washed her hands before unhooking his IV and taping the tubing securely against his forearm. “There. You’re all set. I just need you to sign some paperwork.”

The scrubs went on easily now, but he was running out of time. The room spun just a bit as he stood, and she put an arm around his waist and guided him toward the wheelchair.

“I can walk.”

“Not around here, you won’t. Hospital policy.” She helped him sit then wheeled him toward the nurses’ station where Mike was standing with the doctor. Maybe Mike hadn’t liked the idea of Zack getting involved with Lena, but when it came right down to it, Mike backed him up. Trust. Zack felt an overwhelming gratitude for his friend.

Mike took the chair from the nurse, and they hurried toward the main entrance. “We’re just going to borrow this for a little.”

Zack groaned as he maneuvered himself into the passenger seat of Mike’s car. Weak as a damn kitten. He drummed his fingers against the armrest as Mike threw the chair into the back, and they took off.

…

Lena tucked her backpack in the small space behind the seats. She’d never done the private jet thing. Even now, amusement over finding the mayor waiting for her at the hospital this morning warred with a huge lump in her throat. Gratitude, but also so much more. This was her town, her home. Love.

But, she’d extended her stay as long as possible. She wiped the stray tear from her cheek.

“Flight plan is in. You ready?” Mr. Parker stepped up into the cockpit and landed his trim frame with a bounce on the seat.

She smiled, nodded for him, and sent one last look back toward the terminal where her mother watched. She lifted a hand to wave, and the engines fired up, the noise filling her head and leaving no more room for thoughts of home and Zack.

Her mom turned away from the window.

Then the glass doors she’d exited twenty minutes ago opened and Mike walked out, pushing a…wheelchair?

Zack?
Wearing scrubs?

Lena grabbed Mr. Parker’s arm and pointed toward the terminal.

Mr. Parker tapped the fancy watch on his wrist. “Lena, we—”

“Please. I just need a minute.”

When he nodded and turned off the engine, Lena stood, bent over, and opened the small door in the side of the cabin area, lowering the stairs. Without wasting any time, she ran in her heels, even more sorry that she’d worn them than she had been putting them on this morning.

Zack stood as she approached, and pain was etched on his brow. “Lena.”

The roughened texture of his voice brought her to the verge of tears. “What the hell are you doing out here?”

“I had to see you.”

She took his face in her hands and gazed into his eyes, studied them for any sign of concussion, weakness. But his pupils looked okay. It was the pallor of his skin that worried her now. And the way he was leaning. “Do you think I left you this morning so you could wake up and do something so stupid?” She gripped his arms, slowly moving her hands down to his wrists, and finally had his hands in her own. “You get back to that hospital. Mike, make him go.”

But Mike merely lifted his hands in surrender and backed off. She scowled and turned her attention to Zack. He gave her a tired smile and pulled her into his arms. Lena buried her face against his chest, and a sob broke loose. His deep sigh, the relief, rolled through her and smothered her anger.

“Don’t cry, babe.” Then he framed her face with his hands, held her for what seemed the longest, most perfect moment in her entire life. “I love you, Elena.”

“Oh, Zack.” She held on as tears tracked down her cheeks. “You know I have to go.” The doctor covering her shifts was scheduled to leave for Fort Benning. She had to go or there’d be hell to pay, no ifs, ands, or buts.

“It doesn’t matter how far you go, Lena. You’ll always be mine.”

Lena’s heart tore with the longing and ache. “I wish I didn’t—”

He smoothed back her hair. “A year ago, I watched you get on a plane and disappear.”

She frowned. “You were there?”

“I’m not going to watch you disappear again. As soon as the doctor gives me the go-ahead, I’m coming to Texas…or wherever you are.” Zack bent one knee.

Oh, my God.
She reached for him, even held him steady when he wobbled under her hands. “Get up. You’re going to hurt yourself.”

He stayed down, took her hands. “I had grand plans for Christmas morning. Now, I don’t even have a ring to offer you. I want to marry you. I want to have every day from now until forever. Will you marry me, Lena?”

The lump, still lodged in her throat, disappeared. She touched the gash above his eye, touched the swollen corner of his lips. She loved this man. “Of course I’ll marry you, you idiot, but only on one condition.”

Then she laughed and helped him stand. She wrapped her arms around his waist, kissed him over his heart.

“What condition would that be?”

“Write to me while I’m gone.”

He smiled then, and his trembling hands lifted hers and turned them over. He kissed her palm, and the touch sent a streak of desire and longing straight to her center. “On one condition,” he answered.

“Anything.” Lena agreed without hesitation.

“This time, you write me back.”

Epilogue

Lena hadn’t told him yet, and nerves tap danced through her stomach.

Home, for good, an entire year early. Her pulse raced at the thought. No more long drives from Fort Lewis. No more short weekend visits from Zack, flying up between his own assignments.

Like her mother’s lights, blinking a cadence on the tree in the corner, Lena’s heart beat with excitement. He was the sucker for surprises. This year was her turn.

“Two years ago, you got engaged,” Catalina spoke from her position on the floor next to the fireplace. She looked first at Lena then over to where Zack sat with her brothers at a card table in the corner—beers at their elbows, cards in their hands. “Last year, you married each other…”

Zack turned enough in his chair so he could see her, and he gave her a smile. God, that smile. Still made her blood race, her heart fill. “I think we’re taking it easy this year,” he answered for both of them. “No excitement.”

She knew her family was waiting for an announcement about babies. But they’d both agreed they wanted to wait until she was done with her time in the Army. It hadn’t been an easy decision. She wanted to make a family with Zack more than anything.

“Actually, I have one more gift to give today.” Lena got up and crossed the room to the bookshelf.

“For me?” Cat asked, grinning from her spot on the floor next to the tree. Lena sent her a dry, amused look.

Jaime elbowed Cat. “Don’t be so egotistical. She’s been saving the best for last—an early graduation present for me.”

She smiled at the banter and
tsked
, waving a finger in their direction. “Now, now. This is for the whole family.”

When she turned with the envelope from the top shelf, she found Zack watching her. He lifted a brow. Lena bit the smile from her lips, went to him, and held out the envelope. “Open it.”

“Open it,
hermano
.” Mike urged him on.

Zack ran a finger under the sealed flap, broke open the paper, and pulled out a letter. His gaze turned wary then, and she wondered if he recognized the familiar font, the same old paper they’d been receiving their orders on for years.

She kept her gaze on his face as he scanned it, and knew the moment he realized what he was looking at because he looked at her with wide, disbelieving eyes. “Really? You have your orders to ETS?”

“ETS? What does that mean?”

Lena turned to Maria. “End of Time in Service.”

“What? They’re letting you go?” Cat jump up as the rest of the family started hooting and hollering. Lena was pummeled by her sisters. Her mom had gotten up, too, and she stood near Lena, tears filling her eyes. “I am so proud of everything you’ve done,
mi amor
. But I am much happier with you home.”

“Thank you, Mami.”

“Maybe now we can get some grandkids around here,” Mr. Benson barked from his spot on the wingback chair. There was a moment of silence.

Zack grinned at her. Lena laughed, just like Zack’s dad to take it all to the bottom line.

“This calls for some champagne!” Her dad boasted, as he left for the dining room and the good crystal. Lena almost groaned. She rolled her eyes as Zack finally approached her. He took her shoulders in his hands. “How?”

Lena cleared her throat. “Before I deployed last year, they offered me the chance to end my service by going overseas for the year.”

He shook his head. “You’ve known all this time.”

“Yeah, sorry ‘bout that.” She rested her hands on his forearms and took a step closer. “I wanted to surprise you.”

“I’m surprised.”

“And happy?”

Zack pulled her close. “Definitely happy.”

Maria came around then with a tray of fluted glasses. Zack took two and handed one to Lena. He put an arm over her shoulder, securing her to his side. She leaned her head against his shoulder. Her family, small changes every year, always reminding her of how blessed she was.

And how she’d almost lost it all.

“To my daughter,” Carlos began, holding up his glass. “The strong, loving woman, dedicated to protecting and serving her country. The woman with, sometimes, too much smarts up here,” he pointed to his head, “to always feel down here.” He pointed to his heart.

Mami whacked his arm. He was right though, and Lena loved him for it.

“And to Zack,” her dad continued. “You bring out the heart in her.”

When her dad had to clear his throat, Lena blinked back the unexpected rush of tears.

“To the new chapter in your lives.
¡
Salud!
”

“
¡
Salud!
” The family responded.

Zack leaned in close, whispering in her ear, “So much for no excitement.”

She chuckled. “What can I say?”

He took her champagne, setting it on the coffee table. Then he framed her face with his hands. He kissed her, light and tender.

“How about ‘Merry Christmas, Zack’?”

“Oh, right.” She kissed him back with just enough gusto to make him blush. “Merry Christmas, Zack.”