Operation: Endurance

by Christi Snow

  Toni began to argue, but Julie didn’t give her a chance. She just pulled her along. Luckily, Julie had slept the night before so she could push the exhausted Toni around.

  Julie stopped her once they were further down the hall. “You have two choices right now, although it really doesn’t matter which you choose, because you will be doing both before you’re allowed back into his room.”

  Toni clenched her jaw, but didn’t argue, even though her eyes shot sparks. Julie figured that was a good sign the sassy girl was still in there, regardless of the awfulness of the day before.

  “You need to shower and change your clothes, but you also need to eat. Which would you like to do first?”

  “Are you saying I stink?” Toni discreetly checked her pits and the sides of Julie’s mouth quirked up.

  She couldn’t keep the laugh from escaping. “No, but there’s a shower and I have a change of clothes down in the Physical Therapy department. You’ll feel better for it. It will help as much to fix your exhaustion as you can without actually going home and taking a nap, which I gathered you wouldn’t even consider. Right?”

  “Right.”

  “So which first, shower or food?”

  Toni wilted, the fight going out of her.

  Julie swallowed against the lump in her throat. It would take a while for this girl to get over the trauma from the day before, but Julie planned to be there to physically and mentally prop her up.

  “Do you think we could get a cup of coffee on the way to the shower?”

  “I think that could be arranged. Come on.” She steered Toni toward her office to pick up fresh clothes.

  When Toni got out of the shower, they were chatting about inane things and ignoring the elephant in the room when something occurred to Julie. “Who’s taking care of Sam, your dog?”

  “Jake and Cassie took him to their house. They were here yesterday when I decided to stay.”

  “Okay, good.” Toni seemed so tired. She wouldn’t have even been there if it wasn’t for Julie pulling her into the house yesterday. “Listen, Toni, I’m so sorry that I drug you into that situation yesterday. You tried to leave and I probably should have let you, but I’m so glad that I didn’t. If I had, I would be dead now. You saved my life. Thank you for that.”

  Toni nodded sharply, but didn’t say anything so Julie quietly asked, “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. You know this just perfects my atrocious dating record. Not everyone can attract serial rapists and killers.”

  “Hey, I knew him a lot longer than you did, and I had no idea. You couldn’t have known. He hid it incredibly well, even from himself. I talked with my therapist about it this morning and he said that it was an obvious psychotic break. I look at it as he had two personalities…the one we knew and the one that was broken by that awful murder of his girlfriend when he was too young to deal with it. Let me give you my doctor’s name. He’s very good and you need to talk about this with someone. It helps. I promise you.”

  Toni studied Julie for a moment before agreeing to take Dr. Eckert’s number.

  Chapter 42The next day, Chris awoke Julie with slow, passionate love-making. He was nervous about today. She’d been through so much; he wasn’t sure how much more she could take. Her emotions still seemed very close to the surface, but he didn’t want to hide anything from her any longer. Until they had complete honesty between them, he didn’t feel like he could plan for the future and their life together.

  He glanced at the clock. Julie had fallen asleep again, but it was time to get going if they were going to make their appointment. She was asleep on her stomach and he spent a moment tracing the baby’s date on her butterfly tattoo. He had his own butterflies battering at the edges of his stomach. This had to work today.

  He trailed a kiss across the wings of the butterfly and then slowly up her spine. Her muscles gradually awakened under his touch. She moaned into the pillow, “Feels so good.”

  Chuckling low, he traced behind his lips. “It does, huh? Well, unfortunately, we have someplace we need to be, so you need to wake up, sleepyhead.”

  She lifted her head and cocked an eyebrow at him. “It’s Saturday. Where do we need to go?”

  “That, my dear, is a surprise.” He slapped her on her ass. “So up and at ‘em. Go get in the shower and I’ll get the coffee started.”

  * * *

  As they walked into the tree-lined park, Chris glanced around nervously. The only way he could imagine this being any more nerve-racking was if he had an engagement ring in his pocket. Honestly, he probably should have done that, too. If she accepted this, it was a foregone conclusion, at least in his mind, that they would also get married. He knew that was what he planned, but one step at a time. He took a deep breath. Honesty first.

  Julie looked at him with curiosity as he pulled them to a stop under a big old cottonwood tree. It seemed somehow appropriate. He spread the blanket out on the ground and asked her to sit down. He looked out toward the playground when he heard barking and smiled at the ball of fluff racing toward them.

  He leaned down and it flew into his arms, licking and wagging his tail. “Hey, Brady,” he said to the puppy. “Calm down. I need you to meet a lady.” He glanced up at the rangy guy trailing behind the puppy. “Thanks, Mark. We’ve got it from here. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  The guy smiled and waved and offered Julie a small little smile before he loped off.

  The golden retriever puppy bounded all over both him and Julie. He quickly snagged the loop of the leash around his wrist so it didn’t get away from them.

  Julie giggled as she rolled on the blanket with the puppy. “And who is this?”

  “Julie, this is Brady, a seven-week old golden retriever puppy.” He turned to the puppy and scratched it behind his ears. “Brady, this is your new mommy.”

  She stilled and gazed at him with wide eyes. Her mouth dropped open. “He’s mine?” Her voice was breathy and hopeful and the rolling in Chris’s stomach began to settle.

  “Yeah, he’s yours, if you want him.”

  She leapt for Chris and gave him an open-mouthed scorching kiss. “I definitely do. Oh my God, I can’t believe you got me a puppy. Thank you.” Her smile was blinding and so filled with genuine joy as she watched the puppy bound around on the blanket, nipping at the slight folds and wrinkles of it.

  He responded with a wide smile. They spent the next forty-five minutes playing in the park with the puppy, before it finally collapsed on the blanket with exhaustion.

  Julie continued to pet through his fluffy, downy fur as she turned to Chris. “This is absolutely the best gift ever. Thank you.”

  “Julie,” he began as he reached for her hand. “I love you. I want to give you a lifetime of gifts like this, but there’s something I need to tell you first. Something I probably should have told you before now.” He took a deep breath. “You know when you told me you can’t have babies?”

  She nodded hesitantly and then whispered brokenly, “Oh God, you’ve decided you can’t live with that, haven’t you? Are you giving me the puppy as some sort of consolation?” She began to get up and the puppy lifted his head and whined, sensing her distress.

  He grabbed hold of her thigh and held tight. “No, Butterfly. That’s not what I’m saying at all. In fact, it’s just the opposite. I’ve done some research. You’ve seen the scarring. I have fertility issues of my own from my torture. In fact, my doctor told me the chances of ever having intercourse again were almost non-existent.”

  Julie gasped as she reached for him. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “It wasn’t something I wanted spread around, but as you know, that miracle happened. Over and over again, thanks to you.” He gave her body a sexy glance, thinking about this morning. “Other miracles can happen, too. From my research, our odds aren’t great, but I don’t think either one of us is completely infertile. After the last year, I believe in miracles.” He pulled her closer to him, trying to gauge her reaction to
what he was telling her. “Miracles have already happened for us. And you know what, if it doesn’t happen, that’s okay too. You have such a capacity for love. Do you look at Brady and think that you’ll love him any less because you didn’t give birth to him?”

  She gave a little giggle. “Let’s hope I’m not giving birth to puppies. My body’s messed up, but I don’t think it’s that bad.”

  He smiled softly. They were going to be okay. God, he loved her. She was so perfect for him in every way. “Hey, I’m trying here. Work with me and go with my bad analogy.”

  “Okay, yes, I will love him even though I didn’t give birth to him.”

  That was all he needed. “I love you, Butterfly. I have for the past year. I dreamed of you constantly through those awful six months. You kept me alive, nothing else. You’re everything I want now and in the future. I think we’d be great parents. And if that doesn’t happen naturally, I think we should look at adopting. My grandfather took all three of us in when we were little. He never knew us before that, but he didn’t love us any less because of it. We can do that, too. We can adopt. But regardless of what happens, I can guarantee you I would be happy the rest of my life as long as I have you there in the morning with me when I wake up. I love you. You are my life.”

  “Oh, Chris.” She reached up and cupped his cheek. “I love you so much. Waking up to your face for the rest of my life sounds like Heaven on Earth. If anyone has earned that kind of happiness, I think it’s us. I have seen your scarring, but it never even occurred to me that you could have a sterility issue. I’m so sorry, but that seems like it’s one more part of fate proving to me that we truly belong together. Forever. I love you.”

  AfterwordJune 19th, Las Vegas airport

  Chris watched his big brother as he passed the drinks out to the group on the plane, bottled beers for the guys, champagne for Julie and Cassie, and sparkling apple juice for Penelope. They’d just taxied the plane across the Las Vegas tarmac, parked, and were about to embark into town to celebrate Penelope and Colton’s wedding planned for the next day.

  Colton stood in the front of the plane, lifting his beer bottle in a toast. “The last year and a half has meant big changes for the Robertson family. As they were occurring, I don’t think any of us thought they were necessarily good changes. But perspective shifts as time goes by. Getting us to this point may have been painful, but I think I speak for all six of us in this plane when I say we are all so much happier now than we ever thought we could be.”

  He looked at each person on the plane in turn, love and pride shining in his gaze. “All six of us have been close for a lot of years, but I don’t think anyone could have predicted how close we would all become.”

  Chris and Cassie both laughed as the red crept up Colton’s cheeks.

  “Ahem.” Chris couldn’t resist. “I don’t think anyone here wants to know the details, Colt.”

  Colton shoved Chris good-naturedly. “That’s not what I meant, but thanks for taking my whole speech into the gutter.”

  “I do whatever I can to help.” Chris smiled and then winked at Julie, whose eyes glinted with mirth. God, he loved her. It was pretty much already a foregone conclusion, but he planned to make it official this trip. He fingered the ring box in his pocket. They’d moved in together full-time a week ago, but he wanted it all. He wanted her with his name. He wanted his ring on her finger. He wanted to be able to say he was her husband.

  Suddenly he became aware that Colton had stopped talking. In fact, no one was saying anything. As he looked around the humor-filled faces in the plane, Chris asked, “What?”

  Cassie rolled her eyes. “You two are going to be absolutely useless this trip unless you do it.”

  His eyes widened in shock. “Do what?”

  “You know what and so do we. I know things remember?”

  Damn, he never could hide things from his twin. But this was supposed to be Colton and Penelope’s weekend. He hadn’t planned on horning in on that. He turned to check Colton, who just crossed his arms and smiled indulgently. “Well, get on with it. We’re all ready.”

  Chris glanced around the plane and everyone was smiling at him and Julie, except Julie who just looked confused. She was obviously the only one here who didn’t know what was happening. He turned back to Colton. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, do it.”

  “Okay, thanks.” He smiled and took a deep breath before dropping to one knee in front of Julie. Tears immediately welled up in her eyes, but she was smiling as wide as he’d ever seen as he began, “Butterfly…”

  Yeah, life had changed for all of them, but in the end those changes had been damn good.

  THE END

  Author's NoteTexas Tech is a real university and Lubbock, TX is a real town. In fact, that’s where I graduated from college and have amazing memories from there. As a result, when I sat down to write my first series of books, I wanted to pay homage to that school and town I love so much.

  I probably wasn’t thinking that through when I decided to create all the murder and mayhem of this trilogy in that locale. Don’t let the events in these books influence your perception of either the school or the town. While the places are real, the events absolutely are NOT.

  I also took great liberties in the layout of the campus, the kinds of activities the University would allow, Lubbock PD, Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, and some of the surrounding businesses. Please don’t hold it against them or me!

  This is a work of fiction and should be looked at in that light.

  DON’T FORGET!

  Book #3.5

  Brian and Toni’s novella will be coming this fall.

  Also the Martin Ranch Trilogy will be coming out in 2014.

  About the AuthorAs an avid reader my entire life, I’ve always dreamed of writing books that brought to others the kind of joy I feel when I read. But…I never did anything about it besides jot down a few ideas and sparse scenes.

  When I turned 41, I decided it was time to go after my dream and started writing. Within four months, I’d written over 150,000 words and haven’t stopped since. I’ve found my passion by writing about sexy, alpha heroes and smart, tough heroines falling in love and finding their passion. I’m truly living the dream and loving every minute of it.

  My tagline is…

  Passion and adventure on the road to Happily Ever After. I have to admit, I am loving this adventure!

  You can find me at: www.Christi-Snow.com