by Niles, Naomi
He stopped and looked at me. “Do you know what gave me the courage to change my whole life and ask Vicki to marry me?”
“You love her.”
“Yes, but that wouldn’t have been enough. I was pretty damned comfortable with my wicked ways. But for that six months when you and Amber actually got to be together and I saw how incredibly happy you were, I knew that was where I wanted to be someday in my life. I could feel the energy any time the two of you were in the same room or even when you were just talking about her. Dude, you’ve proven over and over how damned strong you are by fighting this shit that keeps attacking you and never giving up. Be strong now and don’t give up on that happy life that you deserve. Don’t give up on Amber.”
I finally agreed to go and now I sat in the back of a limousine with the ring I picked up when I asked the driver to stop by my apartment. I would have bought flowers, too, but I was scared to death I’d be late. My limbs were all tingling with excitement and the closer we go to the airport, the harder it became to breathe. I was trying to figure out in my head what I was going to say, but as dry as my mouth went just thinking about her, I doubted that I’d even be able to form a word.
I felt the car stop and the driver lowered the darkly tinted partition between us. “Here we are, sir. Would you like me to wait?”
“Yes, please.” I wasn’t completely convinced that she’d still want me. I was going to need a ride back to the hotel so I could at least get a piece of the wedding cake. I struggled out of the backseat and steadied myself. Adjusting my hat to make sure it covered my bald head, I headed inside. I had no idea what airline she was flying, so it took me about fifteen minutes to find the flight leaving to San Diego in an hour and a half. When I found it, I went towards the Delta Airlines counter and that was when I saw her.
She was looking down at a book or a magazine or something in her hands and she didn’t see me. I wondered if she’d recognize me if she did. She was wearing a soft white sweater and a pair of jeans and boots. Her pretty hair framed her face and my heart stuck in my throat as I looked at her. She was the most beautiful woman in the world to me and my hands actually itched to touch her. I stood there and debated just leaving and not going through with this. She hadn’t seen me yet…
She looked up suddenly as if she felt my eyes on her and ours met. I saw a myriad of emotions cross her face and I at least knew that she recognized me. I started towards her, self-conscious of the cane. I saw her eyes flash to it and back to my face and then she stood up and came towards me.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
AMBER
When I first glanced up and saw the man in the tuxedo and the black Stetson hat I thought, “Wow, he favors Kyle.” That didn’t surprise me. I found myself looking for him everywhere I went and often found someone who looks like him. I chastise myself for it all the time. It’s a sickness to be so attracted to men who treat you poorly – my therapist had told me so more than once. I started to ignore him even though he was staring at me…but then I saw he cane. I looked back up and realized that those hazel eyes were unmistakably his. My body was shaking so hard, I wasn’t even sure if I trusted it to hold me up as I stood. What is he doing here? I started towards him and he towards me. We stopped about three feet from each other.
“Hi, Amber,” he said it as if we’d only just seen each other last week. It has been six months to the day and every one of those days has been like torture.
“Kyle, what are you doing here?”
“Um…” he adjusted himself with the cane. Why is he using a cane…and he’s so thin… “I was hoping we could talk,” he said at last.
“Kyle, are you okay? Are you sick?”
“Can we sit down?” I looked at the time. It was still a little over an hour before I had to board my flight. If he’d looked well, I liked to think I would have been strong enough not to give him the time of day. He’d literally broken my heart – all of me, as a matter of fact. But something wasn’t right and no matter how angry I still wanted to be with him, I didn’t want to see him sick or hurt.
“Okay.” He followed me over to a seating area where there wasn’t anyone else for a few rows and we sat down. He looked like whatever he came to say was sticking in his throat. I thought about running into Sarah the other day and I knew she must have sent him. “Kyle, what’s going on?”
“I don’t know where to start,” he said. “My sister told me once that the reason people get married and stay married is because they can’t imagine living without the other person. At the time I made a crack about that being a silly romantic notion. But the truth is Amber, I’ve tried living without you so many times since I met you – and I just can’t. I mean, I wake up every morning and I’m still breathing. But you can ask anyone… I’m not living. I only wake up because I have to and the only reason I keep breathing is because I know you’re somewhere not too far away breathing the same air. I never stopped loving you, Amber. I can’t stop loving you and I don’t want to live without you.”
My eyes were burning with tears. They were, in part, angry tears. How dare he put me through this and then show up when I’m finally getting on with my life and tell me all of the things I so desperately needed to hear months ago? “Until the next time you decide we should see other people, right?”
He looked down at the floor and swallowed hard before looking back up at me. There were tears in his eyes, too. “I never saw anyone else, Amber. For me, there is no one else. Since the day I realized I could never love Callie the way I love you, I haven’t as much as thought about being with another woman. There’s only you and if I can’t ever be with you again…then I’ll be alone.”
My head was spinning, my heart was aching, and my limbs were shaking so hard my teeth were chattering. “I don’t understand, Kyle. Why are you doing this to me?”
“I’m so sorry, baby. I thought I was doing it for you. The day I went to the doctor and I told you everything was good…and then I told you that made me want to live my life and be with other people, I lied. The tumor was not only back, it was cancer. All I could think about were the nights I held you while you trembled because of what you’d been through with Dylan. At that time, my prognosis was up in the air and I couldn’t ask you to marry me knowing there was a good possibility of leaving you a widow and making you go thorough watching me shrivel up and die…”
“Oh, Kyle… Jesus, you are so stupid.”
He laughed and wiped a tear away that rolled out of his pretty eyes. “I’m not going to argue with that.”
“Kyle, when you love someone, it’s not only about the fun and the good times. Truly loving someone means that you actually want to be there for them when they’re sick or hurt or just having a bad day. Let me ask you a question. Did you enjoy being with me the nights I woke up screaming after I’d had a dream about Dylan?”
He looked like he was thinking about it and then he said, “I don’t think enjoy is the right word, but I was glad I was there, for you.” I looked at him for a long time before I saw it click on his face. “I just love you so much, Amber. I hate the thought of making you unhappy…” That clicked, too, and I let it settle in before I said,
“You did make me unhappy by pushing me away. I’ve never been unhappier than when I wasn’t with you. Oh, Kyle…life is never going to be perfect, but the beauty of it is having someone to share it all with.” I reached up and took off his hat. His hair was growing back in places. It was soft-looking and fuzzy like a baby chick. I ran my fingers through it. “You poor thing… God, I wish that you would have let me be there for you.”
“You’re right. I’m an idiot. The next time I think I’m doing the right thing, I guess I should run it by someone else first. The cancer is gone, for the most part. I have to still do another thirty radiation treatments, but the prognosis is good. Is there any possibility you would consider giving me another chance?”
I sat his hat back on his head and put my hand on his thin face. He was pale and drawn, and his
suit looked like he bought it before he lost fifty pounds…but he was still the most beautiful man I’d ever seen. I considered playing hard to get a little bit and making him work for it, but the truth was I know we’re not playing here. This was the most real thing I’d ever felt in my life and I couldn’t even pretend that it wasn’t. “Only if you promise that you’ll always be honest with me…and that you’ll never leave me again.”
The tears were already spilling down my cheeks as he took my hand and said, “I promise to always be honest.” He started to slide down off the chair then to the floor. He was struggling with it and I wanted to help him, but I knew that would only embarrass him. I could hardly see through the tears as I realized what he was doing. Once he was on one knee he continued, “I also promise I will never leave you again. I brought a ring in case you wanted proof of that.” He smiled and blinked his eyes a few times before saying, “Amber Reed Scott, you are the best thing that has ever happened to me and I’m sorry that I’m so stupid. I wanted to do this six months ago and I should have. Will you please consider marrying me? After my hair grows back and I can walk right again.” He grinned when he said the last part. He’s fought so hard through all of this and I was so proud of him. I’d gladly walk down the aisle with him, even pushing a wheelchair with him as bald as an eagle. I was not in love with his hair or his ability to walk. I was in love with his soul and it consumed me.
I wrapped my arms around his neck, and it felt so good to touch him. He put his arms around my upper back and held me there. This was what I missed the most. I never felt safer than when I was in his arms. When I finally got ahold of myself I pulled back and said, “Yes.”
“Yes, you’ll marry me?”
I laughed and wiped at my face. “Yes, I’d love nothing more than to be your wife. I’d marry you right now Kyle – today.” He hugged me again and then he started planting kisses all over my face. When he pulled back, he was smiling. He took the ring out of the box and slipped it onto my left hand. It fit perfectly – just like he and I do. I rested my arms on his shoulders and leaned down so that our lips met. Time and space mean nothing where my feelings for this man are concerned. The kiss was as explosive as the first one we ever shared, even more so when I thought about the fact that I was going to fall asleep and wake up with that kiss on my lips every day for the rest of my life. I looked down at his tux again and said, “Kyle? Can I ask you something?”
“Anything.”
I giggled. “Did you rent that tux just to ask me to marry you?”
He grinned. “No, but if it helped you say yes, I’m keeping it.”
“You look really handsome in it. Why are you wearing a tux?”
“Greg got married today.”
I pulled my face up and looked at him to see if he was kidding. “Greg? Married?”
Laughing, he said, “Yep…it’s proof.”
“Proof of what?”
“That love really does conquer all. He was my inspiration for coming here today.”
“Well then, now I’m his biggest fan.”
“Do you want to go eat some wedding cake and have a glass of champagne with me?”
I thought about my luggage and the seven hundred dollar airline ticket, but only for half a second before I said, “I’d love to. I’ll drive…”
He struggled to his feet and I handed him his cane and stood up. He took my hand and said, “How about we come back later for your car? I’ve always wanted to make out in a limo…”
I wasn’t sure if he was serious about the limo, but making out with him sounded like heaven. “I love you, Kyle.”
He stopped walking and looked at me and said, “I love you more.” He was wrong, but I could live with letting him think that.
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SEAL’S BABY
By Naomi Niles
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 Naomi Niles
Chapter One
Dylan
I could feel the sting of heat from the explosions going off around me. Sweat dripped down my forehead into my eyes, but I ignored the uncomfortable sensation and kept them open and alert. We had broken off into factions, forced apart by the tirade of gunfire that had been hurled at us.
“Malcolm!” I yelled. The moment I had his attention, I signaled to him to stay down.
My peripheral vision caught sight of Antony crawling through the sand to take cover behind an obtuse rock sticking out of the beach. The moment he was covered, he looked at me and signaled that the others were some distance away.
I looked at the distance between Antony and me; I needed to get to him without being hit. On the heels of that thought came another explosion that sent waves of sand swirling into little tornados that danced in cacophonous chaos before settling back into the ground. I scanned the terrain and weighed my chances of getting to Antony before another explosion went off.
Everything was engulfed in stillness, but I knew from experience that this was simply the calm before the storm. I looked around me and made a calculated decision. I needed to get to Antony and Malcolm so that we could reunite with the rest of the unit. They had succeeded in separating us, but they would not succeed in keeping us parted.
I took one more cursory scan and then I jumped out of my hiding place and zigzagged across the open space. Instantly I heard the roar of gunfire as it met my hurried run. I didn’t run in a straight line; the worst thing to do in this situation was to be predictable. I was only a few feet away from Antony when I jumped towards him and belly crawled into place beside him. The gunfire continued for seconds afterwards, and then silence descended again.
“Were you hit?” Antony asked urgently.
“I don’t think so,” I replied panting hard. “Where’s Malcolm?”
“He’s covered; don’t worry,” Antony replied. “We need to find the rest of the unit.”
I nodded. “Our best bet is through the abandoned shed two metres from this spot … it’ll give us some coverage.”
“It’s risky.”
“I know,” I nodded. “But it’s less risky that attempting to walk through this minefield.”
As I checked my arsenal, Antony nudged me and gestured over to where Malcolm was hiding. “The kid doesn’t look so good,” he observed. I glanced over at Malcolm and took in his chalky skin and shaky expression.
“Isn’t he always that pale?” I joked.
Antony snorted. “It’s his first mission.”
“We survived it,” I said without sympathy. “And he will too. Now put your helmets on and keep your shields up; we’re going in.”
Antony communicated the information to Malcolm and both of them got to their feet the moment I did. Their bodies were hunched down low, in an imitation of mine so that we weren’t obvious targets. “Move fast,” I mouthed to both of them before I launched myself into open space with single-minded purpose.
They were on my heels and we jogged through the shaky sand that seemed to want us to sink into it. The gunfire started up again when we were half way there and I launched myself into a defensive position without ever slowing down.
“Cover yourself,” I yelled over the noise.
Within seconds, we scrambled into the abandoned shed and Antony closed the door shut behind us. It was larger than I had anticipated. In fact, it was not a shed at all but a base of some kind, cordoned off into separate rooms that we couldn’t see.
Malcolm came forward but I threw my fist up to stop him. “Hold your ground,” I said, sensing danger. “This is not what we expected.”
I walked around; my boots were covered in sand an
d they left a trail of dust behind me. I covered the left side of the room, Antony covered the right and Malcolm stayed in the middle. “Something’s not right,” I whispered.
Malcolm took a step forward and his boot made a loud, crunching sound against the floorboards. Instantly a sound came through from the closed door of the next room.
“There’s someone in here,” I mouthed to Malcolm and Antony. We converged together in the centre of the room. “We’re going in.”
I moved towards the door slowly and placed my ear up against it. I couldn’t hear much, but instinct told me that whoever was on the other side of it was hostile. I looked back over my shoulder and nodded once. Then I slammed open the door and we were through it in seconds, my eyes open and my body was ready to respond to whatever we found.
Chaos was the only way to describe what we met, and yet, within the chaos, I knew I needed to be calm and ordered in how I met the situation. There were four men in the room and the moment they saw us, they acted with fury. Each had a different weapon, but it didn’t matter to me. I had been trained to deal with every kind of assault.
Two men charged at me; one had a gun in hand and the other had a knife. I disarmed the man with the knife easily and knocked him out before the second one had closed in on me. I dodged his aim and tackled him to the floor before he could fire. He was screaming something but I didn’t care to find out what. Once he was down, I rose and glanced behind me. Antony and Malcolm had managed to stop the remaining two men.
“Are we clear?” Antony asked breathlessly.
The room was as plain and empty as the one before. “They were guarding something,” I said with conviction. “I think what we’re looking for is in the next room.”
“Or it could be a trap?” Malcolm said coming forward.
“It could be,” I agreed. “There’s only one way to find out.”
I saw the panic flit across Malcolm’s face and I recognized the feeling all too well. I had experienced the same mindless fear on my first mission too. I knew that in time, with training and experience, that would pass. “Stay behind me,” I said before I kicked the second door open.