I threw my hands up in the air, ignoring the twinge in my chest. “I just want to know what I have to do to get back on active duty.”
“Do you really think you should be worried about that?” Mom asked.
“What the hell should I be worried about then?” I snapped.
“Colin,” Dad said sharply. “You may be a grown man, but you will not talk to your mother that way. She doesn’t deserve it.”
He was right. “Sorry. All I’ve ever wanted was to be a soldier. I can’t imagine starting over now.”
Mom stepped up to the bed and took my hand. “You’re only twenty-eight years old. You can still do anything you want.”
“And what I want is to return to my unit.”
Capt. Palmer regarded me for a moment. “I will not promise you anything. Everything is dependent on your leg. However, there is a program for soldiers who might require extended periods of rehabilitation. Once you are able to start PT, they will be the group to help you transition to active duty, another role in the Army, or civilian life, if necessary.”
That was what I’d been waiting for. “I’ll take it.”
“You’ll still have to take a physical test to return to active duty, but they will determine when you’ve reached that point.”
For the first time in hours the muscles in my body relaxed, taking some of the pain with them. “That’s what I want to do then.”
“I’ll go make the arrangements to have you transferred.”
“Thank you,” I said as he turned to leave.
Mom’s eyes glistened in the bright light of the room. “Are you sure you want to go back, after all of this?”
“I am.” I gestured toward my leg. “None of this changes anything. We all knew my job would be dangerous when I enlisted. It’s still what I want to do.”
She nodded. “I know. It scares the life out of me.”
Leaning forward as far as I could, I wrapped her in my arms. The effort became too much and I sat back. “Now I need to call Danielle. She’s probably already having a meltdown.”
Dad sighed. “You could say that. We’ve talked to her a few times since you were admitted, but we haven’t had a chance to call since you woke up.”
Mom handed me a cell phone. “It’s already set for international calling. We wanted to make sure the hospital could get in touch with us if they needed to.”
I took the phone and dialed Danielle’s cell.
“Mrs. Dunham, how’s he doing?” Her voice sounded weary.
“Danielle.”
“Oh my God, Colin. I’ve been so worried about you. I’m so happy you’re awake.” She sniffed and I knew she was upset.
“Danielle, please don’t cry.”
“I can’t help it,” she whimpered. “When Tanner called and said you’d been taken to Germany, I was so worried I’d be attending your funeral.”
“I’m fine.”
“Don’t lie to me. Tanner still has friends in Germany and they’ve kept him up to date on your condition.”
I sighed, not sure I wanted to get into it over the phone. Then again, knowing Danielle, she wouldn’t let it go. “My chest is healing fine. They’re concerned about my leg.”
“When are they sending you home?”
“The doctor is having me transferred to a rehabilitation unit, so I’m guessing once the swelling goes down and they can remove the drainage tubes.”
“Tanner said they put them in a week ago to try and save your leg.” Her voice got softer with each word she spoke.
“Come on, you know I’m not going down without a fight. Don’t worry about me.”
“How can I not worry about you? But I do know you’ll fight with everything you can.”
“Exactly.”
“Is there anything you need me to do?”
I almost said no and then I remembered the nurse saying they’d sent Joey back to the States for rehab. “Can you try and find Joey and check on her for me? She’s the—”
“I know who she is.” she laughed. The sound was comforting. “Remember, Tanner doesn’t keep anything from me. I’ll see if I can get in touch with some of Tanner’s friends in the hospital who aren’t deployed right now.”
“Thanks, Danielle.”
“You really care about her, don’t you?”
I noticed my parents watching me out of the corner of my eye. After all these years of being single, I wondered how they were going to react to me finding someone. Not to mention the fact she was in the Army too. “I care about her more than I can remember caring for anyone else.”
“Her?” Mom whispered, looking at my dad.
He nodded and smiled.
“I’ll find her,” Danielle promised. “You better call me to keep me up to date, and tell me when they’re sending you home.”
“I will. Thanks, Danielle.”
“Anything for you. You helped me more than you’ll ever know. I’m just so glad to hear your voice again.”
“I promise to call later.”
We said our good-byes and I handed the phone back to my mom. She stood there eyes wide, gaping at me.
“Sgt. Brant is a she?”
I nodded and rolled my eyes, earning a laugh from my dad. “Yes, Mom. I met her before we deployed. At the time I had no idea she was in the Army.”
“She didn’t tell you?”
“No, and I didn’t tell her. The first we both knew was when we ran into each other in Afghanistan.”
I proceeded to tell them about our time on the base, leaving out the details of our one-night stand. That was something my parents definitely did not need to know. They both smiled and laughed throughout the story, but Dad was definitely more relaxed than Mom. She tried to sit still, even fidgeting in her seat. Every once in a while, she’d stand and do a quick pace throughout the room.
Capt. Palmer came back a few hours later with the paperwork to have me transferred to the new unit.
“It’ll be at least a few days, if not more, before we can safely send you back to the States. I want to make sure that the drainage tubes continue to reduce the swelling. Once that happens, you’ll be on your way home.”
“Thank you.”
He clasped me on the shoulder. “I hope you make it back, Sgt. Dunham.”
“Don’t worry. I will.”
I thought about Joey’s smile and those bright blue eyes that had captivated me from the first moment I met her. Back when she was just a girl in a bar. When all we had was one night.
Who was I kidding?
I wanted Joey for the long haul, and to do that, I needed to be the man she deserved. No matter what it took, I’d get myself back to where I was before.
Chapter 15
Joey
“You’re making fantastic progress, Brant.”
I looked at the X-ray hanging on the light board. After a few weeks in a sling, I wanted out, even though that wasn’t likely to happen.
“Thanks. How long until I can ditch the sling and start PT?”
He collected the X-rays and placed them in my file. “Not for at least another two weeks. The wound is almost healed, but we still need to work around the fracture to your clavicle. It’s healing fast, but not fast enough to start PT yet.”
I groaned. “Sitting at home is so boring.”
“Don’t sit at home. Go out and have fun. Before you know it, you’ll be done with PT and back in Afghanistan.”
“My idea of fun is flying a plane, a helicopter—anything in the sky. And everyone I want to spend time with is in Afghanistan.”
My thoughts immediately drifted to Colin. I hadn’t heard anything about his condition since I was sent home. My stomach clenched wondering how he was doing. I didn’t have any contacts to find out and the last time I saw him he was connected to a bunch of different machines.
“You’ll be doing that before you know it.” Walters smiled and clasped me on the shoulder. “Give it another two weeks and we’ll get you out of the sling and into PT.”
“Get your shirt back on and I’ll meet you in the hall.” He stepped out, closing the door behind him.
I grabbed the button down shirt, which was easiest to get on and off by myself because it meant I didn’t have to lift my arm too high. Even so, buttoning it up was still a pain in the ass and took forever.
I finally stepped out into the hall where Walters was waiting with a very familiar looking woman.
I knew I’d seen her before, but where, I couldn’t be sure. She had long dark hair; the same dark hair worn by the baby on her hip. Walters noticed my approach and smiled. “Brant, there’s someone I’d like you to meet.”
“We’ve met before,” the brunette said, “but we’ve never been formally introduced.” She reached out a hand to me. “I’m Danielle Marano.”
Marano. Why did I know that name?
“Tanner’s wife,” she continued with a smile.
I took her hand in mine and all my manners disappeared in an instant. “How’s Colin?”
She laughed. “Straight to the point. I like it. He’s getting better each day. How about you finish up here and we can grab a cup of coffee. I’ll tell you what I know then.”
“Okay,” I said quickly, afraid she’d leave and take what she knew about Colin with her.
Walters cleared his throat. “Make a follow up appointment for two weeks. We’ll see if we can get that splint off.” He turned to Danielle. “Tell Tanner to come see me when he gets back.”
“I will,” Danielle agreed.
Walters waved and turned to walk through the next closed door.
Danielle gestured forward. “Let’s get that appointment made. We have a lot to talk about.”
No words would come to me. In a fog, I walked through the door and up to the desk to make the appointment. After weeks of hoping to hear something, one of the only people who could tell me anything stood in front of me. She cooed to the baby in her arms on the way to the coffee shop. I didn’t snap out of it until I was sitting down across from her. Then I realized how rude I’d been.
“I’m sorry. I should have said it was nice to meet you.”
She shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. I’m an Army wife. I’ve had my share of bad news dumped on me and waited for answers.”
That’s when everything clicked into place. This was Nate’s wife—the woman Colin saw as a sister. She had to be one of the strongest women I’d ever met, especially knowing what she’d been through, and the fact that she married another soldier. The baby started to fuss.
“Sorry about that. Nate’s past his nap time.” She lay the baby down in the car seat and strapped him in.
“You’re right about that. I’ve been desperate for information and didn’t know who to ask. But that doesn’t excuse my behavior.”
She watched me for a moment, almost as if she were trying to solve a puzzle. “You love him don’t you?”
Was I in love with Colin? Not yet. But it wouldn’t be long before I was.
“I care about him very much. I fall for him more every day.”
“I thought so, and I’m glad. I’ve never heard Colin use that tone of voice for anyone.”
“In that helicopter, waiting for someone to rescue us, I recognized how far things had truly gone with Colin. Seeing him try and hide the pain so I wouldn’t worry, I knew our feelings for each other ran deeper than either one of us had been brave enough to admit.”
She picked up her cup of coffee. “I think you were very brave to stay with him.”
“I couldn’t leave him. I just wish the bullet had hit me instead. I tried to dive in front of him, but he was already going down.”
Danielle pointed to my arm. “Is that how you were injured?”
I looked down at the sling and back up. “Yeah. There were two shooters. I wanted to protect him from both.”
“From what I understand from Tanner, you did protect him. The bandage job you did on his leg kept the infection from spreading.”
The coffee cup was halfway to my lips when I set it back down again, my stomach making it clear that anything I put in wouldn’t stay down.
“Infection?”
The smile disappeared from her face and I held my breath. She’d already told me he was fine, what else could there be?
“The doctors in Germany were able to repair the damage to Colin’s lung and chest. They also closed the wound on his leg, but not before an infection set in. It started to spread and a week later, his leg swelled to almost three times its normal size. They placed him in a medically induced coma until his lung healed enough for him to breathe on his own, and they ended up taking him back into surgery.”
I covered my mouth with my hand. My throat burned with the effort of holding back my tears. I was no medic, but I knew enough to feel sick to my stomach. Injuries like Colin’s usually led to amputation. The swelling sometimes cut off the blood flow, killing the tissue.
“Are you okay?” She covered my hand on the table with hers. I noticed the white of my knuckles and loosened my grip.
I was far from okay, but I needed to hear what she had to say. “Yes, please continue.”
“They thought about amputation.” She must have noticed my wince because she squeezed my hand and waited a moment before continuing. “But they decided to try drainage tubes first because they’d caught the swelling early, before any real damage was done—at least, that’s how Tanner explained it to me. Anyway, the drainage tubes have had the desired effect. The swelling has gone down. The doctors are still worried about nerve damage from the infection, as well as the break in his femur, but they aren’t looking at amputation anymore.”
“His femur was broken? He stood on it to help me defend our position.”
She smirked. “That doesn’t surprise me. Colin doesn’t go down without a fight when he really wants something. Trust me, I’ve seen it. He’s stubborn.”
“What happens to him now?” My knee bounced up and down under the table. I didn’t bother to try and stop it.
“He should be arriving in a few days. They’ve set him up in a rehabilitation unit. Once he’s able, he’ll start physical therapy. If he can pass a physical test at the end, they’ll allow him to rejoin his unit.”
I swallowed hard. The past few months, we’d shared a lot. I knew Colin didn’t want to do anything else but be in the Army. The fact that him staying on was a possibility was amazing. He must have been so happy.
“But that will be up to the Army and Colin. If he wants they can find him another position within the Army, or he can receive an honorable discharge and become a civilian.”
I couldn’t stop myself. “He’d hate that.”
Danielle nodded. “You’re right, he would. Physical therapy is his best chance, but he might need a cheering squad. From what I understand, it can be hard and painful.”
“I’ll be anywhere he needs me to be. I’ll be here until I finish my therapy, but then I’ll have to go back and finish out my deployment.”
“I think he’ll really want you to be there until you have to leave.”
“You’ve talked to him?”
“Yeah.” She smiled and I returned the gesture, but it was forced. It was wrong, I knew, but part of me was jealous of her. She had all kinds of access to information that I’d been craving for weeks. Colin had been sick—really sick—and all I could do was sit and pine and wait for someone to throw me a scrap of information.
She pulled out her phone. “Would you like to talk to him?”
I froze for a second. “More than you could ever know.”
She punched in a few numbers than handed me her phone. It rang a few times and disappointment flooded my system when I thought I might not get to talk to him after all. Then the phone connected.
“Have you found her yet?”
His smooth baritone voice settled me in a way
I should have expected but was swept away with all the same. For a moment, I let the feeling take me away from all of the bad that had happened to us in the last few weeks.
“Danielle? Are you there?”
My fingers tightened around the phone as I said softly, “She found me.”
“Joey?” The tone of his voice changed instantly. “Joey.”
I wasn’t kidding myself—he sounded relieved. As relieved as I was to hear him speak. To know that Danielle had been telling the truth.
Colin was okay.
“It’s me. Are you okay?”
“I am now.”
I couldn’t hold back the tears any longer, and for once I didn’t give a damn that I was in public and crying because even though the tears dripped down my face unchecked since my good hand was holding the phone, I was so, so happy. “I was so worried about you. They sent me home the day after you came down from ICU and I didn’t know who to talk to so I could find out more.”
“Please don’t cry, Bright Eyes. I’m fine.”
I sniffled, my heart thundering in my chest at the nickname he’d given me. “I wouldn’t say fine after everything Danielle just told me.”
“It’s not that bad. I’ll blow through physical therapy and be back on duty before you know it. They’re taking the tubes out tomorrow. I’ll be home on Thursday.”
“Thursday?”
“Thursday. Now promise me you won’t cry anymore.”
“I’ll try not to. Call me when you get in.”
He chuckled. “And how am I supposed to do that when you never gave me your number?”
“I’ll pick her up,” Danielle said, loud enough for Colin to hear.
“Are you sure?” I asked her.
She nodded, a huge grin plastered on her face. “I’m positive.”
“Okay, I’ll be there.”
“I miss you,” he whispered.
“I miss you, too.”
“I have to go. The nurse is here to do a few blood tests, but I’ll see you on Thursday. And tell Danielle I said thank you.”
“I will. ’Bye, Colin.”
“’Bye, Bright Eyes.”
Just Once Page 12