I couldn’t leave. Not now. Not with Sam in the ICU.

“Sir, I’m at the hospital right now. My girlfriend”—ex-girlfriend, my brain clarified—“was injured today, and they’re monitoring her. I more than respect and appreciate the offer, but maybe there’s another pilot better qualified?”

“I’m sorry to hear that, Lieutenant Masters. She’s not your wife?” he asked.

“No, sir.” Not yet.

“Then I’m sorry to say that that wasn’t an offer, that was an order. We need you. I expect you at Cairns by seven a.m. Get some rest.” He hung up before I could even argue.

“What’s up?” Jagger asked.

“We’ve been ordered to report to Cairns by seven a.m. They need the 64s moved out to the evacuation zone for the new storms coming in.”

“Damn, they’re letting you two fly long-distance? I’m impressed,” Josh added.

This was one instance where I was anything but thrilled to be at the top of my class, or hell, in the army. I turned to Sam’s mom. “I tried to get out of it. I don’t want to leave her, but we have to go.”

Sam wasn’t my wife. She had no legal standing or claim to me in the eyes of the army, which meant I didn’t qualify for any special consideration to stay by her side. And I’d signed a goddamned contract where I’d basically traded my autonomy for a commission in the United States Army. It was go, or be charged absent without leave.

She threw her hands up. “Not my chain of command. I can’t do anything to help you with that. Orders are orders. But maybe I can help you here. Follow me.”

The door swished open and we walked into the ICU. The nurse at the desk cocked her head to the side. “Can I help you?”

“This young man has just been called away on military duty. He needs to see his fiancée before he goes.” She saw my wide eyes and whispered, “You do intend to marry my daughter, do you not?”

Hell yes, I do. “Absolutely.”

“He didn’t mention that they were engaged before.” The nurse looked up at me skeptically.

“It’s so new that they both haven’t really had time to process it.” Colonel Fitzgerald smiled, and I stood stock-still, knowing better than to try to lie.

I sucked at lying.

The nurse looked up at the clock and then sighed. “Fine, but you have to be quick.”

I didn’t need to be told twice, I’d already memorized her room number from the white board behind the nurse’s station.

“I’ll be outside,” Colonel Fitzgerald said as I opened the door.

“Thank you, ma’am. For everything.”

The steady beeping of the monitor greeted me as I pushed back the curtain that shielded Sam from the door. Her left arm was in a sling, she was attached to an IV, and obscene monitors attached to her head at equidistant intervals.

I pulled the chair closer to her bed and sat, taking her right hand in mine and pressing a kiss to her palm.

“I love you. I have to leave for a few days, but I’ll be back once this storm cell passes. Then you’ll be awake, and we can figure out what the hell we’re going to do, because if this has taught me anything, it’s that I can’t exist without you. You broke down every defense and made me feel, so you’d better be around to help me figure out what to do with all these feelings. We have to find a way, Samantha. We just do.”

I sat with her, watching her chest rise and fall with each breath. She would wake up. She was stronger than Grace, and if I repeated that to myself enough, I could get through this. She was going to wake up.

“Hey.” Colonel Fitzgerald lightly shook my shoulder, and my eyes snapped open. “It’s two thirty. You fell asleep. Probably a sign that you need to get some rest before you fly.”

My thumb stroked across the smooth skin of the back of Sam’s hand. “I don’t want to leave her.”

A soft, sorrowful smile came over her mom’s face. “I never want to. It’s the hardest part of my job, leaving her, especially when she doesn’t have anyone else, really. But if there’s anyone who understands duty and military orders, it’s Sam. This is the only life she’s ever known, Grayson. She was brought up in it, and something tells me she’ll marry into it. She’ll understand.”

“She shouldn’t have to. I should be here. We haven’t spoken…” My throat closed.

“I know. She told me. You two are the right people at the wrong time. Odds are stacked against you, I logically know that, and with that math-freakish brain of hers, so does Sam. But she’s never been one to back down from a challenge or to take the easy route.”

“She must get that from her mother.”

She laughed. “Stop sucking up and get out of here. I’ll stay with Sam. She won’t be alone.”

With every cell in my body protesting, screaming to stay by her side, I leaned over Sam’s bed and brushed my lips against her cheek. “I love you, Samantha. Fight like hell. I’ll be home soon. Please forgive me.”

I physically walked out of the door, but my heart stayed in that bed.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Sam

Everything hurt.

I pried my eyes open, and the world came into focus. I was in a hospital. Where? Why? The tornado.

I moved my head slowly and saw Mom sitting in a chair, reading on her tablet. “Mom,” I croaked.

Her eyes flew wide, and she smiled just as big, dropping the tablet to the bedside table and pressing the nurse call button. “Hey, Sam. Relax. You’ve had a rough day.”