Page 31 (1/2)

He’d handled their entire relationship co He knew Cameron was afraid since she’d been burned by Josh Alex should have been discussing this possibility with her all along They weren’t teenagers, fuh first love; they were mature adults If only he’d asked her to take their relationship more seriously before, then she wouldn’t have been blindsided when the reality occurred But he didn’t have time to fix it now and didn’t kno to anyway Not yet But he would

He checked his phone Forty-five minutes until he had to leave for Joint Base Andrews Then it was a nine hour C5 flight to Ramstein with an indeterminate layover before he’d climb on a C17 bound for Syria One hopefully short hop in a Blackhawk later and he should be at the military installation

And all that tiuez Thankfully, she had agreed to let Mariana stay while he was gone Mariana could handle this She was ten years old, and she looked up to the older w

orandmother

It would be okay

If only saying it would ht of soht Video calls just wouldn’t be the sa Mariana with Cameron would have felt like, well, family

He pulled up one of the selfies he’d taken of hiht on the mall Before the police had shown up

They looked happy Correction—they had been happy

They could still be if things hadn’t gone south

He hung his head That wasn’t fair of him It took a special kind of person to be ht Cath to handle it, that didn’t mean she wanted to His opinion of what she should do with her life didn’t matter

But for the first ti-terle parent was hard This trip proved that not even a non-deployuaranteed in the military

Could he really do that? Could he change who he was at his core?

No sense worrying about that right now Tis and stepped into the hall “Mariana… it’s tio”

No answer And no sound of movement anywhere in the house

“Mariana, co out books and clothes for her stay at Mrs Rodriguez’s Instead, she was curled in a ball on her bed, her back to the door and the covers tucked up to her chin “I know you don’t want me to leave, but it’s only eleven days”