I STOPPED AT THE FLORIST near my house. I chose for Annie a bouquet of wild flowers, nothing too pure and pretty. Carefree, damaged, and finally free, just like her. Matt had rattled me. I didn’t want to end up like him. Annie was my perfect match: strong, loyal, and a survivor. I wanted her and Gabriel in my life forever. And her smoking body didn’t hurt either.

Before I went home, I made one more pit stop. I had a surprise for Annie.

After my errands, I opened the door and Annie was sitting out on my small balcony, Trigger at her feet, Gabriel coloring. She wasn’t reading, on her phone, or listening to music. Just staring outside. I admired her ability to enjoy each moment of freedom, without having to always be busy. I needed to learn to do that. Maybe she could teach me.

“Hey, babe.”

Her face lit up when she saw me. She bounded over to me and gave me a kiss. “These are gorgeous. Thank you. How was work?”

I winced. I hated lying to her. I vowed to be honest with her from now on, but I couldn’t tell her where I’d been. I didn’t want to hurt her. “Good. An old Team guy stopped by.” I turned to Gabriel. “Hey buddy, do you want to go to Disneyland? See the Monsters?”

“Monsters? I go see monsters?” Gabriel loved Monsters University.

“Let’s get out of here.” I had plenty of other suggestions, but they all seemed wrong. My first thought was a marine style park with killer whales but I doubted Annie wanted to spend the day watching animals kidnapped and forced into captivity to perform tricks for strangers.

“Disneyland? Yes. I’d love to.”

I hadn’t been to Disneyland since I was a kid. “Pack a bag. Let’s go.”

Her face brightened. I surprised myself by how much I enjoyed making her happy.

I sent Kyle a quick text.

An hour later, we were headed up the I-5 to Anaheim.

We pulled into the Downtown Disney parking lot and dropped Trigger off at the Disneyland Kennels just outside the gate. We headed straight over to Disney California Adventure Park, a first for me. Gabriel was having a blast. The first ride we hit was Monstropolis. He still didn’t talk much, but watching him run around, smiling and carefree, filled me with pride. He was a sweet boy. How could his grandfather want nothing to do with him? We used our fast pass for Soarin’ Over California, which I actually loved: seeing all the beautiful parks, lakes, and monuments of my home state made me happy to be back home. Normally when I was on leave, I was itching to return back to sea. For the first time in memory, I was finding joy in everyday life. Spending time with Annie and Gabriel made everything more enjoyable.

We hit some more rides, hopped over to Disneyland, and grabbed a quick bite to eat.

Annie was enjoying herself, but I knew this wasn’t really her scene, even though she was trying her best for Gabriel. She hated crowds, and was pretty jumpy with the loud noises from the rides.

“I’m ready to go, Pat. But I need to do something first.”

We walked to the main entrance of Disneyland, and Annie’s eyes were glued to the ground. There were hundreds of tiny memorial pavers. She paced up and down the rows and finally stopped. There was a small one which read: The Race Family. December 8, 2006.

Annie knelt down and traced the stone with her hands. Tears filled her eyes. I didn’t want to ruin her moment, so I stood back, unsure of what to say. She took out some Krazy Glue from her purse. She removed the necklace she’d worn in the brothel when I first met her, the rusty one with the key charm. She took the chain off, and glued it to Nicole’s paver.

Shit, it even made me want to cry.

Annie took a picture of the paver and sat down.

After around ten minutes, Annie stood up. “We can go now.”

“That was sweet, Annie.”

“Yeah. I wanted her to have it. I’d be dead if it wasn’t for her. She always talked about that vacation. How much fun they all had, and she was determined to come back here. One day, when I tell my story, I will go see her parents. Would you go with me to see them?”

“Of course.”

“That would be great. Thank you.”

This fake lie that Annie was living was preventing her from healing. She needed to tell the world what really happened. I put my arm around her, and pushed a tired Gabriel in the stroller. We picked up Trigger at the kennels, and headed back to the car.

“Where are we staying?”

“I have a surprise for you.”

“I hate surprises. We’re not staying near Disneyland?”

“Why don’t you crash? It’s a long drive. We’ll be there by morning.”

She tapped her fingers on the window. “Okay. This better be good.” She leaned in and gave me a kiss.

I stopped by a drive-through Starbucks and ordered a venti black coffee, chocolate milk, and a few bottles of water for the drive.

Eight hours later, we had arrived at our destination just as the sun was coming up. Annie was still passed out in the seat next to me, Gabriel asleep in his car seat in the back.

“Wake up, sunshine. We’re here.”

She rubbed her eyes and blinked a few times to gain sight. The vast, pure lake glimmered in the sunrise.

“Pat! Tahoe! You remembered?”

“Of course. I never forget anything. Kyle has a buddy with a cabin in Incline Village. We have it for the whole week.”

“The week? That’s amazing.” She leaned in to my seat and wrapped her arms around my neck, planting a kiss on my cheek.

I kissed her back. I couldn’t wait to get her into the cabin. I scooped Gabriel out of his car seat, still asleep, and we took him into the cabin and into bed.

Annie was unlike any girl I’d ever known. She didn’t expect anything of me, didn’t try to change me, and accepted me for who I was. Maybe being with me the three months out of the year I didn’t deploy would be enough to make her happy. I was crazy about her.

I had to confront her father, protect her and Gabriel from him. And I knew doing so would shatter Annie’s carefully rebuilt world.

Kyle left out a detail about the owner of the cabin—apparently the guy was loaded. Probably one of his NFL buddies. The cabin was on the water in Incline Village, a hotspot of wealthy Silicon Valley executives. My mom and I used to stay in a crappy motel in South Lake Tahoe, but I loved it anyway. Annie and I checked the cabin out. The place had stonework, beautiful hardwood floors, seven bedrooms, a gourmet kitchen, a game room, an exercise room, a wine cellar, and a master bedroom with a private fireplace.

I needed to sleep. I let Trigger out back in the yard. “Can you bring him back in when he’s done?”

She nodded.

I brought our bags in, then went upstairs to take a shower.

I took off my clothes and turned on the hot water. Should I confront her dad? It was pointless, really. He would either lie and deny it, or admit it and retaliate against Matt. No wonder her father hated my guts, probably knew I would figure his bullshit out, and was pissed I had saved Annie and Gabriel. Some may look at us enlisted SEALs as nothing more than brawn, but to get through BUD/S you had to be intelligent.

If I told Annie, she would have no one left in her life but me—and that was if she believed me. You never know, blood is thicker than water. And if I were all she had, who would be there for her when I was gone for months on end?

I stepped out of the shower and went into the bedroom. The fireplace was already on and Annie was sitting on the bed in some damn sexy lingerie. Pink silk nightie trimmed with black lace, split up high on her thigh. Damn.

I stopped in the doorway to watch as she smoothed lotion over her legs and it occurred to me I wouldn’t mind seeing her do this every night. I’d heard the poor bastards in the Teams wax poetic about coming home to their wives and it wasn’t until I saw her looking at home in the bed that I realized what they meant.

She looked up and saw me watching her. “Hey, Hero.”

“You’re hotter than that fire.”

“So are you, standing there with nothing except a towel wrapped around your waist. Come here.”

I walked over to the edge of the bed. She set the lotion on the nightstand, stood up, and took off my towel. She kissed my mouth, my chest, traced my scars, and worked her way down to my waist. I gently pushed her away from me.

We couldn’t do this. Not yet.

“Pat, please. Come on, why are we waiting? I love you.”

Those three words made me want her even more. But we’d waited this long, what was a few more days.

“Babe, I’m sorry. I love you, too. I need to sleep.”

She slumped on the bed, pulling the cover over her body. “Are you not attracted to me? Is this because you still have a problem that I was a sex slave?”

Dammit. She didn’t understand me at all. I didn’t want her to feel rejected. I wanted her completely. Next time I was stuck in a dirt hole in the middle of Afghanistan, I wanted to dream of her. Or freezing my balls off in the frigid water in a swift boat, waiting to kill some pirates, I wanted the thought of coming home to her to keep me going. I wanted to make sure I was the only man to ever make her come, touch her, protect her, and take care of her.

“No, babe. Not at all. I want you so bad it hurts. I can’t wait to make love to you. Just not tonight. Soon, I promise.”

“Okay.”

I wrapped my arms around her.

A sense of clarity washed over me. No more doubts. I wanted to make her mine, forever. She and Gabriel. They would never have to apologize or lie about who they were. I loved and accepted them completely.

Now there was only one question—would Annie say yes?