Three dead, eighteen injured. Considering the damage, Linc knew those numbers could’ve been far worse. Thankfully, everyone was accounted for now, so they wouldn’t be finding more bodies. Rescue/recovery was over. It was time to switch to clean-up mode.

Linc was tired to the bone. Not so much from activation, but because of lack of sleep. Every time he closed his damn eyes he saw Ashley’s ashen face, and the way she struggled for breath.

And it was his fault.

Christ. His chest tightened. He hated that he caused her such distress. It had never been his intention. Smiles that reached her eyes, and to hear an honest laugh from her—that was what he’d wanted. Those had been his goals…in the beginning.

He succeeded, and then some, also hearing pure pleasure hitch her breath as she moaned his name while he was buried deep inside her. He especially like that one.

“Yo, bro? Where’d you go again?” Logan shoulder checked him, causing him to blink the interior of the Humvee into focus.

The parked Humvee.

Shit.

He glanced out the window. “We’re back at the armory.”

“Great observation, McCall.” One of their buddies in back snorted.

“Yeah, nothing gets past him,” the other added.

Linc flipped them the bird without turning to face them.

Idiots.

Chuckles filled the vehicle as they all got out and stretched.

After rotation, he generally hit the showers before stopping in the dining hall to grab a quick meal. Right now, he was content to just lean back against the vehicle and chill for a moment.

Several soldiers were scattered throughout the parking lot. Some were playing cards in the back of a pickup, others were chatting with a family member who stopped in to see them, since they wouldn’t go home until activation was over. He was stuck there for a few more days.

“I haven’t heard from Chloe. Any word from Ashley?” His brother checked his phone while he settled next to him.

“None,” he replied, having checked just before they got in the Humvee.

Logan slid him a look. “Could be that the towers are still down.”

“Or she didn’t even try.” Linc lifted a shoulder. “She’ll probably be gone back to California before we get home.” He swallowed hard. Saying the words out loud hurt like a bitch. More than he expected. 

If only he could see her before she went home. He needed to tell her he understood. And that he was still willing to wait for her.

“Who’s Ashley?” one of their buddies asked.

Linc rubbed at the ache in his chest. She was everything, but apparently he wasn’t enough.

Not to make her take another chance with her heart anyway.

Logan straightened. “She’s the pretty brunette wearing my brother’s shirt, walking toward us with my wife.” Logan backhanded his knuckles against Linc’s arm. “Look alive, man. Here they come.”

Linc tracked where his brother nodded, and his heart rolled in his chest. It was true. Ashley was there with Chloe…indeed wearing his shirt—filling it out a hell of a lot better than he ever did. Seeing his name displayed across her chest warmed more than his heart. The woman he loved strode straight for him, oblivious to the heads she turned, determined glint in her eyes as she zigzagged around people and vehicles. That gaze locked on his, playing havoc with his pulse.

Hope flickered in his chest, until a thought broke through his muddled brain and sent a deep shaft of pain straight through his heart.

She was there to give back his key.

***

Heart thumping in anticipation, Ashley was vaguely aware of Stef and her uncle hanging back a few paces, and Chloe rushing ahead to her husband, who stepped forward and pulled her in for a heated embrace.

Linc just leaned against a Humvee, stone-faced, arms crossed over his chest, and watched her approach with something close to trepidation in his eyes.

The same stance he used to have around her last year, no matter where they were. The house. By the pool. Her uncle’s. Even the corral. She could still see it plain as day. He stood near the corner, arms crossed, chewing a piece of straw, blue checkered shirt open…her body waking up for the first time since her husband’s death.

It wasn’t by choice, but she understood the meaning behind the folded arm stance. Closed off. Defensive. She’d used it more than once herself.

He was guarding his heart.

She deserved that. And more. But by the time she cleared the last row of vehicles in the way, her nerves were pinpricking her neck with a vengeance. And her body was awakening like a spring thaw. Damn, he looked great in uniform. So great. It was the first time she’d seem him in his ACUs. Over the past few months, she’d made it a point to be scarce whenever the guys had had drill. At the time, the sight of camo had knotted her stomach.

Not now. Not anymore. She gave her gaze permission to admire the uniform and how well it emphasized Linc’s powerful body beneath. God, she missed him, and wondered if he missed her too. His gaze gave nothing away.

Inhaling, she pushed aside the doubts and held onto her plan. Time to grovel.

“Hi.” Fabulous start. She was on a roll. And nervous as hell.

He nodded. “Hi, Ashley.”

Her heart sank a little when he used her full name.

“You didn’t have to come all the way here to give back my key. You could’ve left it at the cabin.”

No...Hell, no.

His words shocked her so much she halted a few feet away and blinked at him, her mouth, no doubt, hanging open wide enough to catch flies. Then she remembered how to breathe through the pain. Words. Use words.

“You want your key back?”

His gaze narrowed. “Isn’t that why you’re here?”

God, he thought she would do that to him in front of his buddies, and an armory full of people?

“No. It’s not.” She drew in another breath and stood tall. “I’m here for you, Linc.”

A smile slowly spread across his lips and his gaze warmed. “You are? I thought you were going home to California.”

Tension eased its hold on her shoulders, but not all of it. He still hadn’t moved, and he wasn’t giving much away. Not that she blamed him with the two guys next to him, and several others nearby, watching on with interest.

But, it was her turn give. Her turn to lay it all out on the line. Offer him everything. Hold nothing back.

She closed the distance between until they stood toe to toe, and hoped he could see in her eyes that she was all in. “I am home.”

At that, longing darkened his gaze as he uncrossed his arms and yanked her in close. “I’ve missed you,” he murmured against her ear.

“I missed you, too.” Tears burned behind her eyes. Happy tears. “I was wrong. And scared. I barely survived before, and the thought of losing you that way…it was hard to process. But I have. Things are clear.” She pulled back to hold his gaze. “I’ll always worry about you, no matter what, but at the end of the day, I wouldn’t give up the time we get to spend together.”

“Neither would I.” He cupped her face and kissed her, and a chorus of catcalls and whistles surrounded them. Drawing back, he smiled. “Come with me.” Then he grabbed her hand and tugged her past a grinning Logan and Chloe, through the clapping crowd, by a whistling Stef, and her uncle smiling while on the phone, past a blur of vehicles, until he finally stopped when they reached the side of the building that was, for the most part, deserted.

He released her hand, and when she leaned back against the brick, he pinned her with his hands on either side of her head as he looked deep into her eyes. “Where were we?”

She cupped his face and rejoiced in the feel of scruff against her palm. A surge of affection flooded her chest. “I was about to tell you I love you.”

“Ash.” Emotions, fierce and powerful, blazed in his eyes and warmed her to her very soul. “I love you, too.” He lifted a hand to lightly skim a finger down her cheek. “Have for some time now. I was afraid to tell you, though. Didn’t want to scare you.”

Always so sweet. “I’m not afraid now. You can tell me anytime. All the time.” She brushed her thumb over the slight quirk at the corner of his mouth. “Day or night.”

“I think I can manage that.”

“Super.” She slid her fingers into his hair, knocking off his cap. “I don’t want to be without you.”

“Neither do I.”

Hearing the true emotion in his voice, feeling it in the grip he now had on her hip, she felt the last of her tension slip away.

“I’m going to sell my half of the practice and move here permanently.”

“You sure?” He frowned. “I don’t want you giving that up for me.”

Her heart swelled. “There you go again, putting me first.” She kissed his jaw. “I’ll let you in on a secret…I’m giving it up for me. I want to sell. Not sure if I’ll study for the bar and get my license to practice in Texas or if I’ll pursue my passion for remodeling. Either way, I want to move here. I want all those things for me, because what I want most of all is you.”

“Ash,” he said softly, smiling into her eyes. “I’ve been yours since the swing.”

Then he was kissing her with so much love heat, he made her hungry and dizzy and so glad to be alive.