Chapter Two

Smith

“BABY GIRL, I TOLD you I had training this weekend. It’s not a surprise. We wrote it on the calendar together. Remember that?” I grab Megan’s soft hand in mine. Her nails are always manicured perfectly. White tips and this soft pink base on the bottom. She doesn’t call it a French manicure, though. She calls it a classy, natural mani, because trashy women get French nails. Everything about Megan is sophisticated. She’s a southern stunner—Miss Georgia back in her day, and as sweet as a juicy, ripe peach. Her drawl is equal parts sexy and charming. She’s a catch by any man’s standards. I don’t care who you are.

Her blue eyes turn down in the corner as she brushes wayward hair off my forehead. “I’m not sure you’re ready for trips and real life stuff yet, sugar,” she says. I take her other hand in mine. She clutches me tightly, and I see her bottom lip tremble. “You’re not ready yet. They should give you more time.”

I’ve had almost two years off. Slowly but surely, I’ve worked my way back into the teams. Proving my worth was more difficult than Hell Week and initial training combined. After my accident I lost everything to a hospital bed. Lying there for days and months on end while my body caught up to my mind. The blast that killed one of my comrades spared my life. I lived when someone else did not, and I plan to make sure the second life I was granted makes a difference. “I am a Navy SEAL, Megs. This is my job. You knew I would eventually go back to it. I’m recovered fully.” I flex my bicep and flash her a grin.

Leaning over, she kisses the muscle I’m showing her. “It feels rushed,” she replies.

Taking her chin in my hand, I bring her gaze to mine. Her perfection never ceases to amaze me. She doesn’t have pores on her skin or a mean bone in her body. I’m still not sure how I got this lucky. I’ll never be sure, honestly. “Nothing is going to happen to me, Megs. God isn’t going to punish me twice. I think I have a better chance of being struck by lightning or winning the lottery than dying on a training trip.”

A tear rolls down her face, cutting a path through her powdered makeup. “I lost you once, Smith.” She did. So completely and utterly that it should be labeled as death. Sometimes in my dreams I write my own eulogy and say goodbye to the man I was before the mortar careened into my sleeping quarters on a base in Iraq.

I fold my arms around her tiny frame and pull her into me as she cries. I pretend less and less every single day. I love Megan. She is my fiancée. I’ve loved her my entire adult life. I cheered her on when she won Miss Georgia. I held her hand as we walked into a candlelit bed and breakfast to make love. I took her virginity, and she stole my entire heart. Megan is the woman who spreads a blanket on the hood of her car and stargazes, picking out the constellations with one pretty tipped finger. I lie next to her, and we drink sweet wine out of red Dixie cups. I danced with Megan at our senior prom. I kissed her for the first time at the fifty-yard line on the high school football field. She wore a red cheerleading uniform. I was sweaty and victorious after the football game. Megan and Smith are a real-life fairy tale. Or so she’s told me.

She wears strawberry body spray. She’s always worn it, but I don’t like the scent. It reminds me of children. I’d never tell her that. I suck in a breath by her ear. “Calm it down, baby. I’ll be gone a week. Then when I get back you’ll see I’m perfectly okay. I’ll always come back to you. You’re my Ophiuchus.” A rare constellation.

Megan smiles and presses her glossed lips against mine. Pulling away, she says, “Your mama agrees with me. She thinks you need more time.”

I loathe and love that she’s so close to my family.

I clear my throat. “More time to do what? Wish I were the man I was before? I’m healed. I want to get back to my life. I’m ready. I am. I’ve never been more ready.” My scars remain. They mar 60 percent of my face. I have one good eye and one good ear. My hair is still patchy on one side of my head, but it’s coming in fuller every day since Megan took me to a doctor that specializes in hair implants. My arms shouldered most of the damage. The scars ripple up and down both; some of the lines are smooth, others are jagged, sinking deep into my biceps and forearms.

My hands have had the most work to ensure they work just as well as they did before. They’ll never look the same. I used to have nice fingers. Straight, tan, with square fingernails. You overlook so many things when you’re perfect. I don’t mean perfect in the literal sense. I mean perfect as in whole. Oddly enough my feet weren’t damaged, and looking at them now, I realize how wonderfully made they are. It’s true what they say, you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. “This is my life,” I say. Sometimes she forgets I don’t need to be doted on or taken care of anymore.

She closes down when she sees she’s upsetting me. Drying her tears with her fingertips, she then folds her hands in her lap. “Sometimes I don’t understand why you want to do this. Again. What happens when we have a family, Smith? I’ll have to worry about you and the kids constantly. Do you want that for me? Is that fair?” It’s not fair at all. This is the first time she’s brought it up.

“You knew this would be the outcome. Being a SEAL is important to me—the only thing I’ve wanted to do my entire life.” I’m sure of this. It’s a sentiment that rings true deep inside my bones. Smith Eppington was born to be a Navy SEAL. The rest of his life falls around it. “This career is what makes me happy.”

“Are you sure? It’s also what kills you,” Megan sneers. Folding her arms across her chest, she looks to the side. I study her profile. I do it a lot to try to see the things I should know by heart. Her nose is small. It curves up the slightest bit at the tip. I think this is the reason she resonates as cute instead of stunningly beautiful. Her black lashes are long, and she has this perfect chin that pushes out when she’s upset or when she laughs. Right now she’s crying. I can tell she does this when she wants my attention. It comes easy to her. Most things come easy to her.

Sighing, I stand up and stretch my arms over my head. “Let’s not argue anymore. It’s a week of skydiving. Just a ho-hum trip to Arizona. You have nothing to worry about. Did you still want to go see the movie?” It would be just like her to make us late to something that was initially her idea.

She stands in one fluid movement, the fruity scent wafting in my face. “You just don’t get it, Smith. You don’t. I’ll get my purse. Go start the truck.”

I take her orders. Sitting in the driver’s seat with my red hands on the steering wheel, I wait for her. She appears, jaunting down the front steps of our house, a smile on her face. She’s forgiven me. The way she always does. This is why I love Megan. Not because of the million other reasons I’m supposed to.

She bubbles on about her plans with her friend as we make our way to the theater. I nod at the appropriate times. She grabs my hand and sets in on her thigh. I like doing that, she says. Sometimes, but not often, I wonder if she’s trying to turn me into the man she wants me to be, not the man I was. I usually shut down that line of thought because Megan is not vindictive. She’s not capable of it. Still, it doesn’t stop my mind from wandering.

Balancing the man I am and the man I was is an everyday battle and Megan is the only one who can guide me in the right direction. The only thing I know how to be without her is a Navy SEAL and I’m sure that’s the reason she’s fearful of me returning to work. I squeeze her thigh. She laughs. The sound forces my mouth to curve up.

The theater is dark and busy. The smell of popcorn makes my mouth water. Megan buys the tickets, and I stand in line for the buttery goodness. People bump into me, and teenagers gawk at my face. I’m not self-conscious anymore. Not since I started working out and found my muscles again. Let people stare. This is me. I’m a survivor.

“I knew it would be busy for the new Marvel movie, but this is insane,” she whispers as we make our way to a pair of empty seats high up in the theater. The screen is playing some advertisement about not drinking and driving. We sit down next to another couple. Megan apologizes for bumping into someone’s knees, and I sit down, taking up more space with my mass than is probably okay. Once we’re settled I hand her the popcorn.

After a few bites she leans over and asks for a napkin. “I’ll be right back, baby,” I say. She squeaks an annoyed noise and makes a show of her buttery fingers by placing them right in my face. Maneuvering as carefully as I can with my girth, I work my way out of the full aisle and down to the side exit.

I’m rounding the corner, hurrying because the previews just started, when I run directly into a woman. Her oversized purse hits the floor and the contents spill, rolling everywhere by our feet.

“I am so sorry, ma’am,” I say, immediately stooping down to help her. I grab a bright neon pink pen and hand it to her. The woman mutters under her breath. Her shoulders are shaking and she seems visibly upset. She makes a reach to grab the pen from me, but I see the moment she sees my scarred hand. Even in the dimly lit hallway it’s obvious I’m not normal.

She pauses, her unpainted nails hovering inches from her writing device, and then flicks her eyes to my face. “Thank you,” she says, her voice whisper soft, yet clear. “I’m so clumsy.” After she studies my face for a couple seconds, she swallows and quickly looks away.

“Hey, it’s okay. There was this one time when I tripped and ended up getting blown to bits. You can’t possibly be as clumsy as I am,” I tease. The woman is shaking harder now. She offers a small, false smile as she catches a tube of lip balm before it rolls farther. I reach for a notebook that’s lying open and close it. Her name is imprinted on the front. Carina. Check. “It’s just a purse. No need to be upset. We’re two tampons away from having the mess cleaned up anyways.” I put the tampons in her hand and wrap my hand around hers. It gets her attention.

She stops. I stop. She stands. I follow suit, leaving our hands sandwiching the feminine products. She doesn’t make a move to pull away, so I don’t either. Carina has brown eyes. They’re huge. She doesn’t need makeup to enhance her face. I noted this at first glance. Her bottom lip quivers.

She says, “I’m so sorry. I told him it was a bad idea to come here on opening night. It’s a madhouse. There are just too many people.” She hugs her bag to her body, finally taking her hand away from mine. “I’m so stupid for coming here. I’m sorry again. You’re so kind to help me.” She makes a move to walk away, and I let her. Her fear is palpable.

Smiling wide, I follow her back out into the lobby. It’s quieter out here. “Carina.”

She turns, takes a deep breath, and closes her eyes.

“It helps if you talk to someone.” Anxiety was my friend when I first woke. I worried about everything. Mostly, that I would never get to do my job again. “Do you want me to go get your…husband?”

Shaking her head, she pulls the bag around herself. The large leather satchel is like a child’s security blanket. “He’ll be upset. I’ll send him a text and let him know I’ll wait for him out here. Thank you again…sir. How did you know my name?” What kind of man would be upset? My hackles are up.

“Name’s Smith. Well, Carina, it was printed on your very full notebook. Are you a writer?”

Her eyes widen. The fear is replaced by confusion. My distraction is working. She nods again, her mousy brown bangs covering one eye. She tucks it back behind her ear. “I am. Novels mostly, but I’ve branched out recently to write freelance articles, too.”

Self-consciously I slide my hands into my jeans pockets. I watch her eyes follow them until they aren’t visible anymore. A year ago I wouldn’t have spoken to a stranger. Fear ruled my world. This woman, Carina. She’s scared. I hear myself in her voice. She speaks about her job, and I can’t help but smile at her passion. I ask if I can buy her books at the bookstore. She says I can, but she writes under a pen name.

“Well, are you going to tell me what that is? Carina the writer?”

Swallowing, she looks away bashfully.

“You wouldn’t want to read what I write,” Carina says.

My cell phone chimes. Megan.

Licking my lips, I glance Carina’s way. She’s already looking at me, her eyes tracing my scars. For a tiny moment I wish she were looking at my exterior before the accident. I don’t have time to ask why, though. I need to get napkins.

“You should go. I’ll be fine. Thank you. My true life Marvel hero.” She’s joking, but the words hit hard. At one time I was a real-life hero.

Taking out her notebook, she slides a business card out of a pocket and flips it into my hand. My heart rate accelerates and a warm feeling hits me square in the chest. My phone buzzes again. Megan. I let go of the balloon and sink back onto Earth. “Thanks,” I say, tapping the card on my opposite hand.

“My pen name is on there. My website, too.” Carina tucks her hair behind her ear one more time and walks away.

I look down at the card. Greenleigh Ivers. Flowers dance around her name. I think how ironic it is that she uses a pen name. Essentially my life these days is lived under a pen name. The accident stole my memory. Well, parts and pieces of it, anyways. It stole my love for Megan and my childhood dog. It took from me slices of a beautiful life. It also took away pain and sorrow. The accident stole things of importance—because memories and experiences are what shape a person. I’m not who I was before it. I have the same name, but I’m a stranger in my own skin. I watch Carina’s retreating back for as long as I’m able to—intrigued, sad, excited, so many emotions vibrating in my mind. The volatility of the unknown draws me in.

“Smith, did you fall in the toilet? I was worried about you!” Megan screeches at my back. As smoothly as I can, I sneak the card into my back pocket. I’m not sure why I hide it from Megan. I’m not sure of anything these days, but I do know, for the time being, I want to keep the strange, beautiful, married woman a secret.