Okay, fine. So there was that. Still, she couldn’t bring herself to feeltooguilty for the way she’d reacted. After all, in that moment, Evie believed she was fighting for her life.
If he hadn’t stopped her—if she hadn’t seen that American flag on his protective vest—there was no doubt in her mind,she would’ve continued the struggle until she was either unconscious…
Or dead.
Evie shuddered at the thought.
Lucky for her, the man she’d thought was a terrorist turned out to be someone completely unexpected. A hero in the midst of darkness. Her personal savior when she’d begun to think all hope was truly lost.
It didn’t hurt that Beckett was also sweet and funny. And, as she discovered when they got inside the ship and beneath the vessel’s bright lights, very,veryhandsome.
Yes, the former Marine-turned-hostage rescue specialist was the epitome of tall, dark, and mouthwateringly good looking. The whole package, really. One wrapped in camouflage, muscles, and a smile that awakened parts of her she’d long been ignoring.
Better stop that train of thought before it ever leaves the tracks.
Yes, she definitely needed to put an end to any notion of Beckett being more than what he was. A stranger who, by his own admission, was only in that cave because the government had paid his team to be there.
The government. Not my dad.
Evie’s shoulders dropped as her spirit rapidly fell, like an abandoned hot air balloon that had deflated after being left alone in the middle of an empty, desolate field. She couldn’t help but replay Beckett’s words from earlier as they’d been making their way to freedom…
Don’t worry. You’ll be back with your dad in the Hamptons in no time.
She hadn’t bothered asking how he knew where she was from. Guys like him probably had access to all kinds of personal information regarding the people they rescued.
Evie also didn’t point out that she had her own studio apartment in Portsmouth, Rhode Island…where she’d lived since being hired to teach second grade right out of college. Granted, she’d subleased it to the young college graduate who’d been hired on as Evie’s long-term sub for the semester, but still.
The thing that bothered her more—one bit of data Beckett couldn’t possibly know—was that there wasn’t anything left for her in the Hamptons…or anywhere else.
Sure she still had her job with the Portsmouth Public School District. And of course, there was Lo—her best friend from college. The two were as close as sisters, and before Evie left the States to come to the Middle East, they chatted by either text, phone call, or FaceTime nearly every single day.
But even if Lo—whose actual name was Lauren Davenport—didn’t live fourteen hours away in Charlotte, which she did, the other woman had decided to spend the summer with her sister, who lived all the way up in Michigan.
Since Lo’s job was remote, she was able to work from virtually anywhere, making it possible for her and her older sibling to have some much-needed quality time together. Good for her friend.
Not so much for me.
So yeah, aside from some friendly-ishco-workers, there really wasn’t much for her to look forward to. And sitting at the very bottom of that embarrassingly short list…
The conversation she would eventually have to have with her jerk of a father.
You could go back to work. Finish out the school year surrounded by familiar faces. Might at least help to keep the thoughts of being utterly abandoned at bay.
It was a plan Evie had considered as she’d listened to the steady thump-thump-thump of the helicopter’s steadily whirling blades. But since there were only a few weeks left of the schoolyear, and she had a long-term sub who’d already taken over her regular classroom, Evie had already decided to stick to her original plan of not returning until the fall.
Probably a good idea, anyway, given the horrors she’d experienced as of late. And if she were being honest with herself, taking a few months off to reevaluate her life—and process the fact that her father no longer wanted to be a part of it—may not be the worst thing in the world.
A fresh set of tears began to form, but thankfully the door opened at that exact moment, and the Naval Corpsman assigned to her care walked into the room.
“Miss Mitchell.” The middle-aged woman dressed in government-issued camo moved with purpose in Evie’s direction. “I’m Petty Officer Billings,” she introduced herself with a smile.
“Nice to meet you,” Evie offered quietly.
“You, too, although I think it goes without saying I wish it were under different circumstances.”
She huffed out a breathy, “You and me, both.”
“A member of the team who brought you in mentioned you’d been favoring your left side. If it’s all right with you, I’d like to take a look. Nothing invasive, mind you. Just a cursory examination to make sure you don’t have anything broken or any sort of internal bleeding we need to be aware of. After that, we’ll get you cleaned up, get you some clean clothes, and a nice, warm meal. How does that sound?”