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“How do you have one?” Chelsea asks. “Your schedule has to be just as screwy as mine.”
“My son keeps her when I’m gone.”
Chelsea stands and smiles. This carefree side of her knocks the breath out of me. I stare long enough that she asks, “Are you okay?”
“Never better.”
I get my ladies loaded into the truck and drive to my favorite place on base at Little Creek. Chelsea kicks her shoes off when we reach our destination and tosses them into the truck bed. I hand her Captain’s leash and unload the cooler and blanket.
A short walk lands us at the beach beneath the Cape Henry Lighthouse. The sun is setting, but it’s not dark yet. Anyone using the beach has gone home, leaving the place quiet and private.
Chelsea unclips Captain’s leash, correctly gauging that the boxer is well-behaved and won’t run off. I spread out the blanket and set the cooler on the edge. “I hope this is okay. I didn’t much feel like being in a crowd tonight.”
“It’s perfect,” she answers without an air of pretense.
Captain takes her ragdoll to the water’s edge and tosses it in the air repeatedly, keeping herself entertained. While Chelsea watches her, I serve up the Greek feast I picked up from my favorite Mediterranean place.
We eat and chat in the waning light, and Captain flops onto the sand nearby after wearing herself out. The sun has fully set now, taking all the sky’s colors with it. Beneath the stars and full moon, I take Chelsea’s hand and guide her to rest her head in my lap.
She stares at the sky, and I run my fingers through her long hair. Chelsea sighs contentedly. “How is it that a man who’s got it all together is drawn to a trainwreck like me.”
“You’re not a trainwreck.”
“Okay. Someone with as much emotional baggage as me.”
I tear my eyes away from her face to stare out over the black ocean. “We all have emotional baggage, and I’m not as well put together as you think.”
“Oh, you are very well put-together, sir,” Chelsea teases.
I roll my eyes and pinch Chelsea on the hip. “You know what I mean, brat. The issues I had, I blamed on someone else. Or, I used my son as an excuse, anyway. I’d wrecked the future I was supposed to have when I got Shelby pregnant. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my son and being a dad, but when it came to my life outside of Caleb, I only saw what might have been.
“I felt second-rate. I’d obviously screwed up in my responsibility as a man and couldn’t have the career I’d planned. The only thing I was any good at was being a dad until I joined the Navy. When Shelby and I realized we couldn’t love each other, she moved out to move on. That’s when I decided I’d put all my effort into the only two people that I could actually make happy: my son and my commander. Cowardly, I know, but it was easier than trying and failing at something else.”
“That doesn’t explain why me.”
“You won’t believe it,” I begin, “but I saw in you a bravery I wish I had.”
“You’ve got to be kidding,” Chelsea jeers.
“Nope. Between the two of us, you were the only one still fighting to become something. I was content to quit and just be.”
Chelsea sits up and faces me, wide-eyed in shock, whispering, “No one has ever thought of me as brave.”
“Maybe because no one ever truly understood you before.”
Chelsea leans close and touches her lips to mine briefly. “Take me home, Jackson.”
As soon as my truck rolls to a stop in Chelsea’s driveway, she hops out, leading my dog into her home. I follow them inside to see Chelsea setting a bowl of water on the floor next to a folded blanket she set out for Captain. The woman then takes my hand and leads me upstairs to her room.
I undress her slowly and spend the next hour making love to the only woman to make me want forever.
Early the following morning, Captain wakes me with a bark. I roll over, place a kiss on a sleeping Chelsea’s naked shoulder, and pull on my board shorts. I slip into my shoes and go downstairs to walk Captain.
On our way back in, I grab what’s left of her food from last night and set it out next to the water bowl in the kitchen. I’ve just stood back up when Chelsea yells upstairs. I’m instantly rocketed into SEAL mode and take the stairs three at a time to get to her. “What is it?”
She’s white as a ghost as she fumbles for the TV remote, not even caring that her top half is exposed. I sit on the bed beside her, watching the channel flip to a national news network. The blood drains from my face when I read the breaking news bulletin. Popular Congressman from Arizona found dead this morning.
Chelsea