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I hugged him again, pressing my whole body against the safety and security of his broad, chiseled chest. My heart was soaring. It felt like being rescued.

“Sorry I missed Christmas,” he said, stroking my hair.

I sobbed into him. “Oh I don’t care. I’m just so happy you’re actually here…”

He held me for a long moment, just rocking me before the glowing embers of my dying fire. Then he pulled back and took a good look around. The room was all shadows and shot-glasses. Pillows and blankets.

“Sammara, don’t take this the wrong way…” he said gloomily, sniffing the air. “And no offense? But this is depressing.”

I laughed hard again into his chest, which was all wet now from my tears. “None taken.”

“Pack your things,” Dakota said gently. “We’re leaving.”

I glanced up at him, instantly excited. Getting out of the house for a while suddenly seemed monumentally important. I needed a change of scenery; something to break the cycle of the shorter, darker, colder days.

As long as Dakota was with me I would’ve followed him anywhere.

All of a sudden something moved in our peripheral vision. Dakota whirled, his arms going up, his hands balling into two huge ham-hock fists. But the only thing that emerged, from under a blanket, was a very confused little puppy.

“Dakota, I want you to meet Sarge.”

Sarge jumped down happily and walked over, sniffing Dakota’s giant boot.

“A dog?”

I smiled hesitantly. “Ummm… yes?”

“When did we get a dog?”

I didn’t say a word, I only watched his reaction. Dakota’s face went from astonishment to skepticism, to wonder, before finally softening in a half-grin. I saw acceptance in his eyes. My shoulders slumped in relief.

At that exact moment, Sarge promptly lifted his leg… and peed all over Dakota’s foot.

“Well would you look at that…” my big fiancé grinned. “He’s treating me just like my old sarge already.”

Twenty-Four

SAMMARA

Iowa turned out to be a caricature of itself. Long, stretching miles of yellow farms and bright green corn fields that waved in the wind. A sky so flawlessly blue, so enormous, it seemed the whole earth could be crushed beneath its weight.

I had conflicting feelings once Dakota told me where he intended to go. Visiting his family was something I knew was ultimately inevitable, but I also knew I was a long way from being accepted by his conservative parents.

I kept telling myself it wasn’t me. It was our relationship. As his girlfriend — now fiancé — I was fully confident I could charm the pants off his mother and father. If only they’d overlook the whole ‘sharing your wife’ thing.

“I need you to know three things,” Dakota told me on our ride out from the Army base. We’d landed at the Air National Guard in Sioux City. Moriches, the little town he’d grown up in, was less than an hour’s ride east, north of Kingsley.

“Shoot,” I said, wincing immediately afterward at the poor choice of words.

“First, I’m not going to let my momma disrespect you. Whatever she says, whatever she does, if she crosses the line? We’re out of there.”

I swallowed dryly. “I appreciate that.”

“Second, my daddy is going to be quiet. He’s like that. But don’t let his silence imply he agrees with everything my momma says, because he doesn’t. He’s his own man, with his own thoughts.” Dakota’s jaw tightened. “He just keeps them to himself most of the time.”

Dakota gripped the steering wheel of the big truck as he made a slow left turn. They’d given him the keys immediately after landing. It was strange, watching how other service members treated him. How everyone on base snapped to attention and saluted him instantly, without a second thought.

“Win daddy over,” he was saying, “and you’ll have momma. It’ll take longer though. But eventually…”