Page 126 of Boomer

Ansel blinked fast but nodded. “I wanted to show what you are.”

Boomer swallowed hard. His throat was a battlefield.

“You showed me what I didn’t even know I could be.”

He opened his arms, and Ansel rushed in, burying his face in Boomer’s chest.

The team and spouses drifted back in, quiet now. Skull clasped his wife’s hand. Hazard muttered something about dust. Iceman stood at Boomer’s shoulder and placed a heavy hand there.

“You have a special family,” he said quietly. “Happy birthday.”

Boomer looked up, eyes wet but fierce.

“Let it stand for all of us. For the ones who didn’t come home. For the ones who did and are still fighting. For every kid who’s ever needed to believe a warrior can still love.”

Taylor walked to him and pressed a kiss to the crown of his head. She had on his Oma’s apron, and whenever they cooked, she wore it proudly. His heart swelled.

He wrapped one arm around her waist, the other still holding Ansel. His family. His reason.

For the first time in his life…he felt fully seen. Not as a soldier.Not as a survivor. But as a man who made it home.

“I have a sculpture, too,” he whispered, rising and going to a drawer, pulling out a bundled object. Ansel’s eyes widened, and he exchanged a secretive smile with him. Boomer ruffled his hair as he passed. He gave the object to Taylor.

She looked puzzled. “It’s not my birthday,” she said.

“Funny thing about demolition. Most of the time, folks think all we do is blow stuff up. But...sometimes the only way to save a structure is to break it open. Release the pressure. Make room for breath.”

“You’re not talking about breaching.”

“No. I’m talkin’ about me.”

“Unwrap it.”

Her hands shook as she pulled away the folds, revealing the sculpture, rough, unfinished, but unmistakable. A little frog. Big feet. Off-center eyes. Full of heart. Hand-signedCarteron the base.

“I don’t know how to do perfect. But I know how to stay. I know how to come back. I know how to build.” His heart was so full. “Thought you should have this. It’s the first thing I ever made without blowin’ something to hell.” Ansel pulled out a tiny velvet box from his shorts pocket, handing it to her.

Taylor’s breath caught, her eyes filled. She opened the box and gasped. “It’s beautiful.”

“This is the feeling we both get every time you walk in the room. That’s why he’s included. So, Taylor Hoffman...will you marry a frogman and his artist sidekick?”

She held the frog to her chest. “Oh, yes, warts and all.” She clasped them both to her as Boomer pulled out the ring and slipped it on her finger while his other family watched without a dry eye in the house.

Boomer slippedinto bed beside Taylor. She turned toward him, her eyes anxious in the dark.

“Is Break settled?”

He nodded and pulled her soft, toned body against him, all silk and lace and sanctuary. She curled into the hollow of his shoulder like she was made for it. “He’s…wasted. Bruised and battered. But he’s all right.”

She went quiet. “What’s going on with him?”

He exhaled. “I don’t know. He came back from seeing his mom, and he was…different. Bitter. Brittle. That light in him dimmed. I don’t know how to help him.”

She was quiet for a moment, then she spoke, and it knocked the air from his lungs. “You are a man who loves deeply and asks for nothing in return.” Her eyes shimmered. “You didn’t try to handle me. You just stood in your truth…and let me unravel for you.” Her fingers cupped his jaw. Her voice stayed soft, but steady. “You gave of yourself in every moment. Powerful in a vulnerability I was always afraid of. I thought letting down my guard would break everything. That I couldn’t protect anyone if I let them see my weaknesses.” She shifted closer, her hand splaying warm over his chest. “But you? You protect anyway. Even when it hurts. Especially when it hurts.”

Boomer’s breath stuttered. She didn’t stop. “You turned a rival into a friend. You love your teammates like brothers. You took a grieving boy and gave him back his father.” Atear slipped down her cheek. She didn’t wipe it away. “You won over my mama.My mother, Carter. Formidable. Tough. Uncompromising. You made her see Ansel.”

Her voice cracked, barely audible. “You made her seeme.”