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That was an understatement. The awkward little girl with braces had turned into a beautiful woman, but the smile that so easily transformed her face was still the same. Stunning, pure, and downright infectious.

She’d gone from a gangly teenager to a voluptuous woman, and holding her in my arms was almost enough to make me forget that I’d known her since she was just a child.

“Anthony?”

Dali and I looked over to see my sister standing at the corner of the building, and she ran toward me as I let go of Dalisay. When I pulled Corrie into my arms, she was a blubbering mess, and there were tears in my eyes. “You’re finally home!”

“I got here as soon as I could,” I assured her. When my sister sobbed again, I swallowed to get past the lump in my throat and whispered in her ear, “You promised you wouldn’t cry for me again.”

“I lied,” Corrie wailed.

I glanced up and saw Dalisay had tears streaming down her face.

I lifted my arm to pull her into our embrace.

She’d been beside my sister through thick and thin and was the voice of reason she hadn’t listened to when that monster was grooming her.

When it was all over and I was rotting in prison, Dalisay had stepped up and been her rock that helped hold her steady as she reeled with unnecessary guilt, knowing I would be spending years behind bars after that day.

My sister endured years of therapy to work through the guilt she carried.

She had a hard time letting go of the fact that her gullibility had changed not just her life but mine too.

My parents and I tried to assure her that what I’d done to that man had been my decision, but she still felt like it was all her fault.

Dalisay stood by her through it all and helped pull her out of the deep depression that followed and the trap of reckless behavior when she started spiraling. I owed her so much for helping my sister when I couldn’t.

The little girl I remembered had turned into such a stunning beauty with a smile that I knew would haunt my dreams, especially now that she was leaving town.

But we had all made choices, and our lives were moving in the directions that they needed to be. Luckily, mine had brought me home. Fingers crossed that Dali felt just as happy with her decisions that were taking her out into the world.

It was just unfortunate that our paths were taking us to opposite coasts because I’d like nothing more than to get to know the strong young woman she’d become.

◆◆◆

SIX MONTHS AGO

DALI

The smoke alarm was making me crazy and needed to be destroyed.

As soon as I could get my eyes open, I was going to do just that.

It would be simpler to just change the battery, but not nearly as rewarding.

It was grating on my last nerve right along with the scratchy blanket pulled up to my neck and the fact that I was wearing socks.

How did that happen? I went barefoot at every opportunity, so I never wore socks to bed.

Yet here I was beneath a shitty blanket that could use a gallon of fabric softener, strangled toes that needed to escape as soon as possible, and a sound that was annoying enough to send even the most sane person into a fit of rage.

Not that I had any illusions that I was sane, but dreaming about taking a hammer to an innocent little smoke alarm was unhinged, even for me.

When the sound didn’t stop, I tried to roll over but realized that I couldn’t move. There was something on my chest, and from the weight of it, I guessed it must be an elephant. Possibly a hippo.

Which animal was heavier? Elephants were bigger in size, right? But were they heavier? Images of both animals flickered through my mind, and I pondered that question. Maybe a hippo just seemed so large because I’d never seen the two animals next to each other for comparison.

Either way, it was making it almost impossible to move and very hard to breathe.

I finally willed my eyes open and then slammed them closed again when they were assaulted by a fluorescent light that made me feel as if I was staring into the sun.

“Commander Albright?” I heard an unfamiliar voice ask.

“Turn the light off,” I ordered without thinking. As an aside, since I wasn’t sure who I was speaking to, I added, “Please.”

I sensed movement, and then the voice said, “I turned off the overhead light. Will you open your eyes now, please?”

I squinted to make sure I wasn’t about to be blinded again and then opened them wide before I blinked a few times to gain focus on the woman’s face above me.

“Who are you, and where am I?” I asked, my voice raspier than usual. I moved my tongue around in my mouth and then licked my dry lips. “I need a drink.”

The woman moved aside for a second and then reappeared holding a cup with a straw bent so it could reach my mouth. I took a couple of long draws and then sighed, already tired from that small exertion.

As my eyes fluttered closed, the woman ordered, “I need you to stay awake for just a few minutes so I can ask you some questions.”

This time, her voice held authority, so I did as ordered before I asked, “Who are you?”

“I’m Dr. Perkins. You’re at the medical center in Portsmouth. Do you know how you got here?”

“My guess is by plane, but I really don’t know.” Suddenly, I remembered the sound of a crash and horrible crushing pain in my chest before everything went black. “What hit me?”

“Do you remember the accident?”

“Sort of?”

“How do you feel?”

“Like there’s an elephant sitting on my chest, and my toes are choking to death.”

“Say again?”

“I can’t think with socks on.”

I felt someone at the foot of the bed move the blanket, and then my toes were suddenly free again. That made me feel immeasurably better if I didn’t consider the other aches and pains.

“Better now?” When I nodded, Dr. Perkins laughed before she said, “The weight you’re feeling in your chest is from the wrap. You were injured . . .”

“There was a crash, and then . . . The beams weren’t strapped down, and they were sliding around. Is everyone else okay?”

“You managed to knock them out of the way and took the brunt of the hit,” Dr. Perkins explained.

“The others had some minor injuries, but you’ve got a broken clavicle, a cracked sternum, and multiple broken ribs, one of which punctured your lung.

We’ve had you in a medically induced coma for the past five days to give you a head start on healing while the machines helped you breathe, but we reduced that medication so you could wake up. ”

“Well, whatever you replaced it with is fantastic .”

Dr. Perkins chuckled as my eyes drifted closed. “Enjoy your nap, Commander Albright. You earned it.”