Page 241 of Severed Heart

“It’s so wild watching you be a father, but I always saw it in you. Since the day we met and you mowed my lawn.”

“Yeah.” I grin and turn to him. “You ever think about it?”

“I was blessed to be brother and father.”

“You aren’t going to try with Cecelia?”

He gives me an imperceptible expression. “That’s a complicated question considering she wrote me off. One step at a time, brother.”

“This is going to be epic,” I muse. “Just know Russell and I will be popping popcorn every night to tune in for this shit show.”

“Fuck you,” he utters, even as a grin plays on his lips.

* * *

Later that night we honor Delphine in a way that would actually please her. Laughing hysterically about her antics and salty cooking. Pausing heavily when it starts to sting. After sipping my beers a little longer and when the pain becomes too much, I cut myself off before any buzz can set in. Determined to stay sharp when I start on Preston’s security detail tomorrow. As I remind them of that, we all part ways for lights-out. But when the two of them head for the bedrooms, I decide to take a walk, which turns into a moonlit trek toward the pasture of wildflowers.

“Breathe, Soldier,”her whisper reaches me as the trees sway with the crisp arrival of fall. Visions of her swarm me just after, leaving me aching as her whispers continually reach me.

“Je t’aime, my miracle, soldier of my heart,”she whispers.

Turning the corner, I’m stopped by the sight that greets me. The wildflowers I planted so long ago eat up the entire hillside having grown wildly in the years since our departure. Nature doing its thing, the overabundance renders me speechless.

In a blink I’m surrounded by them, by her, as faint music fills my senses, carrying over the breeze. Getting lost in time, I become absorbed in the night I married the love of my life. In remembrance of the feel of her. Of her silken hair and skin against my palms as we danced on our wedding night. Her lilted whispers engulfing me as I turn slowly to inhale the sight before me. Raw and aching, the pain remains unrelenting, as the dark beckons me, forever promising a way out. But this pain, this pain could never be fully blinked away. Just as I think it, the breeze flutters over the tips of the wildflowers as her whisper reaches me.

“Close your eyes, Tyler.”

“They’re closed,” I whisper back.

“See your way out, Soldier, do you see it?”

“I see it, baby,” I croak, cracking wide as the blades of the Blackhawk sound in the distance, thethwomp thwomp thwompannouncing its rapid approach.

“Have faith, Soldier. Have faith.”

“I’ll have faith, baby ... I love you.”

“My one true love,”she whispers.

“I miss you so much.” I slap my fingers against my salted cheeks.

The helicopter touches down yards away as Tobias approaches the field, and I hold the moment for as long as I can, feeling her everywhere for those brief seconds.

“Open your eyes, Soldier of my heart. Go.”

A peace washes over me as I inhale her one last time and exhale her slowly. Not completely, but enough to take another full breath since the last time she took one of her own.

“Go, Soldier,”she orders through time and space as I approach the bird and Zach appears, waving us off from the side of the house. Her voice echoes back to me one last time as my severed heart beats soundly for the first time in years. Even if it remains in pieces.

“Win again, Soldier. Win again.”

THE END... but truthfully, it’s just the beginning.