Page 74 of The Planner (Brides of Beaufort 2)

“I don’t think we will. The rest of the guys are good dudes. I’m looking forward to my first deployment with this shop.”

He nodded. “Same. I haven’t been here much longer than you. It should be a good time.”

Chase walked in, knocking on the open door. “Good morning, Staff Sergeant Jordan. Sergeant Paxton.”

“Hey, Chase. What are you doing here so early?” I asked.

“I just wanted to… I don’t know. Come make sure you were good.” His gaze flicked between us.

“I’m fine, Chase,” I said, grateful that he cared. “Thanks for the moral support, though. I appreciate it.”

“See? That’s good leadership,” Sergeant Jordan said. “Anyway, about the deployment, I’ve heard we’re stopping in Italy for a weekend, too.”

My brows flew up. “Really? Awesome. I’ve never been there.”

“Me neither,” Chase said. “I didn’t think we could go places like that.”

“Oh, yeah. We will fight in every clime and place, right, Mitchell?” Staff Sergeant joked, quoting a line from the Marines’ Hymn.

And with that, we walked out of the shop together to be the first ones at the morning meeting, trading deployment stories on the way. And just like that, this dark chapter was over. All things considered, I’d say it wrapped up pretty nicely. I might lose half a month’s pay over it, but with the size of my saving’s account and my new gas-saving ride, I wasn’t worried about it at all.

The only thing left for me to wrap up was my situation with Aria. Now that we’d worked through something that could have easily torn us apart if she weren’t so dang formidable, I knew I needed to show her what she meant to me. I needed to put a ring on it. And I needed Ms. Hattie’s help to do it.