The Second Chance Hero (19 page)

Cradled safe on his lap, Kim rested her head on his shoulder. It was the one place she could feel safe, and she wanted to enjoy it before all hell broke loose later on.

***

Owen hated that he was keeping the news from her. But he’d just gotten final word that he’d be going back to Afghanistan in three weeks for two more months. Two more months in the desert. Two months away from Kim. He hated the idea, but the drawdown was requiring man power, and as much as Owen didn’t want to go back, if it meant more marines would come home sooner, he couldn’t say no.

He’d let Jason and Nate know, and he was planning on telling Kim over dinner. Now he’d wait until after they’d left her parents’ house and were back at his house for the night.

He also had to pick up the ring he was going to give her before he left. There was no way he was going anywhere without proposing.

In a month’s time, Owen had gone from confirmed bachelor to total goner. He loved her so much it hurt.

The ride to her parents’ house was uneventful, as was meeting her brothers. They respected their big sister and her choices, and he had a feeling Joey, Livy, and their mom helped pave the way. Jenna sneaked in the back door and found Owen nursing a beer with Kim’s dad, a nice man whose acceptance was tempered with warning. He didn’t care who Owen was, he didn’t care about anything except his family. Money and zip code meant very little to this man. Where Kim’s father was concerned, only his daughter’s happiness mattered.

“Hey, Mr. T.” She kissed him on the cheek and patted Owen’s shoulder. “Hey there, big guy, you’ve been keeping my buddy all to yourself.”

“Sorry.” He really wasn’t. “How are you, Jenna? Should I expect incoming?”

“Possibly. My parents have a friend of my brother’s stopping by. Dave Ryan. Do you know him?”

He did know Ryan. Good marine, kind of an asshole. “Yup. Okay. I’ll be prepared.”

Joe Torres looked up. “You’d think for all the love your parents claim to have for Kim, they would let her have a happy life.”

Jenna agreed, nodding. “I don’t know what to say.”

Olivia walked into the kitchen and her father smiled. “Look at my baby princess.”

Owen couldn’t believe how much the three sisters looked alike. They favored their mother . . . dark hair and eyes, wide smiles, and serious brains that were evident the minute one of them spoke. Olivia’s dress was long and blue with more sparkles than he’d ever seen on one garment in his life. She looked beautiful, classy, and her date should feel like a very lucky kid.

The party got going outside on the patio of the modest home. Kim hadn’t exaggerated when she said the house was on the small side, but it was warm and comfortable. He could see a happy family lived here.

While pictures were being taken, Owen pulled back and stayed inside, looking at all the photos in the living room. The place was overrun with small and large frames, and he felt like he was looking at a family history. He first looked for all the pictures of Kim. She was a peanut of a kid. Skinny with knobby knees, but in all the pictures he could see she was feisty. A little powerhouse who dominated everything she did with the sheer force of her will and enthusiasm. She was always smiling. A wide smile that took over her face, sparkled in her eyes.

He recognized people he’d gotten to know over the past couple of weeks . . . Joey and Livy. Jenna was in many of the photos and there were several pictures of Kim with Tom Albanese. One looked like an engagement photo.

“My mom would have taken those down if she realized you’d be looking.”

Owen turned and faced Kim’s brother, Jeff. He’d arrived a little late, as she said he would, but of the three brothers he was the one who seemed to have the fewest worries about Owen. That, or he was in here to size up the situation for himself. Kim wasn’t kidding when she said her brothers were big. Jeff had to be six-four.

“It’s fine. It’s not like it’s a surprise or anything.”

“My sister’s happy,” Jeff said. “That’s all we want for her. She’s been through a lot.”

Didn’t he know it? “I’m going to ask her to marry me sometime this summer. I’ll talk to your parents before I propose, but if you could give them a heads up, I’d appreciate it.”

Jeff grinned and shook his hand. “Just take good care of her. That’s all we ask.”

“I will. She’ll never want for anything with me.”

He and Jeff made their way outside where young women in expensive gowns and their dates posed for pictures. The girls were trying to pull off sophisticated looks, but the guys looked awkward. Owen wanted to let them know they might always feel awkward or tongue-tied or nervous around women. There was no way to stop it. Catching Kim’s eye, he knew she made him nervous. All he wanted was to do right by her, and Owen worried about all the ways he could still screw this up. He was taking her back to his house after the party was over and telling her about his deployment. It was only for two months. He should be home before she knew it, but Owen had no doubt Kim was going to be upset.

The backyard was fairly large for the area and was bordered by shrubs and trees. There were lots of places to take pictures, and once that was done, the couples filled up a giant, white stretch SUV and departed for their prom. That left the parents and relatives in the front yard waving good-bye. Everyone was milling around and talking, and Owen wished he could just get out of eyeshot of the house next door. The potential for disaster was huge.

Owen stuck close to Kim, making conversation, until he saw an older man and woman come out of the house across the street with a younger man he knew to be Dave Ryan. Ryan glanced at the crowd, and by some sick twist of fate, spotted him immediately. He waved, and said something to Tom Albanese’s parents, who made a beeline for the Torres’ yard.

“
Shit.
”

Jenna, who was standing near Kim, looked up. “What?”

“Your parents.”

“You have a lot of nerve coming here.” Mrs. Albanese yelled. “First you send my son to his death, and then you steal his fiancée?”

“Ma’am,” Owen said calmly. “This is not the place. If you want to talk to me about your son, I will happily do that, but these other families don’t need their event ruined.”

“What, don’t want them to know what you did?” Turning to Kim, she cut loose. “And you, Kimmy. How could you? My son loved you. He honored you with his ring. And you’re with someone new before his grave is cold?”

“Mom!” Jenna screamed. “I know you’re upset, but this isn’t right!”

Kim watched her father, who looked like he was ready to explode. This was bad. She shouldn’t have come.

Owen took her by the shoulders and stepped in front of her, his back stiff with tension. Part of him wanted to react, to protect Kim, but he also knew he was dealing with a grieving mother, and nothing was going to change that. He had to think of a way to handle this, and attacking this woman wasn’t the answer.

“My Tommy was a hero. A good man. He loved you and would have done anything for you. He wanted to make a life with you.”

Owen and Dave Ryan, who’d come over with the Albanese’s exchanged wordless looks. Ryan knew everything about Tom’s extracurricular activities, all of it. The man looked panicked, but he wasn’t going to do anything, not that there was much he could do anyway.

The front yard hastily cleared, and Owen could hear the murmuring of the crowd in the backyard. The Albanese’s and the Torres’s were left facing off on the front lawn.

Quietly, Kim slipped out from behind him and walked to the car, calm and composed. He couldn’t imagine she’d just get in and expect to leave, but then Owen remembered that she’d put something in the backseat of the Rover before they’d left the cottage. When Kim came back, he saw what it was. A black wooden case that held an honor-guard flag. Oh, boy. He knew exactly what she planned to do, and this could go either way. But he had to give her credit for her nerves of steel. She didn’t flinch, and that’s obviously what made her an excellent trauma nurse, because his nerves were on borrowed time.

Kim held out the flag to Mrs. Albanese.

“What is this?” The woman swallowed her tears. Shocked.

“It’s Tom’s flag.”

Jenna uttered a simple cry, and one of Kim’s brothers took her in his arms to console her.

Kim swallowed. “You should have this, Mrs. Albanese.”

Owen would never get over the mettle of this woman.

“What? Are you trying to purge yourself of guilt by giving away everything of his? He loved you—”

“NO!” Kim’s lip trembled, and he stepped next to her, putting a hand on her back, just so she would know he was there. That was all Owen could do—offer support. There was no way for him to dull the pain any of these people felt. “No, he didn’t. He loved someone else.”

“How could you say such a thing? No man is perfect, but Tommy was devoted to you.”

Kim was hurting now. He could see the toll this was taking on her, but still she pressed on. “No, he may have loved me as a good friend, but both of us should have recognized it. Tom had someone else. Someone who grieved for him, and while I will miss him, it wasn’t that way between us anymore. I think we wanted it to be, but it wasn’t. You should take the flag. He would have wanted you to have it.”

If there was a moment of clarity between Kim and Tom’s mother, this was it. Mrs. Albanese’s fists were clenched, and she couldn’t bring herself to make eye contact. When she did, the woman broke down. Her husband and Joe Torres, good man that he was, went to her. Family, neighbors, were all grieving the life that was lost, and they’d wasted too much time placing blame when they should have been holding on to each other for support. Everyone had been hurt when Tom Albanese died. Did the man make mistakes? Of course he did. All men do; like his mother said, he wasn’t perfect. It was time for his family and those he loved to understand that no matter what had happened, he could be remembered for all the good he did and they could move on. They had to move on.

Still, Tom’s mother wouldn’t take the flag. It was almost as if the flag represented a finality Mrs. Albanese didn’t want to face. She was leaning into her husband, crying. Her daughter was hugging her from the other side, and Kim’s family surrounded them. Only Kim stood apart. She stood with Owen, holding Tom’s flag, hoping it would allow his mother some closure. His love was hurting. He could see it. Finally, Owen knew what to do and stepped forward. He was in his suit, his tie loose, but he was still a marine, and Semper Fi meant something to him. Owen reached out, and Kim handed him the flag as if she’d planned this all along. He didn’t have authorization to act in any official capacity, but what were they going to do to him? Court-martial him for helping a grieving mother? Let ’em try.

He stepped toward the Albanese family and leaned in. His words were spoken quietly; only those close to them would have been able to hear. “On behalf of the President of the United States, the United States Marine Corps, and a grateful nation, please accept this flag as a symbol of appreciation for your loved one’s honored and faithful service.”

He handed the flag to Tom Albanese’s now sobbing mother, her tears so real, so full of everything she lost. Her husband held her and his eyes, also filled with tears, locked with Owen’s. All he said was “thank you” before leading his wife back into the house.

Once they’d all gone, Kim reached for him and hugged him tight. “Thank you for that. It was perfect.”

“I hope it helped.”

“Major Kent?”

“Sergeant Ryan.” The two men shook hands, but he didn’t really pay much attention to their small talk because his mind was on Kim. That was until he heard the word Kandahar.

“I was surprised they called you back so soon.”

“What?” Kim’s face had gone pale. “You’re going back? When?”

Ryan would not shut up. “The drawdown is really accelerating. It will be good to have your skills there. See you soon, sir.”

They shook hands again, and then he turned to face Kim. Why was it that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get this right with her?

“You’re going
back
?”

“I was going to tell you later tonight. I have to. It’s just for two months. I’ll be back in September.”

“You can’t go back.
You can’t!
”

“Kim, calm down. I knew it was a possibility when I got home that I might have to do a short stint. Nothing is normal right now. I had to help.”

She picked up on what he said, immediately. “Wait. You volunteered?”

“Not exactly. They asked. I said yes.”

“What about us, Owen, what about that life you keep talking about?”

“I’ll be back in two months.” Two of the longest months of his life. He was going to be miserable without her.

“And what if you’re not? Oh, my God. I can’t go through this again.” Kim spun away and walked into her parents’ house, and Owen followed, catching her hand when they were finally alone in the kitchen.

“You have to know I’ll be thinking of you all the time. I’ll be okay. The last they told me it’s mostly administrative. I’ll be doing a lot of paperwork.”

“Then why can’t you do it here? I’m going to be sick wondering if every time you walk outside you’re going to be blown to bits.”

“Kim, please.”

“No. How could you do this without talking to me first? I get the whole duty thing, but what about your duty to us, Owen? You said you loved me.”

“I do!” Owen pressed the heels of his hands against his eyes. Then he looked at her. “I love you with all my heart. But if I didn’t say yes, they would have ordered me back, and then it could have been for longer.”

“How can you say that?” she yelled. “How can you say you love me when you don’t tell me anything?”

“For God’s sake!” he snapped back. “I think I’ve loved you since I held you in that fucking hospital.”

Oh. No.

“What did you say? When you held me in the hospital?” Her jaw trembled as she processed what he said. Her eyes closed, squeezed shut like she was reaching back in her mind for the memory. A memory she’d crushed because it was too much to handle.

“Kim . . .” He reached out and she pushed his hand away.