Uniform Desires (Make Mine Military Romance) (31 page)

His knees shook and he almost fell. "Is she okay?"

"The doc said she was a little messed up inside. He had to remove damaged tissue."

Tuck’s fists clenched. "Will she be okay?"

Swinson nodded, a smile spilling across her face. After a moment, the smile disappeared. "The doctors said she sustained damage to her uterus." The nurse paused and finished in a rush. "They did what they could, but she may never have children."

"Who cares? She almost died. If she lives, that will be enough." He dragged in a deep breath. "When I saw the helicopter in flames..."

"She’s tough. She’ll pull through." Swinson sighed. "I’ll miss her as a roommate."

Miss her? His body went rigid. "What do you mean?"

"No one told you?"

"Told me what?"

"Tomorrow, they’re putting her on a plane back to the States." The nurse stared at him. "Are you going to be all right?"

"I’m fine." No, he wasn’t fine. His world was falling apart, he was stuck in this desert shit hole when Delaney was going back stateside. If something happened to her while he was here...

"Since she doesn’t have any family, they’re sending her to Bethesda to be with her fiancé during her recuperation."

The weight of her words slammed into his chest, making it hard for him to breathe.

"You love her, don’t you?" the nurse asked.

Did he love Delaney? As soon as he thought the question, the answer was as clear as it was painful, and it had been there from the first time they’d shared a pizza.

With every beat of his heart, he loved her.

Nurse Swinson chuckled. "You don’t have to answer. I can see it in your face." Her smile turned to a frown. "If you love her, why are you letting her marry another guy?"

"You don’t understand."

"What don’t I understand?"

"Reaper’s my friend." He scrubbed a hand through his hair. "A guy doesn’t poach on his buddy’s girl. Especially when he’s going through hard times."

"What about Delaney?"

The words formed like sand in his mouth but he said them anyway. "She chose him."

"And she’s miserable."

"Delaney’s aircraft was shot down. Anyone would be miserable."

"Don’t be thickheaded, frogman." Swinson shook her head. "Miserable in love with you. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?"

His gut clenched like he’d been sucker punched. "What did you not understand about
she chose him
?"

"She doesn’t love him in that way."

"He lost his fuckin’ arm. I’m not takin’ his girl."

"You’re both so stubborn, you’re going to let this mistake go forward?"

"There’s nothing I can do to stop it. It’s all in Cory’s hands." He closed his eyes, his friend’s pain washing over him. "Hand."

Swinson sighed. "Then you’re all fools."

He glanced down at Delaney.
 

She looked so pale that his stomach clenched. "When is she supposed to wake up?"

"When her body is ready."

"Will she wake before she leaves in the morning?"

"We don’t know. From what we
do
know, her helicopter landed hard. So far she’s not showing any swelling on the brain, but it is a possibility."

"Can I stay here with her?"

"If it’s all right with your commanding officer, you can stay all night. I’ll get a chair, but it won’t be comfortable."

"I don’t need comfort." He needed Delaney to wake up so that he could tell her.

Tell her what? That he loved her? That she couldn’t marry Reaper and that he couldn’t live without her?

Maybe it was just as well Delaney slept through the night. By morning when the medevac folks came, she hadn’t come to.

When they moved her to the transport stretcher, she stirred. "Tuck?"

He was there, holding her hand. "I’m here," he reassured her, walking with the team of medical personnel carrying her to the ambulance that would take her to the airfield.

"You’re okay." Her eyelids drifted closed as if they were too heavy to hold open.

"Yes, I am."

A smile tipped the corners of her lips.

Then she whispered so softly he had to bend close to hear. "I love you." He pressed a kiss to her lips and before he could do more, they loaded her into a helicopter bound for Bagram, then Landstuhl, and ultimately back to Bethesda where she’d be reunited with Reaper, her fiancé.

As the helicopter lifted from the ground, Tuck felt as if his heart had been ripped from his chest. He couldn’t stand by and watch his best friend marry the woman he loved, and he couldn’t bust them up. Not when his friend had lost so much. Torn so completely, he could lie around and wallow in his self-pity, which was not something he tolerated in others, or he could do something to take his mind off his troubles.

Tuck marched to his commander’s tent, still wearing the black combat uniform of the night before, dusty, dirty and probably smelling like a wet dog.

"Tuck, how’s the chopper pilot?" Commander Janek settled a cap over his head and stepped outside into the morning heat.

"On her way to the States. She’ll live." With Reaper. Tuck’s fists clenched and his heart squeezed so tightly in his chest he thought he was having a heart attack. "I want to go after the Taliban informer who set us up last night and the mission that cost Reaper his arm."

His commander stood still, staring into Tuck’s face. "What have you heard?"

"I understand intel got a lead on him."

Janek nodded. "I’m assembling a team today."

"I want in on it."

The skipper’s brows knitted. "Are you sure you’re up to the task?"

Straightening his shoulders, Tuck stood tall. "Always."

"We’ll talk after you’ve had a shower. You stink." Janek turned toward the mess tent, hesitated, and turned back. "This mission will be the most dangerous one you’ve ever been on. It will require living in the worst conditions for long periods of time and being cut off from civilization for weeks."

Perfect. He wouldn’t be around for Reaper and Delaney’s wedding. "The longer the better."

One month later...

"Are you sure this is how you want to do this? You don’t want to have it in a church surrounded by all your buddies from SEAL Team 10?" Delaney was dressed in a pretty cream-colored dress, her hair pulled back and up with tiny rhinestone butterflies clipped throughout. She looked better than she’d ever looked, and her heart raced in anticipation of the events about to take place.

"Humor me, will ya?" Cory waved his stump of an arm, the surgical scars thick and ragged. "I’ll have the people who mean the most to me here."

Delaney was happy he’d finally gotten the phantom pain under control. The first few weeks after the explosion had been hell with nerve synapses that used to lead to his now-missing arm firing off messages to his brain that translated into agonizing pain. His cries had nearly broken Delaney’s heart. She’d been there as much as possible. Ultimately, the nurses caring for him took center stage, then the physical therapists. One in particular.

When she’d arrived at Bethesda, she’d been too out of it to know what was going on. The doctors had been the best, and she’d recovered within a couple weeks, enough to visit Cory at his therapy session.

She couldn’t believe the change in the month since she’d left. They’d really turned his entire attitude around since the beginning, and she was thankful. He’d been so upbeat, she barely recognized him from the sour-faced, angry man of before. His new lease on life centered around one therapist.

Once she was sufficiently recovered, Delaney had been reassigned to temporary duty at the Pentagon as executive staff to Joint Chiefs of Staff, reviewing the Joint Air Operations Publication. Her commander had stressed the duty was only temporary until she passed the flight physical, at which time she’d be reassigned to duty with the 160th SOAR.

Battling both the D.C. traffic and the Metro reminded her of why she liked deployment. Fighting the Taliban and being shot at seemed less stressful than rush-hour traffic. She looked forward to getting back in the cockpit. Healed and rested, she was ready.

Today was Cory’s last day at Bethesda, and his wedding day. She couldn’t be happier. Well, she could, but that was another story and one she’d closed the book on the day she’d flown out of Camp Leatherneck in the back of the Black Hawk to Bagram.

So much had happened. So many things had changed. But one thing was clear, Tuck hadn’t come looking for her, hadn’t tried to contact her or see her, or even Skype her from the field.

On many occasions, Cory had tried to reach him online. He’d finally given up and contacted their commander to learn Tuck was out on a special mission. He’d left word with their commander with the date of his wedding and that he was saving the spot of best man for Tuck. Be there.

Now Delaney stood beside Cory in the ward where he’d performed most of his physical therapy, surrounded by the therapists, doctors, and nurses who’d seen him through the worst of his recovery.

Someone pressed the button on an MP3 player and Mendelssohn’s
Wedding March
filled the room.

Cory waved his stump. "Wait. He’s not here yet."

"Who’s not here?" Delaney asked, a niggle of suspicion running up her back.

"My best man. He promised he’d be here on time. His plane landed over an hour ago. He should be here by now."

The door to the therapy room crashed open, and a tall man dressed in the U.S. Navy service dress blue uniform burst through. "Am I too late?"

Delaney’s heart skipped several beats then crashed against her chest, banging like a bass drum in a parade. "Tuck?"

"Tuck! You made it!" Cory wagged his stump. "About damned time. The ceremony’s about to start. Get up here."

From ten feet away, Tuck stared from Cory to Delaney, his gaze fixing on her. "I wasn’t going to come, but Skipper insisted."

"Not come to my wedding?" Cory grinned, his spirit indomitable on his wedding day. "You’d skip out on seeing your best bud shackled with an old ball and chain?"

 
"She’s not a ball and chain. Any man would be proud to have her as his wife." His words were for Cory, but his gaze centered on Delaney.

Her heart thumped hard against his ribs. Delaney bit her lip to keep the tears from falling. The pain did little to stop them, and several slipped down her cheek. "Cory, you didn’t tell me he was coming."

"I know." Cory winked at her. "I wanted to surprise you." In a stronger voice, he addressed Tuck. "Are you standing by me or do I have to ask Schotzy to fill in?"

A large man in scrubs stepped forward. "I’d be happy to."

"Stand down. Let the man decide first." Cory faced Tuck. "What’s it to be? You’ve been my best friend since BUD/s. I don’t want to do this without you by my side, but I will."

"I came to stop this wedding." Tuck came forward.

The people gathered in the room emitted a collective gasp.

Delaney almost laughed at the comical expression on Cory’s face.

"Why would you stop me from marrying the girl I love?"

Big hands drew into fists at Tuck’s sides. "Because you can’t marry her."

"Why? Is she already married and I didn’t know?"

"No." Tuck’s face darkened, getting more fierce with each passing second.

"She agreed to marry me. I love her." Cory waved his good hand to the side. "What more confirmation do I need?"

"She doesn’t love you," Tuck blurted.

"That’s news to me," a female voice called out from a side door. She stepped through wearing a simple white wedding dress that hugged her figure perfectly. Her long blond hair hung down her back, straight and shiny, unlike the unruly mass of sandy blond curls Delaney fought to control with ponytails and hairclips.

Tuck stared, his mouth dropping open. "Who’s she?"

"Uh, Tuck..." Delaney fought the smile spreading across her lips. "You’ve been in dark ops too long. I take it you haven’t talked to Cory in a while, and there’s been a...uh...change of plan."

"I don’t understand. I came to stop you from making the biggest mistake of my life."

"The biggest mistake of
your
life?" Cory asked. "And what would that be?"

"Marrying Delaney."

Delaney lifted her chin and hooked her arm through Cory’s elbow. "I happen to think Cory would make a terrific husband." She nodded toward the woman at the far side of the room, slowly working her way toward them. "A terrific husband for Leigha."

"Who’s Leigha?" Tuck demanded.

"Shh." Leigha pressed a finger to her lips and picked up the pace, marching up to Tuck. "Please stop yelling. You’re disturbing the patients."

Cory grinned and stared around the room at the medical staff and patients in attendance. "Are we disturbing anyone?"

As one, they shouted. "No!"

"Marry her, already!" A triple amputee in a wheelchair shouted. "We want to see the kiss."