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“Come on, Grady. The statute of limitations has long expired on breakup hard feelings.”
“Says who?” He shoved an extra pillow behind his head. “From where I’m sitting, I’m still mad as hell.” He downed his second longneck and went in for a third.
Jessie had the gall to cross her arms and roll her eyes.
“You think I still shouldn’t be pissed? I asked you to marry me. You accepted.”
“Almost a decade ago!” She smacked the dresser top. “Get over it. That’s ancient history.”
“The hell it is.” He sprang from the bed, planting his hands on either side of her, pinning her in but not giving her the satisfaction of touching her. “Give me an honest reason and I’ll let it go. More than anything, I want to let this—you—go, but you’re stuck in my head.”
“Sorry.”
“I need a reason, Jess.”
She raised her chin. “You know the reason.”
“Oh, right—you don’t love me.”
“You know how much I care for you. You were my best friend. Why can’t we just go back to that?”
“No, thanks.” The friend card had long been off the table.
The SEAL’s Miracle Baby
Laura Marie Altom
LAURA MARIE ALTOM is a bestselling and award-winning author who has penned nearly fifty books. After college (Go, Hogs!), Laura Marie did a brief stint as an interior designer before becoming a stay-at-home mum to boy-girl twins and a bonus son. Always an avid romance reader, she knew it was time to try her hand at writing when she found herself replotting the afternoon soaps. When not immersed in her next story, Laura plays video games, tackles Mount Laundry and, of course, reads romance!
Laura loves hearing from readers at either PO Box 2074, Tulsa, OK 74101, USA, or by e-mail, [email protected]. Love winning fun stuff? Check out www.lauramariealtom.com.
This story is dedicated to the town of Moore, Oklahoma. May your skies be forevermore blue.
Contents
For all practical purposes, Rock Bluff, Oklahoma, was gone.
Navy SEAL Grady Matthews pulled his rental sedan onto the highway’s shoulder, being careful not to hit a pink bathtub that rested on its side in a nest of debris. He lowered his window, bracing his forearm on the vehicle’s frame to take in the tragic view. The early-May tornado had been damn near a mile wide, and it had razed everything in its seventeen-mile path.
When his dad called, asking him to help rebuild their ranch, Grady thought he’d exaggerated the degree of the storm’s damage, but if anything, Ben’s description had been inadequate. Grady’s brain knew that a hundred yards down the road was where the historic Flamingo Motel should be, along with a McDonald’s, an Arby’s, the First Baptist Church and the Dairy Barn, but all of it was just gone, as if God had swept His hand over it, wiping the slate clean. Only the resulting mess wasn’t clean. It was an unfathomable pile of concrete blocks and upended church pews and— Tears stung his eyes.
He wanted to blame those tears on dust from a passing National Guard convoy, but the truth was that all he seemed capable of focusing on was the fact that the last place he’d seen Jessie, held her hand, begged her to give him another chance, had been at the Dairy Barn. They’d sat in the back booth that always caught the afternoon sun. Her honey-gold hair had come alive in the glow, and he’d reverently skimmed the crown of her head, kissing the soft waves of her hair, inhaling the simple strawberry sweetness of her shampoo, because it hadn’t been enough to just touch her—he’d needed to breathe her in.
I don’t love you, she’d said. This...us... We’re just not going to happen.
An hour later, Grady had signed his recruitment papers down at the strip mall that was now also gone.
He couldn’t quite wrap his head around the fact that physical proof of his memories—the only thing left of him and Jessie—had been erased.
His cell rang. The caller ID read Rose Matthews.
“Hey, Mom.”
“Hey,