“There’s somethin’ I wanna talk to you about.”
She paused. “Okay,” Nahla said slowly.
“I was talking to Mace the other day, and he said somethin’ that stuck with me,” he said, his voice low. “He was talkin’ about all the vets who have gone through situations similar to mine—heroes who lost their careers over some bullshit. When you’re in the military, it becomes your life. When it gets snatched away from you, the day it happened for me . . .”
Nahla squeezed his hand.
“It has the potential to break a person. Luckily for me, I had my family to keep me sane, but it’s people out here who don’t have anything anymore. I’ve been thinkin’ of ways to help people like that.”
Nahla smiled. “I love that. What do you have in mind?”
“I was thinkin’ about expandingPorter Protectslike Capri has been beggin’ me to do for years. Capri gave me the idea to start the company because she knew I was lost without a mission. I felt steady when I had an assignment. Maybe I can hire people who need that kind of purpose again too.”
“You’re gonna change lives,” she said, rubbing his hand with her thumb.
He nodded. “I hope so. But I feel like I can’t do it if I’m still burying my own truth. The people I’m searchin’ for need to know that they ain’t alone in this.”
Nahla didn’t say anything, but she was clearly hanging on his every word.
“So,” he continued. “I want you to tell my story in the way that only you can.”
Her lip dropped. “Are . . . are you serious, Cannon?”
“I am. I trust you with it, and it’s because of you that I can talk about it now. It’s because of you that I want it out there. What you think?”
Nahla bit her lip. Standing, she walked over to Cannon and sat on his lap.
“I think you’re a hero who deserves to be celebrated as one. I think you were done wrong, and people should know that. I think I’ll be honored to tell your story, baby.”
She lowered her lips to his and kissed him gently.
When their lips separated, Cannon buried his face in her neck. He pressed his lips to her skin softly. Nahla moaned.
“Don’t do that unless you’re ready to leave and?—”
Boom.
A loud thud echoed across the canal, prompting Nahla to jerk in his lap slightly. She gasped as she looked past him.
“Aw, Cannon, I love fireworks,” she said, hugging his neck tightly.
He turned in his seat so that they were both facing the firework show, but he kept his eyes on her. He could see the firework in her eyes as they burst in different colors.
They continued for a couple of minutes, until a crackling ring of white sparks shimmered above the water. The show was seemingly over, and Nahla finally looked at her. That was the perfect end to such a perfect?—”
Again, a loud boom interrupted her, and she focused on the sky again. This time, there weren’t just regular bursts of color in the air. This time, the sky glowed with red lance work lines. They were thin trails of fire that linked together, as if someone was writing across the air.
The writing read:NAHLA, I LOVE YOU.
Not taking her eyes off the sky, she whispered, “How in the world did you do that?”
He kissed her neck then looked toward the sky himself.
“Keep watching,” he said. And she did.
The fireworks weren’t done. More lines appeared—curling and bending in the sky until another message formed.
BE MINE
