“My fiancé, Rae, and our daughter, Lilly,” Wilson introduced.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Donna said. She knew he wasn’t the little girl’s father. She was impressed that he had referred to her as his daughter. She could see Rich doing the same thing. This brought a bigger smile to her face.
“It’s nice to meet you too,” Rae said. “Lilly is going to go next door and play with Hahna while we talk.”
“Are Madison and Cooper at the office?” Burke asked.
“Yes, just for a few hours, so Elizabeth has Hahna, which is good. They can play and we can talk,” Rae said. Her gaze went to Donna. “Jimmy tells me you have three children, and one is in kindergarten.”
“Yes,” Donna said, taking in the conversation, and the names mentioned.
“Lilly and Hahna are in kindergarten too, in the same class. If you buy in the same school district, the kids would all go to school together.”
“That would be great,” Donna said, surprised that this woman knew so much about her.
After Rae brought Lilly next door, Rae invited Donna to sit on the couch with her. Burke went into the basement with Wilson to help him put together a dollhouse that was one of the gifts from Santa for Lilly.
Rae knew that Donna had signed the nondisclosure agreement, so she could talk freely with her. “I asked Jimmy to let me talk to you alone for a bit,” Rae said.
Her statement immediately unnerved Donna. What would she say that she couldn’t say in front of her fiancé and Rich?
“You know what they do, right?”
“More or less,” Donna admitted. Though she was surprised that Jimmy’s hair was long. He didn’t fit the clean-cut look of Rich and his co-workers that she’d seen so far.
Rae considered her with a hard stare that Donna couldn’t read. Then her gaze softened. “They’re heroes,” Rae said. “They’re brave and dedicated to the job, and a lot of people are alive because of the job they do. I know that when Jimmy goes to work what he does matters. I also know it can be dangerous. But I love him and accept I can’t have him without the reality of his job. I won’t say it looms over us, but the danger is a fact and that’s always there. They also have a lot of training, the best equipment, and they have each other. They’re more than a team. They’re a family. They look out for each other.”
Donna nodded. Rich had said something similar. “How does that impact your family life and your daughter since the two of you got together?”
Rae hadn’t planned to tell Donna the circumstances of her life and how she ended up becoming Lilly’s mother and engaged to Jimmy. She didn’t feel that she or Lilly were in any danger any longer; it was more out of respect for Lilly and her privacy. Lilly had settled in with them so well. She called them both Mom and Dad now, and the three of them were a family in every way.
“You signed the NDA. What I’m going to tell you falls under it, and moreover, not repeating it ever is best for Lilly’s happiness.”
Donna was confused by that statement, but agreed. “I’d never tell anyone anything you told me.”
“Lilly’s mom is in prison for the rest of her life. She didn’t come to live with us until Jimmy and I got together, so there was never a life with her before we moved in together. Jimmy and I were just friends, and then we realized our feelings were deeper at about the same time. I took responsibility for Lilly.”
Donna was surprised by her statement. “Oh, I see,” she said. “Well, then how is it living with him and what he does just on its own since you have no comparison?”
“The time apart is what’s hard. They’re away on missions a lot more than their home. They miss a lot. It can be hard. Hard for me, hard for Lilly, and hard for Jimmy, but I know we’re all much better off with the situation than we would be if we weren’t together. Something big could come up tonight, and he could be gone and miss Christmas. We’ll deal with it if it happens. It’s the job we signed up for. It would be harder for Lilly to understand, but kids are resilient. They may not be regular active-duty military, but make no mistake, they’re property of the government the same as they would be if they were in an active-duty unit. It’s easiest if you just think of it in those terms. It’s not like a normal job, and that’s why the girlfriends and wives of the guys are tight. No one else can understand what it’s like.”
“Rich still considers himself active duty, the same as when he was strictly considered a Marine. I know he’s a lot more than that now.”
“Yeah, they are. But working for the agency has its perks. Jimmy says that their boss, Shepherd, cares about them more than soldiers are usually cared about in the military. And Shepherd does make allowances for them that would never happen in a regular military unit. They’re also paid very well for the job they do. We have a security system on the house that’s monitored by their operations center, so we always have someone looking out for us if we need help.”
She lifted her phone from the table, which Donna recognized as the same phone Rich, her sister, and Brad had.
“And we’re provided agency phones the same as the employees so we can communicate with them when they’re working,” Rae added. She wasn’t sure if Donna knew about the trackers, so she decided not to mention them. “Everything Shepherd does for us is so that the team members don’t worry about their families while they’re working. We can call the office and get help with anything at all. Their job is important, and they need to focus. As Jimmy put it, he can’t be worried about Lilly and me if he’s in a life-or-death situation. His thoughts have to be on the mission. And I have to be self-sufficient and be able to handle everything while he’s gone. And if I can’t, I can’t let him know it.”
Donna nodded. She could understand that. “You’re very calm stating that.” She wasn’t sure she could be.
“It’s a fact,” Rae said. “Jimmy’s a Delta operator. No matter what this unit designation is, he’s a soldier. That’s who he is.”
“Rich told me the job isn’t what he does, it’s who he is, and he could never be asked to make a choice between it and me,” Donna said.
Rae nodded. “I think that’s true for all of them.”
“Does it make you feel like you come in second to the job?” Donna asked.
