Mara sat up, pulling the sheet around herself. "You should take it."
She watched him walk to the window, phone pressed to his ear. The conversation was brief. When he hung up, his expression was complicated.
"Everything okay?"
"Yeah. He's just checking in." Logan sat back down on the bed. "Also reminded me that my leave is up Saturday. I need to be back on base Sunday morning."
Saturday. Two more days. Mara had known it was coming but hearing it out loud made her chest tighten. "Okay."
"Okay? That's all you've got?"
"What do you want me to say?"
"That you'll miss me. That this week has meant something. That you want to figure out how to keep doing this even when I'm in North Carolina and you're here." Logan took her hand. "I need to know I'm not alone in this."
Mara pulled him back down to the bed, straddling his hips and looking down at him with complete seriousness. "Logan Reed, I don't do casual. I don't let people see me the way I've let you see me. This week has been one of the best weeks of my life and the thought of you leaving makes me want to find a way to keep you here."
"But you can't."
"But I can't. You have a job. A life. A team that needs you. I have the same." She leaned down and kissed him softly. "But that doesn't mean this ends. We make it work. Video calls every night. Texts when we can. Visits when you get leave. Whatever it takes."
"That's going to be hard."
"Everything worth having is hard." She kissed him again, deeper this time. "But I'm willing to try if you are."
"I'm willing to try." He flipped them over, so she was underneath him, his weight pressing her into the mattress in exactly the way she needed. "More than willing. I'm all in on this, Mara. On you. On us."
"Good. Me too." She wrapped her legs around him. "Now stop talking and show me."
They spent Wednesday night at a restaurant Mara had been saving, a small place in the Bywater with food so good Logan declared it better than his grandmother's cooking. But they didn't linger. The pull to get back to the privacy of the hotel room was too strong, the knowledge that their time was limited making every moment feel precious.
Thursday, they took a day trip to the bayou. Mara showed him the wetlands and the cypress trees, explained the ecosystemwhile Logan asked questions and took photos and got entirely too excited about seeing an alligator in the wild.
"They're dangerous," Mara reminded him as he tried to get closer for a better photo.
"I'm Delta Force. I think I can handle a gator."
"Logan Reed, if you get eaten by an alligator on my watch, your team will never let me live it down."
He laughed but backed away from the water's edge. Later, sitting on a dock watching the sun set over the marsh, he pulled her into his lap and they watched the sky turn orange and pink and purple.
"I'm going to miss this," he said quietly.
"The bayou?"
"This. You. The way I feel when I'm with you." He kissed her temple. "I've been doing this job for twenty years. Never had trouble leaving before. Never had a reason to want to stay. But now I do."
"I'm not going anywhere. I'll be here when you come back."
"Promise?"
"Promise." She twisted to look at him. "This isn't ending Saturday, Logan. It's just changing shape for a while."
They drove back as the sun set, and by the time they reached the hotel, neither of them wanted to waste time with dinner or drinks or anything that kept them clothed and separated. The door had barely closed before Logan had Mara pressed against it, his mouth on hers and his hands already working the buttons of her shirt.
"Bed," she managed between kisses. "We have a bed."
"Too far," he murmured against her throat, but he let her pull him across the room anyway.
