Page 43 of George’s Big Day

“Then he has the gall to say, you know, that hurts more than you think it would.”

When Jory chuckled, which seemed to me not at all the correct response, everyone seemed to take a breath at once.

“Chris has five screws in his left leg and two in his right shoulder. He used to set off all kinds of metal detectors, but that doesn’t happen much anymore.”

I watched Kurt run his hands over my skin, that looked completely normal now. “I told you I’m fine.”

“Yes, you did,” he replied, putting my sock back on and turning to look at my face. “Now tell me the story from the beginning.”

“Some of it is still classified.”

“He doesn’t care where you were or who you were saving or really anything about what you were doing up until the moment you were injured,” Jory told me. “That’s where he wants the narrative to begin.”

I turned back to Kurt, whose eyes were suddenly filling with unshed tears.

“I’m ready.” He declared, and I could tell he was girding.

“This is not a good idea.”

“It is. I have you with me, so yeah…now’s the best time.”

So I took a breath and told him exactly what happened. And when I was done, he leaned forward for a kiss that I willingly gave him.

Downstairs, having left him—which I wasn’t sure was a great idea with the others still sharing horror stories—I was suddenly joined by Thomasin’s boys, Toby, now twelve, and Dennis, now ten. They’d had their birthdays already this year, one in spring, one in the summer. I didn’t know the exact dates, but Kurt had included my name on their gifts. I appreciated that.

They were sort of crowding me, so I crouched down to their height. I used the same maneuver in the field when rescuing people because Chris had told me years ago that if you looked like you weren’t going to have to run, it wordlessly conveyed calm to others. It worked this time too, both boys taking a breath.

“There were a lot of men who came to take some other guys away,” Toby imparted, sounding worried. “So we wanted to make sure everything was all right with the wedding.”

I smiled at them. “It is. Those guys weren’t here for me or your uncle Kurt. They were here to see someone else.”

“And they’re leaving and not coming back?” Dennis was making sure.

“That’s correct,” I affirmed so they could hear the absoluteness in my voice.

“There was another man who left, and he seemed kind of mad,” Toby apprised me. “He said a lot of bad words on his way out.”

I was certain Horace Gleason had been swearing a blue streak on his way out of Dante’s B&B.

“Yes, well, some people showed up who weren’t invited, so they had to go home.”

Toby nodded. “You can’t crash a wedding.”

“That’s absolutely right. We had to plan this like your mother does one of her parties.”

They both understood that.

Brad and Thomasin joined us then.

“I thought you two wanted to walk around the lake with us?” Brad asked his boys.

Toby nodded. “We do, but there were those men that got walked to the room with the microphones and stuff, and we wanted to talk to George about it.”

Brad sighed. “I assured you both that it was fine.”

Dennis smiled at his father. “Yeah, but George knows about that stuff.” He shrugged. “He would know what to do in case something went wrong.”

Translation, I would protect them.