Page 75 of Austin

“I’m sorry I put this off for so long,” he says. “I don’t exactly clean up as well as you these days.”

“No need to apologize. I’m honored you chose to tell your story to us. You certainly had your pick.”

“It only seemed right. Were you in the hospital long?”

My hand instantly goes to my chest, knowing my scars are more hidden than his. “I’ve healed okay. Still have some pains here and there, but I’m alive, thanks to you.”

“You would have done the same thing. I have no doubt. I was just lucky enough to be on my way there to deliver supplies when the missile hit.”

“Ain’t that the truth?” I try to laugh, but it doesn’t go anywhere. There’s no laughter in this situation, and I look down at his leg, my reminder hitting me square in the face.

“Hey.” He shakes his good leg, putting it on display for me. “Look, I’ve still got a good one. It happened. I’m okay. You’re okay. That’s what’s important.”

His lighthearted attitude is baffling.

“It’s ironic that you’re consoling me. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?”

“Yes,” he says with a mock look of contemplation. “Tell me all the amazing things you know about me. I like hearing those.”

I laugh out loud. “Well, I woke up in that building to you hovering over me. It was like a mirage as you lifted me off the ground and carried me out of there.”

I pause as the memory swoops into my brain and overtakes my thoughts.

“The guys and I were settling in for the night,” I continue. “Everything was calm, quiet even, like the earth had stopped and was holding its breath. Then, one of my men called out just as the bomb was launched. It happened so fast.

“One moment, the earth was still, and the next, it was raging. It was loud and bright, and my body was flying in the air. I don’t know how far, but I must have passed out because the next thing I remember is seeing you. There was gunfire and more bombs going off around us. I could hear them and knew it was only a matter of time until another was launched our way.

“You could have run. Hell, you should have run. But you stayed and got my sorry ass out to safety. You saved my life, Sergeant Miller, I will forever be grateful.”

Now, it’s his turn to bear a misty expression on his face. “No man left behind.”

He’s right. And, just like him, I’d never walk away from a fallen soldier.

“No man left behind.”

“You begged me to leave you there,” he says.

I blink back at him in confusion.

“You told me to leave you and get Jimmy. You were willing to risk your life for that of your friend’s. They give Medal of Honor to men who save lives, but they don’t always recognize the true heroes.”

I wave him off. “I should never be mentioned in the same category as you.”

“Bullshit. You fought me in your damn half-conscious state. You kept telling me to go save your friend.”

“You listened. If it hadn’t been for me, you wouldn’t have gone back into that building a second time and gotten hurt. You only went up there because I’d begged you to, and for that, I will always be sorry.”

“I went up there because one of our men needed help. Jimmy is alive, and he wouldn’t be if you didn’t tell me exactly where he was.”

“But look at you,” I say and instantly regret it.

No, fuck that. I don’t regret it.

Sergeant Miller knows what he looks like. He knows he’s missing an arm and a leg. He knows he has burns all over his face that look like angry red waves. He knows he has the stature of a ninety-year-old man when he should be a robust man of twenty-six.

“You shouldn’t have suffered the way you did. I should have been the one to get the can opener.”

“The what?”