Page 143 of Ford
She finished off her lemonade. Put down her glass. “Let’s go. We have an escape plan to hatch. The sooner we get home, the sooner we find…”The people we love.
Wyatt met her eyes and nodded.
14
“Do you think she’ll like it?” Gunnar knelt by the grave of their mother, digging in the rock he’d painted displaying her name, her age, the wordMommyat the top.
Overhead, the sky soared blue and clear, the clouds wispy, the early August air muggy. A hawk soared above, crying, and in the tiny graveyard, a few Douglas firs whispered in a faint, desperate breeze.
“I know she will,” Scarlett said. She’d placed her own stone, a white one she’d found off the shores of Coronado, where she’d trained for her PRT.
A memorial of better times that she wanted her mother to keep. Because despite her mistakes, Sammy-Jo Hathaway had made her daughter resilient. A fighter.
She’d helped Scarlett become the woman who saved lives.
And maybe, despite her broken places that made her give her heart away too easily, she’d also taught Scarlett about taking chances, believing in love.
Fighting for a happy ending.
Gunnar wore a clean T-shirt, a pair of athletic shorts, and his hair was freshly cut, shorn short under his baseball cap. His tan evidenced time at the community pool, a smattering of freckles across his nose.
He looked healthy and happy, and she’d had to swallow back a flare of stupid hurt when she’d picked him up this morning from the Ferrils’. Still, Gunnar had thrown his arms around her neck, a sharp contrast to the way he’d left, and that fact alone made her thank Ellen and Craig, who handed her his suitcase of new clothes.
Just a weekend trip to the Marshall family ranch, but it was a start.
Ford leaned against his F-150, arms folded. He was still on emergency medical leave—and probably deserved it after his night at sea two weeks ago. He’d emerged hypothermic, with a bruised shoulder and ribs, and certainly wasn’t operational.
It had given them time to figure it out.
Given them time to return home, for Ford to take her out on a date, then for them to walk, fingers entwined, up the Coronado Beach and talk through Ham’s offer.
Run the swimming program for GoSports, Hamilton Jones’s fitness club organization. And she could do it in San Diego at his shiny new sports center that focused on ocean sports—paddleboarding, surfing, free diving, wind sailing, and kayaking.
Are you sure you’re ready to separate from the Navy?
She couldn’t answer Ford’s question without a week of thinking, of sitting by the ocean, listening to her heart.
In the end, it was Yanna’s voice which told her the truth.Sometimes something looks so good, you just have to have it, right? And pretend to like it, even if it’s terrible, just to prove you didn’t make a mistake.
She loved the Navy. But it was just a substitute for what she really wanted…a family.
A home.
Ford. Gunnar.
She wanted to be a rescuer. But she wanted to do it on her terms. And being a trainer for GoSports…and the SAR drone operator for Ham’s private international SAR team, Jones, Inc., could give her all of it.
And Ford too.
Now she pressed her hand in the grass peeking out of the soil. “Thanks, Mom. I miss you.”
Gunnar did the same.
Scarlett reached over and pulled him to herself. Felt his body relax in her arms.
She drew him away, found his blue eyes. “Gunnar, I need to tell you something.” She glanced at Ford. He was smiling at her, gave her a tiny nod.
Oh, she didn’t deserve this man.