Page 88 of No Regrets

“Well, then no wonder they were pissed.”

Dex turned his head, raising his eyebrows. “Thanks for the sympathy.”

“Oh, come on. You’re admitting you were out of line. You got called on it. I hate to break it to you Dex, but you’re not perfect. It’s not a bad thing to realize that. It’s good Ryan called you out because now you know, and it won’t happen again.”

Dex gave her a smile. “You always say it like it is.”

She took a sip of tea. “You guys worked through it though, right?”

“Yeah, we did. It sucked. I never want to let my team down.”

“You didn’t. Because you listened to them, respected them, and admitted your mistake. That’s not letting them down, it’s being a good leader. And Sam’s OK with you?”

“It was my one and only warning. But he appears to have moved on. Hasn’t mentioned it again.”

“Then do the same. Move on.”

“Yes ma’am.” Dex grinned. “I’ve missed this, babe. So much. Just talking to you like this.”

Babe. The endearment caught Kelly off-guard, even though he always called her that. Those little butterflies fluttered faster. She liked him calling her that.

“I’ve missed it too,” she said truthfully. Talking about normal stuff, work, felt good.

“Ended up sorting through some of Pops’s stuff last night.”

“I’m sure that was hard.”

“It some ways, yes, but it was also kinda cool. Found some old photos and an old baseball.”

“The one you both signed? You claimed you were going to be a baseball superstar in between saving the world as a Navy SEAL!”

“You remember that?”

“Are you kidding? You told everyone in school. I think you were around nine.” She smiled at the memory. It felt like yesterday.

“Guess I was a cocky son of a bitch, huh?”

“What’s changed?”

Oh, this felt good. The teasing, the banter.

“This is why I can’t let you go Kelly. We have so many memories like that.” His face was serious.

“Yeah, we do. We’ll always have them. No matter what.”

She reached for a spring roll as Dex put down his soup bowl. Her hand froze, her eyes drawn to the yellowish liquid in the polystyrene bowl. There were brown bits floating in it, pieces of mushroom. She knew that, yet, her gut tightened. The dirty water she’d been forced to drink to survive, had it looked like that? It had been dark in the cell but seeing this soup, she was taken back there.

“Kelly? What’s wrong? What is it?”

She heard him but couldn’t answer him. Her throat was dry, her heart racing. God, it hurt to breathe. Oh, fuck what the hell was happening?

DEX CROUCHED IN FRONT of her, pushing the food away. Something about the food had triggered her, he could see it.

“Babe, it’s ok. I’m right here.’ He reached for her hands, squeezing them gently.

“I... can’t...God.... can’t...breathe...” She gripped his hands, looked at him, sheer panic on her face.

“You’re having a panic attack. Keep looking at me and just try to breathe, nice and slow.”