Ranger's Baby Surprise (Special Forces Elite 2)

“Are you sure? I don’t want to push you,” he responded trying his best to hid his pleasure at my response.

I gave a weak smile in return.

“That is unless you have other plans,” I kidded.

“Oh hell no,” he responded taking my arm and walking me back to the car.

I was full of nerves now as we drove on to his house. I kept my thoughts to myself as we pulled into the driveway of his small but newer townhouse. I just took in the rooms as he walked us in and went to the bar to pour some drinks.

The place was a little bigger than my own, but looked like it was still a show model. Nothing was done to it to make it personalized. He didn’t even have a couch, just a simple chair that faced a blank wall.

“Love what you’ve done with the place,” I said sarcastically as he handed over a tumbler with a golden liquid.

He looked the room over like he just realized for the first time it might not be up to par.

“I thought you said you’ve been home for a few weeks. It looks like you just got here.”

He shrugged.

“I guess it could use a little bit of sprucing up. Nothing that a little girl and her mommy couldn’t handle.”

I went a little pale and took a steadying sip of the liquid. It was warming whiskey, and it gave me some courage.

“Hey,” he said brushing his hand on my arm, “when your ready, of course.”

I smiled at him, relieved that he was willing to take things slow for me.

“Come on,” he said motioning for me to follow him to the kitchen.

I had to hold back a laugh; the small dining room connected to the kitchen was completely void of even a table. All there was, were two bar stools.

He slid into one and patted the other for me to join him. I did happy to have some more time just to sit and talk.

11

“So Syria, huh?” Julie said after a few more sips of her whiskey.

It was a subject we hadn’t broached yet. We had talked about the good old times all through dinner and even what she had been up to in the last six years, but neither one of us had brought up my time away.

“Yeah,” I said taking the last of mine in one swig.

“The whole time?” she encouraged.

I gave her a soft smile. It was only fair that I shared with her after she had been so open with me.

“No, not the whole time. First, it was boot camp. Even though I was always going to be a doctor, they make me go with the rest of the SEALs. I’ll just say it was a lot more intense than normal officer boot camp.”

“Then what?”

“Just some more training. I didn’t deploy for the first time until three years in. I had to finish my doctorate anyway. The deal was, they do the schooling for me, and I have to give them three years after that.”

“So what did you do the last three years?”

“Uh, first it was Iraq. After that, I was in Lebanon, but I wasn’t really there much.”

“What does that mean?” Julie interrupted truly interested.

“Well the base we were stationed to was in Lebanon but when the team went out on a mission if there was a temp hospital or clinic there, I would go with them. Otherwise, I did stay at the hospital on the base in Lebanon. That didn’t happen a lot though.”