Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Protecting Hope (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Midnight Delta Book 7)

by Caitlyn O'Leary

  Miranda smiled at the idea of Wendy being able to spend the time. Right now she was supposed to be on-site up in Vancouver for a film.

  “I have some great friends.” She watched as Griff gave a sad smile.

  The nurse and doctor left the room.

  “What? Why the long face.”

  “Nothing.”

  Miranda yawned. “Can I have my phone?”

  “Why don’t you take a nap. I’ll call everybody for you. You can call them back after you rest some more.”

  “You didn’t tell me why you look upset.”

  “Are you kidding, I’m the happiest man alive. Miranda, you being in a coma scared the piss out of me.”

  “That’s another thing, why are you here?” Miranda thought she knew, but she couldn’t believe that a man who finally asked her out to dinner had been sitting by her hospital bed.

  “You know damn good and well why I’m here. Go to sleep. I’ll be here when you wake up. I have calls to make.”

  She didn’t shut her eyes. She yawned again.

  “Honey, you need to sleep.”

  “What if I don’t wake up? What if I slip into a coma again?”

  “You won’t. I won’t let you.”

  Miranda felt herself relax. There was something about the man that she trusted at a visceral level.

  “Okay.” Her eyes drifted shut.

  * * *

  Griff got out his phone and started making calls. He called Wendy first. He liked her, she had shown up from Vancouver, putting her job on hold. Then there was Tari, she had come from Palos Verdes three times for a couple of hours, she’d even brought her four young children. He’d been amazed at the juggling act. He called her next.

  Kenna had been calling everyday from Ohio, so she was his third call. But, still, why hadn’t anybody else shown up? He’d called at least six other women. What the hell? One of them was right here in San Diego. But it was clear that Miranda hadn’t been lying about most of her friends being workaholics. They just couldn’t be pulled away from their jobs.

  Meanwhile, Caroline had been here twice, despite the fact that Wolf had almost had a heart attack. Then there was Beth, Sophia and Alabama, who had come damn near every day. Clearly Miranda needed more of these types of friends.

  Sure that Miranda was in a deep sleep, he went looking for her doctor. When he couldn’t find her, he tracked down the nurse. It wasn’t Shelly, she worked in the ICU. But this was Lila, and he had made friends with her, and she would give him scoopage.

  “Okay, so tell me when I can take her home,” Griff demanded.

  “She should be ready for discharge in three days if she progresses the way I think she’s going to,” Lila said.

  “What about her left leg?”

  “I’d normally say she’d need a walker, but with her broken wrist, that’s going to be a problem.”

  That’s what Griff had thought.

  “Still, there’s the knee wheel scooters.”

  “What?”

  “The patient puts one knee on the scooter, and propels with the other leg. But that doesn’t help her to get the mobility she needs on her left leg,” Lila said.

  “Still, she could get around when I’m not there.”

  “I would have said she would need twenty-four-hour care when she woke up, but Griff, she’s damn near a miracle patient. You don’t see that kind of recovery from brain surgery. But to be on the safe side, she should still have someone with her when you’re not there. When are you getting married?”

  Griff stopped short at the question. Lila noticed it.

  “You’re engaged aren’t you? I mean, I didn’t see her wearing a ring, but I figured it had to be pretty serious for you to be with her night and day.”

  “It is pretty serious,” Griff answered. “We just haven’t talked about marriage.”

  “I’m sure you will. After having almost lost her, it puts things in a whole new perspective.”

  “It sure did.” Griff agreed.

  He walked back to Miranda’s room, reeling. All he had considered was taking care of Miranda. He hadn’t really considered the long-term future with her. But now that Lila had talked about marriage, he realized that would be what people would think. Was that where he was headed?

  * * *

  “I’m sure as hell not going to move in with you. You are out of your ever-loving mind, Griffin Porter.”

  She had papers strewn about the bed. Her laptop was open, and elevator music was coming out of her cell phone. Hell, it was only her second day out of the coma, the nurse and the doctor had already told him to come and take the laptop away from her.

  “What is all this?” He waved his hand at everything on the bed.

  “That’s me arranging things so that I can avoid hospice and live in my home in Anaheim.”

  Griff sat down in what he considered his chair, by the bed. “So, what’s your big plan?”

  “I’ll be doing telephone interviews of home healthcare workers this afternoon. They’ll be working in shifts at my house.” She tapped her tablet with her pen.

  “Isn’t that going to be expensive?”

  “My insurance will cover most of it. I have damn good insurance,” she said belligerently. She picked up her tablet, and one of her pieces of paper, comparing the writing on the two.

  “If you stayed at my place, you would only need one healthcare worker for when I wasn’t there, and they would cover all of it. I checked.”

  “What in the hell do you mean, you checked?” She slammed down her tablet.

  “I mean I checked. I’m the one who had your purse, and got your insurance information for the hospital. Who do you think went up to your house and watered your plants while you were here? That’d be me.”

  She looked at him aghast. “You had no right.”

  “You have a hell of a lot of plants. Did you want them to die?”

  She bit her bottom lip. “Well, no.”

  “Okay then.”

  “You had no right to call my insurance company,” she bit out.

  “I admit I might have crossed a line. But I wanted to know how we were going to work things when you moved in with me.”

  “I am not going to move in with you. I hardly know you.”

  “Don’t you?”

  She stared at him. Her eyes watered.

  “Honey.” He shot up out of the chair, and cupped her cheeks. “Miranda, don’t cry.”

  “Don’t mind me. They told me my emotions would be all over the board.”

  “Why are you upset?”

  “Why do I feel like I do know you? Why do I feel like we have more of a connection then I know we should? It doesn’t make sense. There is no way I should move in with you. I’d be too much of a burden.”

  He gave her a soft kiss on the cheek, and then backed up and picked up the backpack he had brought with him. “I was prepared for this.” He pulled out a thick file. “This is my OMPF, a copy of my SATs, my bank records and a letter from my mom.” She took the offered file.

  “What’s an OMPF?”

  “Official Military Personnel File.”

  “I don’t understand, why are you giving me this?”

  “You’re a businesswoman. Doesn’t it make you feel good to look me over as a potential employee?” he asked gently.

  “You don’t think I’m weird?” she asked.

  “No, I think you’re you. You’re my Miranda, the ball buster. For God’s sake, you review contracts for a living, of course you want paperwork. If you were an artist, I would have had my mom get all of my old pictures from first grade.”

  She laughed. She opened the file.

  “Why should I believe anything your mother has to say?”

  “I read it. It wasn’t all complimentary. Some of it made me wince.” She gave him the stink eye, then the side of her mouth went up.

  “You’re kind of nuts. That isn’t a good thing when considering moving in with somebody.”

  “You just said
considering,” he grinned.

  “Dammit, Griffin, you gave me your bank records,” she said as she opened the file. “And you’re a saver. I like people who save their money. It shows responsibility. Dammit! This is ridiculous. We didn’t even go on that date. You don’t know me. Why would you want to do this? I’m bad-tempered.” She hit ‘end’ on the phone. Griff gave thanks that the elevator music stopped.

  “I’m a snoop,” he countered.

  “That’s going into the bad column.”

  “My mom mentioned it in the letter. She put it in the bad column, too.”

  “Seriously, you hardly know me. You met me on a train. We haven’t gone out.”

  “I know the most important thing about you. I know your heart. Your bravery. I know that you would risk yourself, without batting an eye, for a baby that you don’t even know.”

  “I don’t remember that, Griffin. I was probably scared out of my mind, and was just acting on instinct.”

  Griff thought back to her going toe-to-toe with him. Telling him that she would take off the tether in order to reach the baby, and damn the consequences. Yep, this was a woman he wanted by his side.

  “Griff,” she said softly. “I would be more than happy to go out with you. To go on dates, and have a normal relationship with you. Let’s do that, okay? This is just too weird, I don’t want to start out with me being in your debt.”

  He put his hand on hers. “I really appreciate that. I do. You’re not going to be indebted to me. Can you do me a favor, Miranda?”

  She nodded solemnly.

  “Consider this. Consider you had a job that was normal nine-to-five. Except for some out of town jaunts. But, right now, I’m off rotation, so I’m a nine-to-fiver. So imagine you’re a nine-to-fiver. Can you do that?”

  She shook her head.

  “Just close your eyes and try.” She looked at him. “Please.”

  She sighed and closed her eyes.

  “Imagine that we have gone through the most intense experience of our lives, and then imagine me needing you, and you had the ability to be there for me. Just for a couple of weeks. You could bring me into your home, and help me out, just for a couple of weeks. No strings, just helping me. Would you do it?”

  She sighed again. And gave a small nod.

  “There you go.”

  “I don’t understand this. I don’t understand this connection we have. It’s been building for over two months. I’ve been having dreams about the crash.”

  He pulled her into his arms, uncaring about the paper, but careful of her laptop. “Ah, baby. I knew I should still be here at night.”

  “It’s okay. I’ve mostly dreamt of you.”

  “What else have you dreamed about?”

  “Hope. I’ve woken up screaming the word ‘No’.”

  He chuckled. “She is definitely in the terrible twos. That’s her favorite word. She’s still saying it, even now.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Didn’t I tell you? Susan came here when you were in your coma. She came here with her mother and kids. Hope toddled around the waiting room, and any time she didn’t get her way, she would yell the word, ‘No’. It was actually pretty funny.”

  Miranda shuddered. She snuggled into his arms. “Her screams scare me.”

  “I’m sorry, I imagine they do.” He brushed a kiss against her cheek. She moved her head, so that their lips touched. He stilled.

  “Kiss me for real,” she whispered.

  “Are you sure?”

  “It’s more important than the letter from your mother.”

  He parted his lips against hers. She tasted like the cinnamon Altoids she loved. He was so careful, knowing that she was still fragile from surgery. But as he gently kissed her, she bit down on his bottom lip in reproof and he smiled. He nipped back, and she welcomed his tongue so that they danced. Before it went too far, he pulled back.

  “More,” she whimpered.

  “First a doctor’s note,” he teased. “So was this enough to get you to agree?” He hoped so. Damn, he hoped so.

  “I really shouldn’t. Griff, are you doing this because of some need to caretake? I know you just got done helping out with your dad.”

  “My buddy Jack asked the same question. Here’s the deal. I intend to get your ass well and back in your house as quickly as possible. Then I intend to start dating you. Got it?”

  Her eyes sparkled. “Got it. Okay, let’s do this.”

  Chapter Eight

  He loved the fact that she had actually made notes on his OMPF, and then called his mom. By God, this woman was a pistol. Then, when she had gotten to his house, she had printed out her performance appraisals and bank records and given them to him!

  “Miranda, I don’t need to read these.”

  “You damn well better. If you don’t, the deal is off.” That was the first day she was at his house.

  She had refused to even move into the bedroom until they went over all of the information.

  So for two hours he read evaluation after evaluation. “I really don’t like Michael Evans,” he said.

  “Why not?” she asked.

  “He was pretty hard on you. What does he mean that you needed to learn time management?”

  “That was six years ago, and he was right. Out of all of my managers, he was the best. He gave it to me right between the eyes. He retired two years ago. I should give him a call. I miss him.”

  When Griff continued to read through the rest of Mike’s performance evaluations, he could see that there was a great deal of care and respect for Miranda.

  “Okay, I’ve read everything. We now know more about one another than people who have been dating for over a year. Are you satisfied?” he asked.

  She got a wanton grin on her face. “Not hardly. I would say there is one aspect that we definitely haven’t explored.”

  “None of that, Ms. Slade. It is time to get you into bed.” Griff groaned, and Miranda laughed.

  “Shit, I sure walked into that one, didn’t I?” Griff shook his head. “I can’t believe I just said that.”

  “I love it. But you’re right. I’m tired. I couldn’t seduce you even if I wanted to.” She reached for the knee scooter with her good hand.

  “I’m going to help you. You need to be resting your leg,” Griff reminded her. He bent to pick her up.

  “I’d protest, but you’re big as a house. But still, I can’t stand that you keep carrying me around. You already carried me into your home.”

  He grinned as Miranda stuck out her lower lip. That’s what she always did when she pouted. She hated having to rely on anybody for help. Well, Miss Buttercup was just going to have to suck it up.

  He carried her down the hallway to the master bedroom then he set her down so she could sit on the side of the bed. “Hold on and I’ll bring in the knee scooter so you can go into the bathroom by yourself.”

  “Gee, thanks.”

  By the time he got back, she had a contrite expression on her face. “Can you sit down beside me Griffin?”

  “Sure, what is it?”

  “I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have been mean and petty. You are absolutely wonderful for opening up your house to me. I am so grateful.”

  “Honey, it’s okay that you were grumpy, I promise.” What was she talking about?

  Her face crumpled. “No it’s not. This whole thing has been horrible.”

  He scooped her up in his arms. “How is your head? Is your headache back?”

  She didn’t answer.

  “Miranda?”

  “It hasn’t left.”

  “Dammit, they said you were supposed to take your pain medication. You weren’t supposed to let them get ahead of you.”

  “I hate it when I get all fuzzy,” she protested.

  He helped her to lie back onto the pillows. He slipped off her shoes, and she let out a sigh. “I’ll be right back with your meds. Do you want juice or water?”

  “Juice.”

&n
bsp; “Apple?” He’d brought in a supply after seeing how much she liked it at the hospital.

  She nodded.

  He should have known that she had a headache. Now that he was looking, he could see faint lines around her eyes.

  He got the medication, and took it back into the bedroom.

  “Honey?”

  She didn’t answer. As he got closer, he saw that her eyes were closed, and his heart clenched. “Miranda?” She slowly opened her eyes. They were awash with tears. He grabbed another pillow, and gently placed it behind her head.

  He handed her two tablets and helped her to sip her juice. She rested her head back against the pillows.

  “Can you sit with me for a while?”

  “Always.”

  “Thank you for rescuing me,” she said quietly.

  “You know how you have nightmares about Hope?”

  She gave a slight nod of her head.

  “I have nightmares about you going over the side of that cliff. I still remember you getting in my face and telling me how you were going to do whatever it took to rescue Hope.”

  “I did?”

  “Oh, yeah, you did. I was trying to get you to put on the surf leash, and you said it was too short and you would take it off if you needed to. I tried to get you to promise that you would keep it on. You said that you wouldn’t lie to me.” He paused. “I think I fell a little bit in love with you at that moment.”

  “Are you sure you don’t just feel sorry for me?”

  Griff barked out a laugh. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “No,” she said softly.

  “Miranda, you’re one of the strongest people I know, and I work with a bunch of Navy SEALs.”

  “Really?”

  “Really. How’s your head feeling now?”

  “Better.”

  “Good.” He brushed a kiss against her temple. “You get some rest. I’ll bring in some food a little bit later, and we’ll eat dinner together.”

  “I’d like that.”

  * * *

  “I hate that I put you out of your own bedroom,” Miranda said for the fourth evening in a row. The nurse, Lila, had left an hour ago, and Griff had just showered in the hall bathroom.