For Love and Country
Page 23
She knew she wasn’t the only one there who was missing someone. All of them knew what it was like to lose now. And in some ways, that made life more sweet.
But she needed a minute, now that she knew she’d soon be gone for good, to say goodbye once more.
It didn’t take her long to reach the little cove, just down the beach and along the shore.
And when she got there, she stood in the wet sand, staring out at the ocean, until she heard a voice.
“Lottie.”
Lottie’s heart began beating in her chest, despite herself. She closed her eyes and willed it to stop. She could learn to be friends.
It was time to move on.
“Lottie,” Luke said again.
She turned around and saw Luke standing before her, in civilian clothes, a white collared shirt with khaki pants rolled up to his knees, his right arm in a sling. He looked so thin, though some of his color had returned. And somehow wiser—but also, exactly the same.
Lottie blinked away the tears that rose in her eyes, shook her head, and looked back.
“I heard you were having a going-away party,” Luke said with a small smile.
At the sight of it, Lottie’s heart quickened. She hadn’t seen a smile on his face in—she couldn’t even remember. But she knew she hadn’t seen one since she’d rescued him and the other men.
“Didn’t think I’d let you leave without seeing you off, did ya?”
Lottie just stared at him, biting her tongue to keep from telling him that he was the reason they hadn’t seen each other, despite what her heart truly wanted. But this was the first time he’d talked with her, really talked with her, in ages. And she didn’t want to scare him off.
“I wanted to come in,” Luke said. “But it was just so noisy.” His face clouded. “I haven’t been great with noises since…”
Lottie stepped closer. “What happened to you?” she asked. “Out there?”
“Our plane went down in enemy territory,” Luke said. “It made such a big crash, there was no escaping them. So they captured us, but their camp was a mess, and it only took us a few days to escape. But we still couldn’t get out of the battle zone, for weeks.”
“Oh, Luke,” Lottie said. “I’m so sorry.”
“It was hell,” Luke said matter-of-factly. “The fighting was going on all around us, but we had no comms, so we had no idea when it’d start and stop. Whose territory we were in. Who was shooting at us. We just knew they were always shooting. And if they weren’t, there were always bombs dropping out of that clear blue sky. And so many dead, everywhere we went. But they weren’t the worst part. The worst part was the wounded…” he said, his eyes taking on that distant look again.
Lottie blinked back her tears. She put a hand on his arm, then started to pull it away, not sure if she was overstepping. But before she could, his own hand closed over it, holding her hand there.
“There was only one thing that got me through,” he said.
Lottie looked into his eyes, a question in her own.
“You,” he said.
The wave of emotion that rolled over Lottie left her breathless. But as she swayed against Luke, he stepped away.
“When I saw you again, I just couldn’t stop thinking about all the people I’ve loved in this world that I’ve lost. The idea of losing you—” His breath hitched, and he swallowed hard, clenching his jaw. Luke looked back at her with an intensity that made her heart pound. “There’s nothing in this world that scares me more. I can’t lose you, Lottie Palmer. I’ve got to take the risk. And I promise I’ll walk through enemy lines a hundred more times to get back to you if that’s what it takes.”
It took her an instant to realize he was getting down on one knee.
“Lottie,” he said. “Will you marry me? I have to ask now. I’ve never met a woman with spirit like yours. Or your stubborn, crazy hope. I tried to talk you out of it once, but I need it now.”
Lottie just stared down at him, speechless.
Luke dropped his gaze. “I understand if you can’t say yes,” he said. “I wasn’t much of a prize to begin with, I guess, and now…” He made a helpless gesture toward his wounded arm.
But now Lottie knelt in the sand beside him, wrapping him in her embrace. “Yes,” she said through tears that now flowed freely. “Yes.”
Then she kissed him. Suddenly, everything that had come before was erased—the war, his wounds and hers, all the time they’d spent apart, all the things she had learned and lost.
For perhaps the first time, Lottie knew she was exactly where she was supposed to be. And what life she was meant to live. Not the life that anyone else had planned for her, but the one she hadn’t planned, and still couldn’t—the one right in front of her. And the one they would figure out together.
When their lips finally parted, Luke gazed into her eyes.
“I’m afraid the Navy supply depot was clear out of engagement rings,” he said, sheepish.
Lottie kissed him again. Then a thought sprang into her mind, and she scrambled to her feet.
Luke tried to hold her hand in protest. “No,” he said. “Don’t go.”
But she grinned and pulled away, running up the beach.
When she came back, she was brushing the sand off the O-ring she had buried by the big rock there months before.
She pressed it into Luke’s open hand.
“How’s this?” she asked.
Luke kissed her cheek, and her other cheek. Then he slipped it on her ring finger and stared into her eyes.
“I’ll get you a better one someday,” he said. “I promise.”
Lottie grinned and wrapped her arms around him, with no intention of ever letting go again.
“This one’s perfect,” she said.
Acknowledgments
Many thanks to my wonderful team at Simon & Schuster: Beth Adams, Kaitlin Olson, Meriah Murphy, Isabel DaSilva, and Morgan Hart; and to the team at Alloy: Laura Barbiea, Sara Shandler, and Josh Bank, who all helped bring this book to life and make it beautiful.
About the Author
CANDACE WATERS lives and works in Brooklyn. Her great-aunt and great-uncle were survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor.
SimonandSchuster.com
www.SimonandSchuster.com/Authors/Candace-Waters
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Interior design by Erika Genova
Cover design by Min Choi
Cover photography by Ildiko Neer/Arcangel (Woman And Planes); Teodoro Ortiz Tarrascusa/Arcangel (Brooklyn Bridge)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
ISBN 978-1-5011-8061-3
ISBN 978-1-5011-8062-0 (ebook)