Chapter One #2
He studied her more closely.
Why had she blurted that out? Not everybody thought a beautiful sunrise could alter a person’s life, but, well, she hadn’t had an easy life. Especially the past few years.
Her pleasant smile slipped on her face, and she forced it back in place.
Gabe eyed her. “It is,” he agreed after an awkward pause.
He relaxed back in his seat. “Tell me a little about why you’re interested in this position.”
She meshed her fingers in her lap and launched into the perfect answer that employers loved to hear.
“And how did you learn about the administrative coordinator position?”
“Base command at my old post at Coronado, San Diego, referred me here. I went back there looking for work after a long hiatus and they referred me to the Black Heart Tactical Training Facility.”
He flipped a printout of her application to the other side. The work history side.
She braced herself for what Gabe would find. Her work history looked…unstable.
His gaze met hers. “Tell me about some of your previous positions. It seems like you took a break from the workforce. Then you moved around a lot.”
She pulled in a deep breath. “After my husband passed…I took some time off.”
There it was. The look of sympathy—compressed lips, creases deepening around Gabe’s eyes. A look she’d seen over and over again, but not one she wanted. She didn’t want to be known as the widow of a Navy SEAL.
“I’m sorry for your loss, Mrs. Davis.”
“Please. Just Zee.” Hearing people call her Mrs. Davis hurt her heart.
He ducked his head. “Zee.”
She drew another deep breath and continued. “I had been working on base in Coronado. Administrative support. Scheduling, personnel paperwork, training documentation. When he passed, I…stepped away for a while.”
She kept her voice even, but the memories closed in anyway. The knock on the door. The quiet voice of the military commander giving her the news. The folded flag.
Zee pushed the images back before they could take over.
“Eventually the bills had to be paid. But by then, I was living off base. So I started taking short-term positions.”
That wasn’t the entire story, but this was a job interview, not a personal accounting of her life.
Gabe studied her resume again, tapping a finger lightly on the page. “You didn’t stay anywhere very long.”
She met his gaze without flinching. “No. I didn’t.”
She had so many fresh starts she was a pro at those too. And if she didn’t get this job, she’d be moving out of her Airbnb and leaving the small town of Willowbrook, Wyoming in the morning.
Gabe leaned back slightly in his chair. “Well, this facility will run a little differently than a traditional base.”
She waited.
“We’re gearing up. Once the mountain warfare program starts, we’ll have active-duty units cycling through here year-round.
Your job would involve coordinating training schedules, housing assignments, arranging transports, equipment logs.
That sort of thing. It’s going to take someone who’s organized. ”
“I’m familiar with all of those tasks.”
He glanced at her resume and then closed the folder. “I can see that.” He paused as if casting around for ways to tell her to hit the road. “The issue is we need someone who plans to be here long-term.”
His words hit her square in the chest.
She folded her hand tighter. “If you hire me, I’ll commit to six months.”
Gabe lifted a brow.
She hurried on. “There’s a government clause in the contract, isn’t there? Administrative staff tied to the facility during the first operational cycle must stay in the position for six months.”
A slow smile crept across his face. “You read the entire contract.”
“I always do.”
He nodded, clearly impressed. “Six months will carry us through the first rotation.”
“I can do six months,” she said firmly.
Maybe longer. She’d like to stop needing to move around, but she’d have to see how things played out before making any promises.
Gabe slid the folder aside and extended his hand across the desk. “Welcome to Black Heart Tactical Training Facility, Zee.”
For the first time since she’d walked into the building, she allowed herself a small breath of relief.
Outside the wide window that took up most of the wall, the Wyoming mountains stretched out, more breathtaking—and intimidating—than anything she’d ever seen.
Maybe, just maybe, this place would give her the fresh start she’d been chasing.
She clasped Gabe’s hand and gave him a smile that felt more genuine than any she’d given in a long time.
After a few minutes of going over the particulars, Gabe walked her to the door and stepped aside to let her out into the hallway.
“HR will email the paperwork this afternoon. We’d like to get you set up before the first class arrives in a month.”
“Thank you.”
She stepped into the corridor and for a moment, she stood there, letting the quiet land around her. The building was empty, but in a few weeks the place would be crawling with soldiers and instructors. A life she’d once lived and breathed. And would again, at least for a while.
The echo of boots approaching from the far end of the hallway made her glance up.
A tall man rounded the corner, his broad shoulders filling the space like he owned every inch of it. His stride was purposeful—the walk she’d seen a thousand times on every base, and from her husband himself.
The man saw her and stopped short.
For a heartbeat neither of them moved.
Grant Upchurch.
The name slammed into her before she could even process the face of her husband’s commander.
Memories blasted upward without warning—the day Matt introduced her and Church. The undertone of respect in Church’s voice when he spoke to her. The rare evenings when the team gathered together like a family before another deployment pulled them away.
And the last time she’d seen Church…the look in his eyes when he saw her at the funeral.
Good memories and bad ones tangled together in a knot that stuck in her chest.
He stared at her like he wasn’t quite sure she was real either. But beneath the shock in his expression was the glimmer that came from recognizing an old friend, and being happy to see them.
“Zee.”
He only said her name but the sound of it carried the gravity of everything that had happened since the last time they stood face-to-face.
And just like that, the past didn’t feel as far behind her as she’d thought.