Chapter 33
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
THE NEXT THREE WEEKS were a whirlwind of emotions and activity, piles of paperwork and back-and-forth decisions as Elvis stood at Delaney’s side, offering support where he could and remaining silent when silence was needed.
They had held onto the Whitmore house for a little while longer, Delaney wanting to stay close to the marshal while he healed, while the others returned home.
U.S. Marshal Donovan Ashland, not the most relaxed patient in the hospital, had stood alongside them the entire time through the process of bringing her back into the world, offering his own advice and helping her navigate the sea of red tape.
She had told Bobby it felt like the weight was still there, the fear that perhaps she hadn’t put an end to it like she thought.
He had simply taken her hand and held it, squeezing it as he pressed his lips to her knuckles and stared into her eyes. “Ain’t nothin’ going to happen to you, darlin’,” he promised her. “Not as long as I’m here.”
Donovan winced as he turned away from them, one hand going protectively to his side as it always did, even though the wound was almost completely healed at this point.
Delaney kept telling the man he just wanted the attention, and Deke kept telling her he deserved it.
“You two are sappy enough to cause a sugar rush.”
“And how are you actually doing?” she asked as they sat around a diner table, sipping coffee as she finished signing the massive folder of paperwork.
He shrugged. “Better. The surgeon says I’m ahead of schedule on my healing. It could have been a lot worse.”
“It was a lot worse,” she told him. “I was there. You should still be at home resting.”
He shook his head as he pointed to the file. “I started this, and I intend to see it through to the end. I want to be the one to hand you your old life back.”
She reached across the table, squeezing his hand. “And I’m glad you did. I don’t think I would have survived the past fifteen years without you.”
He blushed but still waved off her words. “You would have done just fine. You’re one tough lady.” Elvis felt the man’s eyes turn to him, a smirk twisting the marshal’s lips. “You two deserve each other.” He glanced back at Delaney. “So, what’s the plan once this is done?”
She glanced over at Elvis, and he slid his arm along the back of the booth as he turned to her. “We’re heading to Biloxi for a few days, and then I’m taking her to Oregon to see her family.”
Delaney nodded, a soft smile toying at her lips as she stared at him before turning back to Donovan. “Anna is driving out to meet us there. We all want to be together when we reach out to the rest of the family.”
“Sounds like a great way to come back out into the world,” Donovan said. “If anyone deserved their old life back, it’s your family.”
They sat there for a while longer, each having another cup of coffee, and before they left, Elvis watched Delaney hug the hell out of the marshal, making him promise to stay in touch.
He assured her he would, and reminded her she had his number, telling her not to hesitate to use it.
He then shook Elvis’s hand, telling him he was glad it all worked out this way in the end.
Elvis thanked the man for all he had done to keep Delaney safe, saying he owed him more than he could ever repay.
They spent the next couple of days wandering the historic section of Savannah, popping into boutiques and small cafés, buying pralines and taking in a ghost tour. And when they weren’t out in public, they were inside their safe house wrapped in each other’s arms.
Another week had passed before they finally made it back to Biloxi, and the team all huddled inside Haggerty’s, drinking beer and shooting pool.
It was a Wednesday night, so Maggie had set up a speaker system for karaoke in the back corner, and Elvis had been eyeing that stage since they first sat down.
A monitor faced the stage, just in front of the mic, ready for the next song to be punched in.
The night held a myriad of possibilities not yet explored, and Elvis rubbed his palms along the sides of his pants as he thought about what he wanted the night to grant him.
The others were all gathered around, Cynthia sticking close to Gage as she always did when he came back from an assignment, and Marrissa and Sage sipping beers and chatting about something Elvis couldn’t make out.
Blaze and Melinda were there, but Callen and Meaghan were off visiting her family.
And Hawk had never made it back, remaining in Oregon after sending some cryptic message about needing to look into something.
Abbie and Hayley were there as well as Grim and Sage’s man Parker.
As many of the team that could be there were there, Dane watching him closely.
Taking a slow breath, he pushed himself off the stool, picked up his drink, and walked to the stage with a nervous step he hadn’t remembered feeling before. He gave a quick dip of his head to the man running the computer with the list of songs and then tapped the microphone once.
Everyone turned to him as the noise level slid to a dull murmur. He fidgeted for a moment as he stood there, staring at Delaney, and everyone else cut her a quick glance as well.
She simply sat on her stool, watching him and smiling. That made him even more nervous.
The opening notes of Love Me Tender came through the speaker system, and Elvis closed his eyes, taking a slow breath to steady his nerves. When he opened them, she was still watching him, her hands folded in her lap. He opened his mouth and sang.
He sang as he always did. Poorly. But he did it with confidence and commitment.
He had sung this song so many times that he didn’t need the monitor in front of him.
His voice carried around the bar, bouncing off the walls, and a lady at the bar with Maggie turned to look at him with an expression that looked like she was in pain, but he didn’t care.
A couple of men at a table near the dartboards exchanged a glance and then shook their heads.
However, his teammates at their tables responded as if he was on a Vegas stage and sang perfectly. They were good at pretending. At least for a while.
Gage pressed his mouth into a flat line, doing his best to suppress a grin, and Grim simply sat there, bobbing his head to the beat.
Sage leaned back on the high-top table, a beer dangling in one hand as she tapped her foot.
Everyone was watching him, and they were all smiling. But he didn’t look at any of them.
He only had eyes for her.
Then Gage left his seat, carrying a stool and a beer over to the monitor and placing both in front of Elvis.
Elvis rolled his eyes, shaking his head, knowing the way they always offered to bribe him with beers to stop singing, the pretending to enjoy it now over. He didn’t care. This wasn’t for him or them.
Grim stood and added another beer.
Then Blaze, followed by Sage.
Even Dane stood and slid a twenty under one bottle with a smirk twisting his lips.
Elvis ignored them all as he stared at Delaney.
Then she stood up, her gaze locked onto his.
Yet, she carried no beer bottle and pulled no cash from her purse. She simply walked to the stage, biting her lower lip, everyone else forgotten. She reached up and took the second microphone off its stand and stepped onto the stage, turning to face him rather than the audience.
The bar watched with the collective attention of people witnessing something that none of them had expected on any level. Everything else was forgotten, however, as what was happening on that stage was far more important.
She lifted the mic and, without missing a beat, started singing along with him.
He reached out, intertwining his fingers with hers as he stepped closer. Somehow, standing there with her and singing, everything else fell away, and he would have sworn he even sung better. Dane would later tell him he was wrong, of course, but for now, he’d go with his feeling.
They sang the last verse together, still holding hands, still staring into each other’s eyes, the rest of the bar forgotten.
When the song ended, the bar noise rushed back in around them, everyone clapping like they were at a stage show.
Elvis leaned close to her ear, his breath warm against her cheek.
“I love you,” he whispered just before he kissed the side of her face. “I have always loved you.”
He stepped back, reaching into his jacket pocket, and then dropped to one knee.
The ring was small and simple and gold, and he had worked two jobs all summer long during high school, saving every dime just so he could afford it.
He pulled it out now and held it up to her.
He had thought of a million ways he wanted to do this, but nothing felt as right as that moment right then with his family surrounding him and the love song of the King still echoing against the wooden walls.
Her eyes went wide as she placed her hand over her mouth. “Bobby…”
“Julia,” he said, choosing her real name, the one he had first meant to propose to. “I had an entire speech planned, but none of it makes sense right now.”
He saw the tears pool in her eyes, felt the breath everyone in the bar held as they watched him.
He closed his fingers around the ring for a moment, then opened them again as he held it out for her.
“Marry me.” He shrugged. “That’s about the extent of the speech I can remember.
You know how I feel about you. How I’ve always felt about you.
I don’t want to miss another minute of us being together. ”
She dropped her gaze to the ring and then looked over at the man down on his knee, and Elvis felt his heart pounding as he held his breath, waiting for her answer.
He knew it had been a risk asking her so soon after everything they had endured, but he couldn’t wait any longer.
He was ready to start the rest of his life with her right then.
He watched as tears trickled from her eyes to slide down her face, her cheeks puffed out as a soft laugh bubbled out of her.
“So, what do you say?” he asked her. “Want to finish that dream we had?”
She nodded. “God, yes.” She held out her hand, bouncing slightly as she wiggled her finger at him. “Yes. Yes. Yes!”
He took her hand in his and slid the ring onto her finger, and the world around them exploded in cheers and applause.
He shot to his feet and wrapped his arms around her waist as he heard his friends call out their congratulations, and Delaney—Julia—fell into his embrace.
The kiss was hard, passionate, and sucked the breath from his lungs.
When he broke the kiss, he glanced around at his friends, catching Dane’s eye. The leader of the group raised his glass, giving a slight dip of his head.
Elvis gave a quick nod back, leaving his arm wrapped around Delaney’s waist.
She held the ring in front of them, and they both stared at it, appreciating the way it sat on her finger like it had always belonged there.
And it had. He had known he would give it to her one day after he bought it with two summer jobs’ worth of hard labor and wages.
He had carried it for fifteen years, never once even thinking of getting rid of it.
Carried it through BUD/s and deployments and the chaos his life had turned into without her.
Carried it even after he stopped driving past her house, hoping to find a light on one day.
Carried it through the SEALs and then while working for Dane and GSI and every mission where he needed to focus.
Moved it from apartment to tent to barracks to apartment, never even thinking of getting rid of it.
If he did, he knew it meant finally giving up.
And then he thought about his mother wrapped in a fraying afghan while they sat together, watching one Elvis Presley film after another while time was running out.
She wanted to show him what love looked like, pointing it out in every movie they watched.
Not the gooey romance necessarily, but the way the King had always returned to the thing that mattered regardless of what the plot had done to separate them.
His mother would have loved the moment happening right then.
He smiled down at her, pressing her hands to his chest. “Delaney Rhodes. Julia Moretti. It doesn’t matter. You’re mine.”
She bounced her brows at him. “And you’re mine.”
He brought their joined hands up and pressed his mouth to her knuckles, kissing her fingers. He pulled her closer as the bar noise rushed around them, his friends surrounding them, patting them on the back, offering their congratulations. But he didn’t let go. He would never let go.