Chapter 40
Chapter Forty
Anna
The next morning, Anna stepped onto the beach just as the sun broke over the horizon, a golden slice of light cutting through the soft morning haze.
The ocean greeted her with its rhythmic lullaby, a low and constant hum of waves kissing the shoreline.
The air was crisp, tinged with the salt of the sea, and her bare feet sank slightly into the cool, damp sand with each step.
This was her ritual. Thirty minutes of silence every morning. No phone. No distractions. Just the sound of the world waking up and her thoughts trying to settle in the quiet.
She wrapped her arms around herself and stared out at the endless blue, letting her breathing fall into rhythm with the tide. But today felt different—the energy in the air when she woke up was something entirely different from what it had been.
There was something in the air she couldn’t name, a hum beneath her skin like electricity gathering before a storm. She felt it in the way her heart beat a little faster, the way her thoughts wouldn’t still. A tingling sense of anticipation pressed behind her ribs.
She looked back toward the house, just a speck at the edge of the dunes, and then down to her wristwatch.
Still ten minutes left in her thirty. But she couldn’t keep still.
Her feet shifted restlessly in the sand.
Her eyes flicked to the horizon. She inhaled deeply, held it, and released a slow breath.
Still, the unease and the hope lingered.
Her phone would ring. She could feel it.
She imagined Luke’s name flashing across the screen and how he’d ask her if she kept the shore in sight. His voice, scratchy and far away, but his. She closed her eyes and tried to hear it in her mind. The way he’d say her name. The way he always sounded like home.
But when she walked back to the house and checked her phone, there was nothing.
No missed calls. No messages.
She swallowed the disappointment and tucked the phone in her pocket, forcing a smile. Hope wasn’t something she let herself dwell on often, not after so long without news. But Blaze’s words clung to her like sea mist.
“I think Daddy’s coming home soon.”
Anna stepped into the warmth of the kitchen and was immediately greeted by the smell of toast and the soft sounds of sleepy children coming to life. Lily was already up fixing breakfast for them all.
This was a notable change from when they first arrived and Anna couldn’t help but smile at the thought. Music was playing and Lily was serenading the kids. It wasn’t quite the concert from her childhood, but it was a beautiful moment, nonetheless.
Anna looked over at the kids as they sang along with their grandma and she giggled. She was so grateful for the change in her mom, but she was also glad she had listened to her gut and come home when Luke was deployed.
She couldn’t imagine walking through these scary times without her mom.
“Morning, Mama!” Blaze’s small voice rang out, and Anna turned to see him perched on the stool at the kitchen island, swinging his legs and rubbing his eyes.
“Good morning, sweetheart,” she said, kissing his head.
Nora wandered in next, clutching her stuffed bunny and yawning.
Anna moved easily through the kitchen, pulling out eggs and bread, setting the coffee pot to brew. Moving right alongside her mother as they worked in tandem to get breakfast together. This, at least, she could control. This simple, mundane task.
Blaze rubbed his face again and blinked up at her. “I had a dream,” he said.
Anna looked over at him, buttering a piece of toast. “Oh yeah? What kind of dream?”
His small face lit up. “I dreamed Daddy came home. Today.”
Her heart skipped. She tried to smile but it trembled.
“Did you now?” she asked gently.
Blaze nodded solemnly, like this was a very serious declaration. “He had a big cut on his head, but he smiled and picked me up.”
Anna bit her lip and turned back to the stove. Her hand gripped the spatula tighter.
Please. Let it be true.
She didn’t say it out loud. She didn’t need to.
As if on cue, there was a knock at the door.
Everyone froze.
Anna’s breath hitched, her heart thundering so loud it felt like it might shake her whole chest.
The kids looked at her. Nora clutched her bunny tighter.
Slowly, Anna walked toward the front door. Her hand hovered on the knob for a moment before she opened it.
The soldier was back, standing there, and flashing a smile back at her.
Anna’s knees almost buckled. She gripped the doorframe for support.
He’s smiling—that has to be good, right?
He removed his hat. “Mrs. Hartman.”
She couldn’t speak. She just nodded, her hand trembling.
He offered a gentle, practiced smile. “We’ve found him.”
She gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. Her eyes flooded instantly with tears.
“He’s alive,” the soldier continued. “Your husband was located early this morning. He’s badly injured but stable. He’s being flown to Ramstein Air Base in Germany.”
Her knees did give then, and she sank to the floor, sobbing with a mix of relief and disbelief.
The soldier crouched beside her, his voice calm but urgent. “He’s undergoing surgery right now. The medical team there will call you as soon as he’s out. The hope is, when he’s coherent, he’ll be able to call you himself.”
Anna sobbed harder; her whole body wracked with the force of it. “He’s alive.”
The soldier nodded. “Yes, ma’am. He’s alive.”
She reached out and hugged him, surprising them both. He didn’t hesitate. He let her cry on his shoulder.
Behind her, her mother appeared and knelt beside her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. The kids were quiet, watching with wide eyes.
Anna pulled away after a minute, wiping at her soaked face. “Thank you,” she said. “Thank you so much.”
He nodded again, stood, and stepped back. “We’ll be in touch as soon as we have more details.”
She closed the door slowly and turned back to her family.
Blaze stood there, eyes wide, mouth open. “Dad’s okay?”
Anna knelt and pulled both children into her arms. “He’s alive, baby. He’s hurt, but he’s alive.”
Blaze buried his face in her shoulder and cried. Nora clung to her tighter than ever.
Her mother joined the embrace, whispering prayers of thanks, her hands trembling.
They sat there, the four of them, wrapped together in a ball of love and tears and overwhelming, breathtaking relief.
When the crying softened and Anna could finally breathe again, she looked down at Blaze.
“You were right,” she said, brushing back his curls. “You dreamed true.”
Blaze smiled through his tears.
Anna leaned her forehead against his. “Daddy’s coming home.”
She didn’t know what he’d look like, what state he’d be in, or how bad the injuries really were. But for the first time in months, hope bloomed bright and wild in her chest.
Luke was alive.
And that was enough.
For now, that was everything.
They moved back into the kitchen eventually, and the mundane rhythm of breakfast returned, but everything was different. The air felt lighter. Every sound clearer.
Anna checked her phone constantly, waiting for the call from the doctors. She stared at the screen so long that her eyes burned.
Her mom poured her coffee and held her hand, rubbing small circles against her knuckles.
She didn’t speak much. There weren’t words big enough for this feeling.
Joy. Terror. Gratitude. Fear.
Anna was still shaking. She knew there were hard days ahead. Recovery. Pain. More uncertainty.
But they would face it together.
She looked at the children now sitting at the kitchen island again, eating cereal with trembling smiles.
Together. That was what mattered.
The phone still hadn’t rung by the time the sun climbed high into the sky, but Anna no longer watched it with dread. Now she waited with hope.
He would call. Or someone would.
She sat beside her children, pulled them close, and kissed the tops of their heads.
“Daddy’s coming home,” she whispered.
And in her heart, she said it again and again, a prayer and a promise and a dream come true.
She didn’t know what to expect when the doctors called. She didn’t know what injured really meant, as they could be in for a very long road ahead of them, but he was alive, and they would handle whatever the world threw at them one day at a time.
Luke was coming home, and that was all that mattered.