Chapter 2 #2
"Same, but I've recently considered going back to school to get my Doctorate of Radiology."
"So instead of just taking the x-rays, you'd be interpreting them?"
"Yes, but it would be all imaging, not just x-rays."
"Sounds interesting and ambitious. I'm still trying to decide what I want to be when I grow up." He tossed the lighter in the air then caught it and tossed it again. If he stayed calm and relaxed, hopefully she would too. "What is the craziest thing you've ever x-rayed...or imaged?"
"I assume you're talking about something more interesting than compound fractures?" When he nodded, she tapped her lips. "Let me see...there was that time when a fourteen-year-old swallowed a whole egg, shell and all."
"You're kidding." Damon tipped his head back and felt the front of his neck. "Having a big mouth is one thing, but how does it fit down the esophagus?"
"It didn't."
They continued to talk about the unusual things she'd seen, including an old man who laughed so hard he swallowed his false teeth, and a guy who had accidentally been shot in the head with a nail gun.
"Ouch." Damon winced. "Did he survive?"
"As far as I know. He was extremely lucky the nail missed the major blood vessels and nerves. If it had been even a centimeter longer, he wouldn't have been so lucky." She rummaged in the basket again.
Damon whistled. "I thought I'd been through some crazy stuff, but nothing like that, thank goodness." He had, however, been grazed by a bullet and caught more shrapnel than he'd ever admit to his mother.
"Being in the military, I'm sure you've seen your share of...grisly injuries."
"Yeah." He stared at the doors, willing them to open. He didn't like where this conversation had gone.
"So, besides living in swamps, what other outrageous things have you done?"
Damon chuckled, grateful she'd changed the subject. "Much of what I do is classified, but I've had my fill of cramped, dank and dark or parched and arid hiding holes. And MREs...don't get me started on those."
“Meals ready to eat?” Her brow wrinkled along with her nose this time. "I can imagine."
The flames on the candles had grown bigger, illuminating her face better. She really was an attractive woman. The warm vanilla scent of the candle made him want to lean closer to her to find out if she wore perfume.
"The Army has allowed me to check off quite a number of things on my bucket list." Damon was determined to stay upbeat and keep the lighter tone they had a few minutes ago.
She gave him a dubious look as she opened a package of licorice and offered him some. "Crawling through swamps, hiding in jungles, and sleeping under the stars in sweltering deserts were on your bucket list? You really are as crazy as I first thought."
Damon laughed. "Yet, you joined me on this lovely, bacteria-ridden floor."
"Ugh, don't remind me." Her grimace made her nose wrinkle again.
"Like you said, it could be a while before we're rescued.
I spend plenty of time on my feet throughout the day.
No point in torturing myself while we're waiting.
" She pointed her licorice stick at him.
"So, back to your bucket list...Have you checked off getting eaten alive by mosquitoes as big as your hand and searching your bunk for scorpions every night? "
Her expression was so serious, Damon burst out laughing again. "Mosquitoes, no. Scorpions, yes. I didn't actually start my bucket list until after I'd been in the Army for a few years. It became a way of convincing myself all the crazy things we had to do weren't so bad."
"So, you admit you are crazy?" Grace's lips lifted in a knowing grin.
"Perhaps a little, considering the things I’ve added to my list that were pre-army." He held back a smile as he bit off a piece of licorice.
"What else have you checked off your bucket list, courtesy of the Army?"
"Besides scaling mountains and repelling off cliffs?" He opened the notes app on his phone. "I've driven a tank and jumped out of airplanes and helicopters. No parachutes with the helicopters."
"Seriously?"
"We repel down ropes."
"Like in the movies?"
"Something like that." Damon scrolled through his list that had grown lengthy over the years. "I flew in the cockpit of a fighter jet as it broke the sound barrier, and I've eaten a myriad of bugs. Would not recommend."
She shuddered and scrunched her nose again; an expression he was beginning to find endearing. "Are you an adrenaline junkie?"
"A little, but most of these things I would never have intentionally done if it wasn't part of the job.
" He chewed another bite of licorice. "I've done some 'safe' things too, like whale watching. I’ve visited a bunch of national parks and watched the sun rise over the Rocky and Appalachian Mountains.
I saw the northern lights while in Alaska. "
"I don't know if I’d go searching for some of those opportunities, but they sound cool." She lifted her hair and fanned her neck. "It's getting hot in here."
It was, but it was nothing like the heat he'd experienced in the middle east, so he had no problem ignoring the rising temperature.
However, he was concerned that if it continued to get hotter and the air stuffier, Grace would be convinced they were going to run out of oxygen and panic.
He wasn't so sure they wouldn't, especially with the candle using up oxygen and putting off carbon dioxide, but he couldn't let on that he was worried.
"What do you have on your bucket list?" he asked.
"Oh, I don't have one." She waved a hand in dismissal.
"Why not?"
"Money was always tight while I was growing up, so we didn't go on many vacations." She shrugged one shoulder. "I'm kind of a homebody and not very adventurous since—"
She stopped talking so abruptly, he gave her a sharp look. "Since what?"
"Nothing." Her lips pressed into a thin line as she looked away.
He decided it best not to press her. "You must have things you want to do someday."
"Well, yeah, but..." Her expression grew pensive rather than wistful, like he expected. An expression he couldn't read flitted across her face.
"But what?" He continued to study her in the dancing firelight, curious what held her back.
She shrugged again. "I don't know. I've just never felt the need to start a bucket list."
"You should," he insisted. "Right now. I mean it's not like you've got anything else to do." When she grinned and rolled her eyes, he went on. "What do you dream of doing? The first step to making your dreams happen is writing them down."
She picked up her phone but didn't turn it on.
Sensing she needed more encouragement, he prodded. "What do you want more than anything else in the world?"
For a long moment, Grace stared at the tall, muscular soldier beside her. He was putting a lot of effort into keeping her calm, and she appreciated that.
What do I want more than anything in the world?
That was easy. She wanted to keep her mother with her for another thirty years. But that wasn't possible. All too soon, her mom would be gone, her brother Gabe married, and Grace would be alone.
"Come on, there has to be something you absolutely want to experience before you die." Damon's coaxing voice pulled her from her thoughts.
Grace forced a smile as she looked around the tiny compartment. "Assuming we ever get out of here."
"Of course, we're going to get out of here." Damon nudged her arm with his elbow. "Don't think about that, just focus on your bucket list."
Sighing, Grace opened her notes app on her phone. Making a bucket list was as good of a distraction as any, but it felt wrong to plan her future knowing it wouldn't include her mother.
"Just write some immediate goals or something that's important to you."
Grace stalled by taking the time to title the note: My Bucket List. Then her thumb hovered over the keyboard for several long seconds before she typed: 1. Get married.
She hesitated before writing the next item, because it had already happened, sort of. And she wasn't sure she deserved to have it happen again, considering the outcome the first time.
"It's more likely to happen if you write it down," Damon prompted again.
Grace believed in manifesting her dreams, but she'd been let down too many times in her life to get her hopes up over things that were so important. But because Damon was incredibly nice and patient, she'd humor him.
She typed into her phone: 2. Be a mother.
Grace sucked in a sharp breath as she recalled that difficult day over eleven years ago when she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.
Handing her over to social services was the hardest thing she'd ever done.
But it was the best future she could give the child who would have been a constant reminder of the violent way she'd been conceived.
"Okay, let me see what you've got so far." Damon leaned toward her until his shoulder touched hers.
Grace drew in a deep breath, then let it out slowly.
Part of her anxiety when she realized they were stuck, was caused by being trapped with a strange man.
She'd worked so hard to overcome her fear of men, but occasionally, it crept up on her.
It didn't help that her fear of men and her fear of close confines stemmed from the same event. One she tried to block from her mind.
She appreciated that the good-looking soldier had kept his calm and was doing his best to distract her.
"That's...uh...that's a good start, but those aren’t the kind of things I meant." Damon gave her a wry grin.
"You said I should write what's important to me and things I absolutely want to experience."
"I did. But those things are kind of a given. I meant things you need to plan and prepare for."
"You're a bachelor, aren't you?" Grace scowled at him.
His brow furrowed. "Yeah, but what's that got to do with anything?"
"It just shows how clueless you are."
"What?" His head jerked back, his eyes wide.