ALINEOkay, so the past week had been a little different than I’dthought it’d be, but it hadn’t been bad, exactly. Just different.I’d expected to use all of the nice, neat lesson plans I’d learned how to make, decorate my classroom, have those nice, neat rows of desks, a chalkboard. Freedom and I would get set up in our apartment or hotel room, then check out the school and neighborhood, talk to some people. Or, rather, I would talk, and Freedom would translate once I got past my limited Persian and Arabic.But that wasn’t exactly how things worked out. I hadn’t realized that the expansive Neutral Ground headquarters would be not only where we’d be housing our classes, but it was also where all the volunteers stayed. Not only did it allow for better security – not everyone in Iran approved of what we were doing – but it also gave us women the ability to relax the dress code we followed both in the classroom and whenever we left the building.While female tourists could often get awa

ALINEIt  was  hard  to  believe  that  this  was  our  last  week  here.  Thelast Monday I’d wake up in the room Freedom and I shared. The last Monday I’d go to that little kitchen to get some  coffee, so I’d be alert when my students arrived.Freedom would already be in the classroom, straightening things that probably didn’t need to be straightened. She was a complete perfectionist and one of those crazy morning people that got up hours earlier than necessary. I didn’t bother trying to keep up with her. I’d learned a long time ago that it was impossible.As I hovered in that place between sleeping and waking up, I was tempted to try for another ten or twenty minutes of sleep. I hadn’t woken up enough that it’d be di  cult to drift off again. Sleep hadn’t ever been di cult for me, especially when I was this tired. The jet lag had been awful the first two days, but once I’d adjusted, I’d expected to feel the same way as I did

EOINI’d been back home in San Ramon for a few weeks, but it feltnothing like how it had when I moved back after leaving the army, even though less than half a year had passed since that brutal day. For the first time since I’d woken up in that hospital in Germany, I felt…awake. Not quite alive, but awake was enough.The change had been thanks to Evanne. Working with Alec and Brody to find Keli and Evanne, to get my niece back to her father, had kept me from drowning in darkness. The need to save Evanne – even if she hadn’t exactly been in danger – had been stronger than anything else. Since then, I hadn’t let myself fall back into the pit I’d been in.And I’d started thinking about where things might go from here. I may have felt like I was a million years old, but I wasn’t even thirty. No matter how much it hurt, I still had decades to live, and I owed it to the men who hadn’t made it home to do something with my life. Espec

EOINAlec  was  frazzled  enough  that  he’d  referred  to  this  beingEvanne’s eighth – instead of ninth – birthday at least three times in the past two hours, but I’d never seen him happier. He’d always loved Evanne and had never hidden it from anyone, but even just a year ago, he hadn’t looked as comfortable as he did right now. For example, my uptight brother was smiling at a pair of third graders who almost knocked over the punch bowl.I knew a lot of it was due to the woman with him. Not Keli, though she had helped plan the party and was around, trying to make up for all the shit she’d put him through. No, it was Lumen Browne who’d made the difference. Everyone here could see it.Maybe I should’ve felt sorry for Keli, seeing the man she clearly still wanted in love with someone else, but after all the shit she’d pulled, I didn’t have any sympathy for her at all. I’d always be glad that Alec had met her because Evanne was

EOINI’d  flown  up  with  my  parents  and  some  of  my  siblingsyesterday, but I didn’t plan on flying home with them tomorrow. That was why I’d gotten a hotel room instead of taking Alec up on his offer of staying at his house. I planned on spending a couple extra days up here, some because I planned on joining Alec in chaperoning a class trip Evanne’s class was taking next week, but more because I wanted some distance to make a plan.I’d meant what I’d said to Alec about doing some sort of security or investigative work, but I hadn’t come up with anything more than that. I didn’t know if I wanted to try doing it on my own or if I wanted to look for an entry-level job somewhere. I didn’t know where I wanted to live.But those were things I planned to think about tomorrow. Tonight, I had something else in mind, and it was the other reason why I’d decided to stay in a hotel instead of at Alec’s.When I’d asked the de