ALINEOn the surface, everything about today had been perfect. If Iasked my parents, they’d say the same. Freedom, however…I wasn’t entirely sure how she felt. She’d seemed a little off. Like her smiles had been a second too late, or she’d had to pull herself out of her head before she could answer a question.I wanted to ask her if she was okay, but if she took the question badly, it could’ve ruined the whole day. So I didn’t. Tomorrow, we’d have to talk about what we planned to do next, and if it still seemed like something was bothering her, then I’d ask.The fact that my parents and Freedom hadn’t hovered all day made me extremely optimistic about what the future could be. Maybe they’d just needed to work through their own fears and concerns themselves, and now things could go back to normal. Or whatever our new normal would be now that Freedom and I weren’t in school anymore.I had some ideas about how that might

ALINEI WAS FAR FROM THE ONLY WOMAN TO MAKE IT THROUGH COLLEGE ANDinto my early twenties before losing my virginity. It was less common that I’d barely been kissed before Eoin. A couple fumbling attempts by college boys the few times Freedom and I had spent time with some of her friends, but never anything more than that. That was also the extent of my dating experience too. Study groups, mostly, but always groups. Never a single date or even a double date.So, now I was on my first date with the man who’d given me my first real kiss…and who had been my first time having sex. It felt a little awkward, going from having had sex twice with him to then going on a date, but nothing else in my life had ever been traditional, which meant I was accustomed to forging my own way.And I was used to doing it without letting anyone else know how much or how little I knew or understood.Fortunately, once I stopped overthinking, th

ALINEI’d slept well and woke up slowly, my muscles feeling likethey were made of rubber. I sat up and grimaced at the twinges. Slightly sore rubber, then.I didn’t need to look over to see that I was alone in bed, and while that disappointed me, I couldn’t deny the bit of relief I felt at not having to explain Eoin’s presence to my parents. Things between us were still new enough that I wasn’t sure how I would’ve handled that exactly.Mom, Dad, this Eoin McCrae. He rescued me in Iran and then took my virginity before yelling at me for being stupid. But it’s okay because we had sex again, and then he went to Iraq to save more people. We went on our first date last night, and he slept over. What’s for breakfast?I rubbed my forehead. What had I been thinking? I didn’t regret the date, or really, the sex afterward. What I did have to question, however, was the wisdom of bringing him here for sex rather than asking him to take me back to his hot

EOINI’D HONESTLY  BEEN  PREPARED  FOR  ALINE  TO  TELL  ME  TO  FUCK  OFF.  Ihadn’t handled anything with her well from the moment we’d met. I hadn’t hurt her physically, and I had saved her life, but I’d fucked up the rest of it. Badly. But Israel had been right. Sort of. I didn’t think I loved her, but now I was starting to think that I could. Someday. Maybe even someday soon.All I knew for sure was I’d never forgive myself if I didn’t try. Not only because I needed to honor Leo and the other men who died by living life, but because I could see a future now. A real one.A good one. With her.I’d make this work, starting with dinner. Which was harder than it sounded. I couldn’t just pick some random L.A. restaurant since I had no idea if the food would be shit, and the only one I knew of was where we’d had our first date. The place had been great, and we didn’t exactly have bad memories of the place, but I didn’t want to

ALINEI HANDED THE DRIVER A BILL AND TOLD HER TO KEEP THE CHANGEwithout even looking to see how much that tip would be. The fact that she yelled a thank you meant I’d given her a good one, and I waved a hand at her in what I hoped was a polite manner. I doubted she’d be offended by my being preoccupied, especially as she’d been sympathetic when I’d told her I needed to go to the hospital because my boyfriend had been in a car accident.My pulse was racing, and I had the now-too-familiar taste of fear on the back of my tongue, but I forced myself to walk calmly into the ER. No good would come of me panicking. If anything, it would delay me getting to Eoin, and that was the goal, getting to him. I needed to see for myself that he was okay.I was halfway to the front desk when I spotted someone I recognized, and I veered off to speak to him instead. I wasn’t Eoin’s family, so I didn’t know if I’d be able to get information about him, but Bruce had been with Eoin at t