Down and Dirty: SEAL EXtreme Team Short Story by Kimberley Troutte Page B

“Damn. You’ve
got a fever. I’ll get the nurse.”
    “Tell Billy…come…or I’ll…” Her
eyelids were heavy. “…kick his ass.”
     
    ****
     
    “She’s burning up,” Nick told
the nurse.
    “Happens sometimes after an amputation,
but we’ll keep an eye on it. You’ll have to go now.”
    He plopped down in the chair
next to the bed. “I won’t bother her, I promise. I need to be here. It’s going
to be hell when she wakes up and realizes that she lost her brother and her
foot.”
    The nurse cocked her head. “I’m
sorry. How many brothers do you have?”
    “None.” Crap. He forgot he was
supposed to be Jill’s brother.  “I’m not leaving her.”
    Her gaze flicked down to see he
was cradling his sore ribs and back up to his face. “Okay. But don’t wake her.”
    For three hours, he watched
Jill sleep and studied the monitors that kept track of her vitals. They seemed
more stable. Her breathing was soft, not labored. He pressed his lips to her
forehead. Her fever was gone. He also noticed her hair smelled like coconut
shampoo, and her skin was soft. With the back of his hand, he traced her cheek
and her jawline. She had a tough road ahead.
    “I’ll be there,” he promised.
    Shit, he wished she’d wake up
and say something. Anything. He longed to hear the voice that had been coming
to him in his dreams. Hell, what he wouldn’t give to hear her hearty laughter.
A kidney, maybe. He’d never dare to admit it, but he’d fallen in love with Jill
the first time he’d heard her speak.
    He’d just passed BUD/S
training, top of his class. Though exhausted to the bone, he’d been bursting
with pride for having accomplished a feat few men could’ve survived. Looking
around the group of tired guys, he realized he was a member of an elite group
for the first time in his life. And he had no one to share the news with.
    Billy Connor stood next to him,
talking on a cell phone, “I made it!”
    A woman’s voice came through
the speaker. “Always knew you would! You’re the strongest, bravest man I know.
You can do anything you set your mind to. I’m so proud of you.”
    Nick ached everywhere, but loneliness
squeezed the sorest muscle he owned—his heart. When had anyone said she was proud
of him? Cared about him?
    “Thanks, Jilly-girl. I love
you.” Billy wore the goofiest grin that Nick had ever witnessed on a man.
    “Love you too, Worm.” The woman
laughed. “Now, go save the world.”
    As Billy hung up, Nick elbowed
him. “Worm?”
    Billy shrugged. “Nickname. My
sister has dozens of them for me.”
    “Sister, huh? Never had one of
those.” Nick hung his arm around Billy’s shoulder. “Let’s go, Worm. There’s a
keg of beer with our names on it.”
    From that moment on, he and
Billy had been best friends. And Jill’s voice had stayed with him like a sweet melody
he couldn’t get out of his head.

Chapter Two
     
     
    Jill awoke to see a figure
sleeping in the chair next to her bed. Wide shoulders, short dark hair, naval
dress…“Billy!”
    The man lifted his head and
pierced her with amber eyes. Not green. Not Billy’s.
    No, this was the courageous,
hard-headed lieutenant commander her brother adored. He was also the man who
had starred in quite a few of her steamy fantasies. Nick’s here? I’m not
dreaming?
    Nick Talley was the only man Billy
respected enough to call brother. One of the few he’d die for. If he was really
here, not a figment of her overactive imagination, then…
    Oh, God .
    She remembered everything. It
was as if her insides were suddenly shredded. “I was driving to his funeral
when this car slammed into me.” She studied a face that was rugged and strong,
but old too, like he’d lived through centuries of pain and barely survived. “Billy’s
dead?”
    “Yes.” The muscles in his jaw
worked to ground down his feelings, but his eyes filled with grief. He was
suffering, maybe as much as she was.
    “You were there?” Her voice ripped
out of her.