Once and For All: An American Valor Novel by Cheryl Etchison

his irritation powered him through the first five miles. Then as the sky began to lighten and the world began to wake, his thoughts transitioned to work. All the paperwork he’d have to file, the changes in benefits and such.
    While Mike couldn’t wait to see how things went down with his Ranger buddies, Danny was more concerned about how the hell he was going to explain his sudden marriage to his superiors. One thing was certain—there would be questions. Lots of questions.
    They all knew him well enough to know he’d never planned to marry. Especially since he was that guy in his company. The one with the reputation. The one they’d all tell stories about for years to come. The one who rarely spent more than one night with the same woman, let alone a full week. He was that guy mothers warned their daughters about. That same guy commanding officers threatened with finishing out his military career in the fucking Antarctic if he so much as looked in the direction of their virginal daughters.
    And if by some miracle his superiors had been zapped by that memory-erasing light Tommy Lee Jones used in Men in Black and had forgotten all about his reputation, his asshole friends would be oh so happy to remind them.
    Then there was the fact he actually married a woman whom he didn’t intend to have sex with and, in an attempt to be a better man, his dumb ass agreed to not have sex with anyone. Fucking brilliant on his part. If the guys ever learned the whole story of their arrangement, he’d be better off cutting his own parachute cord during the next practice jump.
    Either way, it was time to pay the piper.
    Not that he regretted marrying Bree one bit. If given the option to do it all again, he still would. No way did she deserve the hand life had dealt her. Not to mention he felt like he put all that bad mojo into motion by his leaving her, even though it had been the right decision for his life.
    As the sun rose and the temperature warmed, his newest accessory made its presence known as he continued to run. The metal band constricted the blood flow, making his finger pulse. Danny turned the ring with his thumb on the same hand, unable to stop himself from smiling at the memory of their courthouse wedding.
    Danny slid his mother’s ring onto Bree’s finger then pulled from his pocket the ring she bought for him on their way to the courthouse and handed it to her. At first she stood there frozen, staring at the plain gold band she held with both hands. He held his breath, fully expecting her to turn tail and run. Only when the judge prompted her a second time did she look up at Danny. Her hands shook with nervousness and she dropped the ring, the two of them watching it fall in slow motion to the floor only to see it bounce once, then twice, and roll across the hard marble floor, coming to rest under a large wooden desk on the far side of the room. Dutifully, he went after it, ending up on hands and knees to fish it out from where it rested against the baseboard. As he rose to his feet and dusted off the knees of his pants, Bree covered her mouth. While she stifled the giggle, the smile showed in her eyes. The spark of it. And he knew from that moment on, life for Bree would only get better.
    T HOSE FIRST F EW moments after she woke, Bree was confused by her surroundings. Then it all came back to her. The exchange of rings. The vows. The apartment in Savannah. Although she was now a married woman, she’d spent her wedding night sleeping all alone in a king-size bed.
    Still in her pajamas and stocking feet, Bree pulled on her wig and padded out to the kitchen. On the counter she found a note scribbled on a restaurant napkin. Out for a run .
    Most mornings she arrived downstairs to find her mother had made a huge breakfast. And more often than not, if she wasn’t feeling nauseated from the chemo, ate whatever was made so as not to offend her mother. But there were plenty of mornings when she looked at the fresh-baked muffins