“No, just the big guy with the black shirt. The rest are his Navy SEAL brothers.”

“Well, God bless America is all I can say. Which of them are single?”

“Actually, all of them are,” I told Tamara, wincing as she checked my cervix.

“Hook me up with any of them, and I promise to give you the good drugs,” she said with a smirk as she pulled off her gloves. “It won’t be long now. You’re dilated to an eight.”

She hooked me back up to the machines and asked, “You need anything else before I go?”

“Can you send my brother in here, please?” I asked, and she nodded as she walked to the door.

“Blaire would like to see her brother,” she called, and then I heard bodies moving toward the door. “Ah, ah! Not all of you. Just the cute one,” she said, and I imagined her winking at Beau.

“So, me?” Cam asked as the others grumbled their disagreement. Beau walked in a few seconds later, and I patted the bed beside me. He sat, and I lay my head on his strong shoulder as he wrapped one big arm around me.

He looked down at me, his concerned eyes catching the soft lighting over the bed, and asked, “What’s wrong? Are you hurting?”

“A little bit,” I admitted, and then a dam of suppressed tears burst and started running down my face. Beau’s eyes widened in alarm because I tried to refrain from crying in front of him. “I miss Mom and Dad,” I sobbed.

“Aw shit, sweetheart. I know. I miss them, too.” Our parents had been killed in a bank robbery in Dallas when I was sixteen and Beau was twenty. My brother, probably at a loss as to what to do with a hysterically crying female, stroked my ponytail as his head tilted over to rest on top of mine. “But they would be so damned proud of you, Blaire. You are the bravest person I’ve ever met.”

“They would be proud of you, too,” I sobbed as my tears soaked his shirt. “Everything you’ve done for this country, plus how you always take care of me. You’re the best big brother I could ask for.”

“Dammit, Blaire,” he said, his voice getting all husky.

I covered my face with one hand as a fresh torrent of tears spilled from my eyes. “I miss… I miss Axel… too,” I bawled. “So damned… much.”

I felt Beau’s body stiffen, and then he let out a deep sigh. “I know, babe. It’s a really shitty situation, and I’m sorry.” He held me for another couple of minutes while I cried, and then he pulled his phone from his pocket. After a few taps on the screen, I heard my own phone ding.