Seeing her now, grinning at him from a background with palm trees and turquoise water, gave him a new appreciation of where he was.

Gloria poked her head out of the kitchen with a sweet smile. The sneaky little woman had set him up.

“It’s going well,” he said, pulling up his pant leg to knock on his prosthesis.

“Very nice,” she commented.

“That doesn’t look like Bagram,” he said as a man jogged past her and dove into the surf.

“Still sandy,” she quipped. “I came home three weeks ago, cleaned off the inch of dust in my apartment, and then hopped on a plane here.”

He thought of all she’d seen as part of a forward surgical team. All the blood and loss. The trauma and the fear. “You deserve it.”

“I like to think so,” she said brushing off the compliment. “So how’s the healing going?”

“All healed up,” he insisted.

“You know, not all wounds are on the outside.”

Aldo’s gaze slid up to meet Gloria’s. His girlfriend was suddenly needed on urgent kitchen business and ducked away. He didn’t know how to feel about Gloria going behind his back to dig up the doc. Not trusting him to work through it on his own.

“Very subtle, doc.”

She shrugged nonchalantly and looked over her shoulder at the bluest swath of ocean Aldo had ever seen. “Look, just make sure you’re doing as much work for your mental state as you are your physical state, and you’ll be fine. That’s all I’m saying.”

“Who says I’m not fine?” he challenged.

“Those big-ass circles under your eyes,” she noted.

Where everyone else cautiously tip-toed, Doc Dreamy stomped in and pointed right at the damn elephant in the room.

“Look,” she said. “I’d hate to see you screw up my very fine life-saving work by ignoring the most important part of recovery. Think about it, talk it out, do the damn work.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Aldo shot back.

She jerked a thumb in the direction of the water. “I come here for mental health breaks. Otherwise I’d crack under the pressure. Find your blue water, lieutenant, and keep working.”

He was embarrassed, annoyed to know that he hadn’t been hiding his struggle as well as he thought he’d been. “Will do, Doc. Will do.”

“Good. I gotta go. I’ve got a rum punch with an umbrella headed my way.”

“Enjoy, Doc. And thanks for everything.”

She threw him a salute and clicked off.

Gloria was singing in the kitchen, giving him his space while she ran interference on his life.

The laptop lit up again, signaling another video call.

“Can you get that?” his interfering girlfriend called sweetly.

“We need to have a talk about boundaries, Gloria.”

“After you answer the call,” she said flippantly.

Stephanie Oluo’s face popped up. “LT!” she crowed.