Christie Kersnick, thank you for your service and for being an invaluable resource on the military portion of this book, from jargon to procedure, you never hesitate to answer my seemingly endless questions.

To Stephanie Otis and Susan Dunnagan, who were fantastic resources on all things ER and medical related;

To the FBI, Pentagon, NSA, Homeland Security, and Air Force, thanks for not arresting me over all the weird information I look up on a daily basis, particularly for this novel.

out of the woods

Darby

“W

hat is it with wedding days and cold toilet seats?” I grumbled. My elbows were nestled in my lap, my hands clasped together atop my knees.

“D’you say somethin’, Darby?” Carly asked from the other side of the door.

“Nothing. Inside joke.”

“I know your inside jokes, sister. I know ‘em all.”

I smiled even though she couldn’t hear me. “You do. I’m glad you’re here.”

“What?” she said louder. “I can barely hear you with all the music outside. It’s like a party out there.

“It kind of is,” I said.

I reached for the white stick on the back of the toilet and stared at it. The first one I’d taken the day before I’d barely glanced at, and then I had to take a second look. Now I knew what to expect, even if I didn’t believe it. One. Two. Two pink lines. Oh, my good Lord.

I was already dressed, a halo of flowers on my head, the silk and lace easier to maneuver when I sat and stood than the gargantuan travesty I’d worn at my last wedding. Trex was waiting outside for me, surely looking handsome in his suit, and Harbinger, Kitsch, Sloan, Martinez, Zeke, and the Maddox twins, Taylor and Tyler, were standing with him at the flower-adorned trellis at the end of a white aisle runner. I’d caught a glimpse of them earlier when I’d checked on Maddie, taking turns holding my barely one-year-old daughter as they stood around the guest book table, looking as proper as I’d ever seen them.

Carly had earned her maid-of-honor status by absconding with me from my last wedding, and she was standing dutifully outside the door with Zeke’s girlfriend, Naomi, Trex’s sister Hailey, Caroline Harbinger, my former boss and best bartender in Colorado Springs, Stavros, Tyler’s fiancée, Ellie, and Taylor’s wife, Falyn.