“Not emotionally, you didn’t. I know Claire is…Claire, but she’s still my sister, and I’m just looking out for her.”

“I like Morgan. I’m taking her out. I didn’t say that we were hopping a flight to Vegas. Fin, baby, wait up!” I called down the hall.

Fin paused outside the kindergarten doors.

“I just wish—”

I turned, halting us both. “You wish she was Claire. That’s your baggage. Not mine. Now I’m going to take my daughter into her orientation. The daughter who once again doesn’t have her mother here. I’ll see you later, Brie.” With a curt nod, I left her standing in the hall and headed for Fin.

I wasn’t the only single parent there, but I was the only single dad. The usual onslaught of complicated emotions didn’t hit me this time, though. Fin wasn’t looking around, sad that her own mother hadn’t come—that was my baggage, not hers. She was busy twirling in her dress and showing everyone her crown braid.

But then again, how could she miss someone she’d never really had?

…

“Oh, come on!” Sawyer begged as he spotted me the next night.

I pushed the bar through my final rep and set it back on the rack.

“Don’t give him shit about it,” Garrett muttered from the pull-up station.

We’d already flown a patrol, and we were doing what any man of logic would normally do at one a.m.—working out in the station gym to keep from falling asleep.

“Sorry, man, you’re on your own,” I told Sawyer as I sat up.

“I made arrangements,” he whined. “There are two of them. Two. Cousins. What am I supposed to tell them?” He followed me as I headed for the leg press.

“That you made plans without consulting me?” I adjusted the weight, adding twenty pounds.

“That you made plans without consulting me. What the hell is so important that you’d blow me off on a non-Finley weekend?” He stared down at me with a mix of real and mock outrage. “You know we only have a few months before we deploy! You’re supposed to be mine!”

“A few months before you deploy, remember? I’m on rear D for this one.” Command had taken mercy on me since I was Finley’s only parent. Yes, I had a care plan, but it had been a relief when they told me I wasn’t going to have to use it. I hated sending my guys without me, though.

He grabbed his chest in indignation. “We’re supposed to be spending every moment we can together so our bromance survives the separation!”

“All three months of it.” I laughed. “Now seriously, I’m taking Morgan out.” I slid into the machine.