Helen Brenna

“Did you get Ahmed’s man?”
“Yeah,” he said, regret filling the tone of his voice. “But if I had to do it over again, I would’ve stayed behind.”
She ran her hand over his chest, hoping to comfort him some small amount. “Thank you for telling me.”
“So you were wasting your time in Virginia Beach.”
“No, I wasn’t, and there’s one thing I’ll never be sorry for.”
“What’s that?”
“Kissing you.” There’d been nothing fake or pretend about how much she’d wanted him then, how much she wanted him now. “For your sake, for both of us, I had to leave before either of us had gotten in too deep.”
“Well, you were about two weeks and six days too late for that, Red. I was in too deep the first night I met you.”
His eyes darkened as he reached out to cup her cheek and run the pad of his thumb over her upper lip.
“That makes two of us.” She closed her eyes and kissed the palm of his hand.
He groaned. “Virginia Beach was almost perfect.”
“Almost?”
He tilted her head back and looked into her eyes. “I wish I’d made love to you.”
What if neither of them made out of Mogadishu alive? Could she leave this world without regrets? No. Not yet. There was one thing she still needed to do. Wrapping her arms around Nate’s neck, she pulled him toward her and kissed him, whispering, “Better late than never.”
― Helen Brenna, SEAL of My Dreams