Dozens of people remembered it.
Vance’s temporary logistics assignment was suspended while the command investigated. He was ordered not to contact Emma or the mess hall staff.
By sunset, rumors had already outrun facts.
Somebody told a version in which Bear had threatened to kill him. Someone else claimed Emma had been married to an admiral. A third version turned Daniel into a Medal of Honor recipient.
Emma hated all of it.
Daniel had been enough without decoration.
He had been a SEAL. He had also forgotten to close cabinet doors, burned grilled cheese, sung badly in the shower, and once spent three hours repairing a neighbor child’s bicycle because he could not stand seeing the boy cry.
The next morning, Emma woke with a purple bruise across her cheek and thirty-seven missed calls.
She turned the phone face down.
Then someone knocked.
Bear stood outside holding two paper cups and a grocery bag.
Emma stared at him.
“How did you get my address?”
“Daniel gave it to me six years ago.”
“That is not comforting.”
Bear almost smiled. “Fair. I brought coffee and breakfast. I can leave both and go.”
Emma looked at the bag.
“What’s in it?”
“Bagels. Fruit. Something Riley insists is a breakfast burrito, but I would classify it as a tactical mistake.”
A laugh escaped her before she could stop it.
It hurt her split lip.
Bear’s face softened.
“There you are.”
Emma’s eyes filled immediately.
She hated that too.
“Don’t.”
“I’m not doing anything.”
“You looked at me like Daniel used to when I pretended I was fine.”
Bear lowered his gaze.
“He was better at it.”
