Page 3 of Daddy’s Fortitude

Keira sighed. “Fine. I’ll keep thinking.”

“You know what’s a great name,” Honey said. “Honey.”

Keira smiled. “It is, but it might get confusing to have two of you.”

“True,” Honey agreed. “You could call her or him Bee. Then together we’d be Honey Bee.”

That sounded truly awful. And that was saying something since Wanda Winters was spectacularly terrible.

“Sorry to hear about Charlie Charleston,” Keira said to Ammo. “Was he your friend?”

Ammo grunted. “Not really.”

“We knew Charlie back in the Navy. We all served together,” Zander explained as he piled a plate high with food, then placed it in front of Keira. She just shook her head with a sigh.

It was more food than Ammo and Webb had on their plates combined. And they definitely at the most of everyone here.

“I’m so sorry,” Keira said as she reached over and clapped hold of Zander’s hand. “You were close to him?”

“Kind of,” Ammo said.

“I always thought he was a bit of a dick,” Zander added.

“Real close then,” Webb said dryly.

Ammo sighed, shaking his head. They didn’t get it. “He was one of us.”

Zander nodded.

They’d served together in the same team. And that meant that they were tied for life.

“He was there for me a number of times,” Ammo said.

“All I remember was you saving his life,” Zander said. “The guy was a liability.”

He definitely had been.

“I’m gonna need some leave,” Ammo said abruptly.

“For the funeral?” Zander asked. “When is it? I’ll go as well.”

Ammo shook his head. “Gonna need longer than that. I made a promise to Charlie when he thought he was going to die. Think it was the second time I rescued him. Said that if anything ever happened to him, I’d look after his wife.”

They all stared at Ammo. He guessed he understood their reaction. He wasn’t a friendly guy. He was probably the last person anyone would suspect of making a promise like that.

But in the heat of the moment things were different.

“You’re going to look after his widow and family?” Keira said, staring at him in amazement. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but do you think they’d want that?”

He leaned back in his chair. “Why wouldn’t they want my help?”

“Um. Well. You see . . .” Keira faltered, obviously searching for the right words.

“Because you’re an antisocial, grouchy bastard with zero social manners,” Honey suggested with a smile.

Ammo nodded. He could see that. He didn’t take offense. It was all true.

“A promise is a promise, though. They may not need my help.” Christ, he hoped that was the situation. “But I need to go check. He died two days ago. Funeral’s on Sunday.”