Since he’d flown civilian, he landed at Norfolk International Airport at around 1850 local time. He was so tired he couldn’t remember which airport the team had left from or where he had parked his truck, so he hired a cab to drive him to the Navy Gateway Inns and Suites, where he and his family were staying temporarily.
Jenny answered the door in shorts and a Virginia Tech T-shirt and immediately threw her arms around him. “Dad, you’re home! Yay!”
“Sorry I missed your graduation. I’m so proud of you, sweetheart. How did it go?”
“It was fun. Grandpa came. We missed you.”
“I’m sorry. I couldn’t help it. I bought you something.”
He entered the little red-tiled foyer and set down his bag as familiar smells surrounded him. Jenny followed, looking happy to see him yet somewhat wary, as if she knew to treat him carefully. “What happened to your face?” she asked.
He quickly manufactured a lie. “Oh, I fell off the hotel Stairmaster and scratched myself. Burned it a little, too.”
“Gee, Dad.”
He’d had the presence of mind to buy her something at the duty-free shop at Charles de Gaulle. He found it now in the side pocket of his bag and handed it to her-a stunning silver Michele Deco Day chronograph dial watch that had been recommended by the young woman at the shop and had set him back almost seven hundred dollars. The look of surprise and joy on her face made it worth the price.
“Wow, Dad. It’s so beautiful. Thanks!”
She kissed him again and bounced around in a circle with her arms in the air and her new watch on her wrist. “I feel like a princess.”
“It looks great on you. You here alone?”
He watched Jenny’s mood change on a dime. She sighed loudly, and reached out and held his forearm. “Dad, Holly left yesterday,” she said softly. “There’s a note for you on the kitchen counter by the mail. I’m so sorry.”
A wave of sadness almost knocked him off his feet. Leaning against the kitchen wall, he read:
“Dear Tom: I’ve moved in with my friend Lena. I’m sorry things didn’t work out between us. I’ll always love you, but I can’t live with you anymore and be fulfilled and happy. I’ll come over Saturday for the rest of my things. Love, Holly.”
He felt something give way in his chest, followed by relief mixed with profound hurt and disappointment. He’d opened up his heart to her and loved her, but it wasn’t enough.
Jenny squeezed his hand and said, “You’re a good man, Dad, and I love you, if that’s any comfort.”
He put his arm around her shoulder, hugged her, and said, “Of course it is. I love you, too, with all my heart.”
As tears gathered in his eyes, he knew that somehow he had to find the strength to soldier on. He didn’t know how, but he would. It was what he did best, and what he would always be. A soldier, through and through.
Acknowledgments
Don and Ralph would like to thank our agent, Heather Mitchell, and the talented professionals at Mulholland Books / Little, Brown who have made this book possible, including Wes Miller, Pamela Brown, Joshua Kendall, Ben Allen, Kapo Ng, Tracy Williams, Chris Jerome, and Morgan Moroney. They would also like to extend a special thanks to their loving and supportive families and friends.
About the Authors
DON MANN (CWO3, USN) has for the past thirty years been associated with the U.S. Navy SEALs as a platoon member, assault team member, boat crew leader, and advanced training officer, and more recently as program director preparing civilians to go to BUD/S (SEAL Training). Until 1998 he was on active duty with SEAL Team Six. Since then, he has deployed to the Middle East on numerous occasions in support of the war against terrorism. Many of today’s active-duty SEALs on Team Six are the same guys he taught how to shoot, conduct ship and aircraft takedowns, and operate in urban, arctic, desert, river, and jungle warfare, as well as Close Quarters Battle and Military Operations in Urban Terrain. He has suffered two cases of high-altitude pulmonary edema, frostbite, a broken back, and multiple other broken bones in training or service. He has been captured twice during operations and lived to talk about it.
RALPH PEZZULLO is a New York Times bestselling author and an award-winning playwright and screenwriter. His books include Jawbreaker and The Walk-In (with CIA operative Gary Berntsen), At the Fall of Somoza, Plunging into Haiti (winner of the Douglas Dillon Award for Distinguished Writing on American Diplomacy), Most Evil (with Steve Hodel), Eve Missing, and Blood of My Blood. His nonfiction book about the shadowy world of private military contracting with former British Special Forces commando Simon Chase, Zero Footprint, will be published by Little, Brown next year.
