Remember Courage Read online

  Remember Courage

  Healing Hearts

  Ginny Sterling

  Contents

  Introduction

  Preface

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Also by Ginny Sterling

  Remember Home (Lawfully Gifted)

  Remember Love

  Remember Laughter

  Tempting the Billionaire

  Introduction

  Dylan Luka has a job he loves. Seeing different parts of the world and hanging out with his best friends are the biggest perks of his career. Everything has always come easy to the handsome soldier armed with a devastating smile, but when he’s diagnosed with a medical condition, he struggles with maintaining the discipline he needs to survive. Winning over the lovely barista that has enchanted him is another matter altogether!

  Eva Morrison cannot believe the gall of the man before her. He thinks if he flirts with her, she will fall immediately for his magnetic appeal all while serving him a hot cup of coffee. When his repeated attempts to ask her out fail, will a silent cry for help shatter the wall surrounding her determined resolve? Can she fight the chemistry between them—or will she have enough courage and patience to capture his heart?

  Praise for Ginny Sterling

  What can I say except I absolutely loved this story, I laughed out loud and I shed emotional tears.” – Amazon Reviewer (Remember Home)

  “This series has quickly become one my favorites. Love the storyline, love the characters, love the back stories and love the sweet romance between each couple.” – Amazon Reviewer (Remember Love)

  “What an amazing start to a new series, Healing Hearts, a clean contemporary and extremely emotional tale. I loved the characters, the angst, and the honest discussions, along with the chemistry and interactions. The people are broken, but with encouragement, friendship, and the added benefit of animals, it is the beginnings for healing.” – Amazon Reviewer (Remember Hope)

  Dear Reader,

  I wanted to share with you this story after hearing of something similar with a family member. I was stunned to hear that you could be diagnosed as a Type 1 Diabetic as late as thirty years old. I’d always heard that stereotype ‘only children get it’ or ‘you must be wrong, it’s Type 2’. In researching, apparently it’s not uncommon to have a case of ketoacidosis be the first instance of the person discovering that they have it.

  This book is in no way, shape, or form giving medical advice whatsoever. Rather, it’s a reminder that every story has a second side to it and fiction gives us a chance to escape our daily lives. As you read, I hope you enjoy the banter between the characters as the story develops for them.

  I know I certainly have.

  If you’d like more information on Diabetes – please check out some of these websites that I used for research:

  www.Diabetes.org

  www.MayoClinic.org

  Chapter 1

  September 2015

  Ghazni, Afghanistan

  “Post, you sly dog! Who’s the pretty lady? Where’d you meet her?” Dylan asked his friend, staring at the beautiful dark-haired woman climbing into the helicopter. He was just a part of the cheesiest interview for some stupid reason and now was heading back to the barracks. Listening to his CPO talk during the interview about his pen-pal made him realize that maybe the older man was a lot more cunning than he ever realized. CPO Griffin had been exchanging letters with a mysterious woman for a little while now, and Dylan had seen quite a change in his temperament.

  The man actually smiled now and had a personality.

  Post was still hung up on his girlfriend back home.

  Dylan was alone and trying to hide it behind a macho attitude.

  “What? Lucy? She’s just a girl I grew up with back home,” Post replied, shrugging. “She’s pretty but I’m in a committed relationship.”

  “Well, I’m not!” Luka grinned, “Hook me up with her number or email, buddy. She’s incredible looking. Did you see all that smooth, dark, brown hair? And those legs? Oh my gosh! She looks like she could be on the cover of a magazine.”

  “I didn’t think Neanderthals could read,” Post quipped easily. Dylan immediately elbowed him in the midriff playfully.

  “Seriously – she’s awfully easy on the eyes.”

  “I guess so.”

  “Dude – are you blind?” Dylan screeched, holding out his hands in front of him openly. The woman looked like a goddess. Dylan had always had a thing for girls with dark hair, and that gorgeous reporter checked off every box on his mental checklist.

  “No, I’ve got an angel waiting for me back home so I’m not looking.”

  “It must be something in the water back home if you are surrounded by incredibly hot women and you aren’t even noticing it. Do all the girls from your hometown look like her?”

  “Who? Annabelle?”

  “Nawww – the lovely Lucy.”

  “Maybe? Sorta?”

  “Geeeezzzz,” Luka groaned, rolling his eyes to the heavens. “You are pathetic, Post. You need to hurry up and marry your girl before your rose-colored glasses fall off your purdy face.”

  August 2016

  “You’d better go get it before I do because that will be the last dime you will ever get from me,” Post whispered flatly before hanging up the phone so hard you could hear the bell inside the base chime noisily.

  Dylan had been in line to call his parents just to say hello and was instantly awash with guilt. He’d teased Jamie about his ‘rose colored glasses’ several times and now he was a bystander of them being ripped off the man’s face. There was no one more steadfast, easy-going, or loyal than Jamie when he put his all into it – and no one else Dylan would rather have protecting his back.

  “C’mon man, let’s shut your account and drinks are on me tonight,” Dylan said gently, patting Jamie on the back. If he’d been betrayed like that, he’d want to get plastered drunk until he forgot everything – including how to breathe.

  “Call your family first,” Jamie whispered in a broken voice and Dylan just shook his head.

  “You are like family, brother. Let’s get you taken care of first. The phone will be here later, unless you just broke it.”

  Dylan was glad he’d suggested staying with Jamie. He hated to leave the man alone when he’d been so obviously blindsided. They’d gotten to the bank and his friend was having a hard time answering some of the teller’s questions. He didn’t know if Jamie was ashamed, embarrassed, or what was running through his mind, but Dylan had no problems stepping up to the plate.

  “Look, you don’t need the ‘why’s’ or ‘how’s’ of it all – my man is asking you to close his account, transfer his stuff to another one, and take one ‘Annabelle Lawson’ off of every single scrap of paper you’ve ever seen. Got it?”

  “Do you have any I.D.?”

  “We’re soldiers. You’ve got our fingerprints and blood type. I’m not asking for any money or withdrawing anything. I want to move his money from spot A…” Dylan said hotly, gesturing with a tape dispenser on the desk. He picked it up and moved it over a foot.

  “… To spot B… right now. There is about to be another withdrawal on his account and that creature has gotten enough of Jamie’s money.”

  “Sir, here’s my I.D.,” Jamie spoke up, pushing his card onto the desk. Dylan felt so bad for him because he looked utterly shattered. It was like he couldn’t focus right now. He was staring at the desk unseeingly, and not in a goo
d place mentally.

  “Do you want to press charges or go after her for the money?” Dylan said quietly. Jamie shook his head.

  “No. What’s done is done.”

  “You sure, man?”

  “Positive. The sooner I can put it all behind me – the faster I will heal.”

  “You know what heals a broken heart?”

  “What?”

  “Another one,” Dylan said with a wink, trying to make Jamie laugh. He hated this side of his friend. Usually he was so lighthearted and like a big brother to them all. It hurt to see him in such heartache.

  “You need to find yourself some girl, before finding yet another girl, and another. I’ve got friends all over the world that simply want my company and a handsome smile,” Dylan bragged, knowing he was lying through his teeth but if it drew Jamie out of his funk, it was worth it.

  “That’s not me.”

  “It’s not me either, but you’d be surprised how easy it is to kiss another girl when the moment is exactly right. You ought to give it a try – find someone to replace Annabelle when you are ready.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind, Dylan.”

  Dylan looked away from the sad look in Post’s eyes, feeling like a complete charlatan as his friend walked off towards the barracks they shared, leaving him standing there alone. He hoped that Jamie didn’t mope too long as the atmosphere on the makeshift base fluctuated as much as the dunes they patrolled. One minute they could all be laughing and cutting up; the next moment one of them would receive news from home that brought everything to a crushing halt.

  Dylan knew that his bragging was all bravado and talk. He felt bad that Jamie had lost his girl, but in a way… he was a little jealous too. Jamie actually had someone in his life, whereas he had no one. All the girls Dylan had ever talked to or dated were interested in something he wasn’t ready for.

  He was a good-looking guy and had been told more than once that ‘he was hot’ – even if he didn’t believe it. They wanted intimacy and he was embarrassed at how old-fashioned his beliefs ran on the inside. He wanted to marry for love, have a relationship, and find that special someone he could share his innermost thoughts and feelings with.

  So far – that wasn’t anyone he’d met.

  Each date with a girl he asked out ended the same way. He’d thank them for a nice time and they would try to kiss him. He’d kissed a couple of them, but he was surprised at how brazenly forward they could be too.

  He told the guys at the barracks that he ‘didn’t date a girl more than twice’ – because in a way – it was true. Once he’d turned them down for anything further than a kiss, his evening usually ended pretty quickly – sometimes quite badly. He’d been yelled at, insulted, disgraced, and rejected more times than he could count for his beliefs.

  Dylan just never bothered to call again.

  “There’s got to be someone out there that understands,” Dylan breathed softly, crossing his arms over his chest protectively and staring off into the sky as the sun dipped behind the hills in the distance, casting an orange glow across the sandy expanse that surrounded his location.

  Tyler, Texas

  “What do you mean ‘suspended’?”

  Eva whispered quietly into the phone, turning away from her coworkers. Unfortunately, her phone at home had been cut off for non-payment so she was needing to use the line at work to call the school. She’d gotten a letter in the mail and it sounded like a bunch of legal mumbo-jumbos talking about the ‘board’ and ‘failure to advance’.

  She understood that part and the reason behind it. She was working two full-time jobs to pay for her classes at the university. That’s what sucks when you grow up in the foster system and no one wants to adopt a problem child. Eva had always stuck up for herself and others, classifying her a ‘backtalker’ or ‘a child with aggressive tendencies towards those in charge’.

  She struggled to fit in and was still discovering who she was. She’d bleached her hair, another time she’d shaved her head, and even got a tattoo just over her ear. She was no saint, whatsoever, but wanted to provide for herself and simply ‘do better’.

  “Miss Morrison, you’ve been on probation from the school for two semesters now due to your grades. The dean has seen fit to suspend you for a semester, giving you time to straighten out whatever has caused you to not take your academic career seriously.”

  “I’d say that paying five thousand a semester in cash is a pretty darn serious commitment, wouldn’t you?” Eva snapped, her voice raising an octave and grabbing the attention of her coworkers. Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm herself. It would do no good to get herself fired for cursing out the college receptionist in front of customers at her job.

  “It’s only a commitment if you can apply yourself and pass. You cannot buy your way into a degree,” the uppity, nasally voice intoned.

  “I’m not trying to do that,” Eva gritted out between clenched teeth, squeezing the earpiece in her hands.

  “If you’ve got some medical reason, some extenuating circumstance, or other factor that would require some consideration by the board to reevaluate your case…”

  Eva hung up before she screamed and quickly wadded up the letter angrily. They would not get another drop from her. She would wait the semester that had been forced upon her. That would give her time to save up for classes at maybe the local community college instead.

  She’d been considering transferring her credits anyhow, only to find out that her grades were so low, they didn’t qualify. The idea of having paid for four semesters already and it wasn’t good enough to use them elsewhere made her feel ill – but it also motivated her to keep going.

  She didn’t want to live in a studio apartment forever, scraping by from check to check. She had dreams and wanted to be a positive influence in another person’s life. She wanted to be a teacher or a counselor, so that way if someone needed to talk – they could turn to someone who would listen.

  Pushing back her short, hot-pink hair, she clocked out and grabbed her things out of her locker. She didn’t have the luxury of quitting a job she hated. Instead, she got to clock out and go to another job that she hated too. Grabbing her apron and a baseball cap, she headed towards her car.

  Eva had learned long ago that you worked to pay for things you wanted – and she wanted security. A roof over her head, a dependable vehicle, and food in her stomach. She’d slept in her car several times in the past and rolled pennies for gas money. There was so much more she wanted in her life and that drive, that determination, pushed her in a way no one would ever understand.

  Getting in her vehicle, she felt the overwhelming exhaustion hit her. She’d slept five hours in the last two days and was ready to drop, but if she called in at her job, there was a good chance she’d be written up this time. It was like everything was against her sometimes and she just needed a break.

  She wanted a friend that she could confide in who didn’t automatically think the worst of her. Stereotypes, judgement, frustration, and assumptions seemed to plague her at every turn. She had to fight for everything in her life – and she was so tired of the battle.

  “If you are listening upstairs,” she began softly, wiping her eyes and pushing down the swamping fatigue that beat at her. “I could use some help and someone that just understands me.”

  Chapter 2

  February 2017

  Ghazni, Afghanistan

  Dylan checked his watch repeatedly and looked back over to the empty bunk that Jamie had. Something had to be wrong. So far, he’d been able to keep his commanding officer off the trail but he was starting to wonder what had happened to his friend. Jamie had come to borrow his boots hours ago and he’d immediately questioned him.

  “Why?”

  “Lucy apparently wore heels to the desert.”

  “Oh gosh - and with those legs…” Dylan closed his eyes and immediately got punched in the shoulder by Jamie. His eyes sprang open and he stared at the man in shock.
>
  Jamie looked angry.

  “You like her,” Dylan asked, stunned and pleased at the same time. This was the first moment where he’d really seen any reaction from the calm man, other than laughter when Lucy had mailed him a freeze-dried ice cream bar and Midol.

  “That’s none of your business. Can I have your boots or not?”

  “They’ll be too big. I wear a ten.”

  “I know – she apparently almost does too.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yeah,” Jamie grinned, glancing at Dylan.

  “Is she nice? She seemed nice when we did that stupid interview with Ol’ Man Griff. What’s it been, a year?”

  “I’m not sure – but she’s waiting. Now, boots or not?”

  “Yeah - and take a pair of socks so she doesn’t get blisters.”

  “Or foot funk?”

  “Shaaaaddup – I do not have ‘foot funk’. Where are you taking her?”

  “I’m going to run our rounds from yesterday that we just cleared so it’s safe and I’ll be back later.”

  “Do I have to babysit the cameraman? He’s going to want food and I don’t know if he should be out on the streets alone. I told him as much too and thought he was going to wet himself.” Jamie and Dylan grinned at each other as he let out a loud sigh of defeat.

  “Go spend time with your beauty queen. I’ll go toss a few beers and feed him. I want details – if there is any – and if there isn’t, get me her phone number.”