Hot SEAL, Labor Day by Cynthia D’Alba

Epilogue

ANote from Sawyer Beckett

One Year Later

Hi! This is Sawyer Beckett. Thank you for reading my story about how I met my wife and tricked her into marrying me. I know I’m a lucky man. Not only did I marry the most incredible woman, damned if she doesn’t love me, too. Never thought it was possible to be this happy.

I’d never understood how my mother was content to follow my father from base to base, state to state, country to country, and be happy. Now, I get it. I thought she didn’t have roots, so I didn’t have roots, but the roots were always there right in front of me. Dad was “the roots” of our family. Home was where Dad was. I get that now. My home is wherever my beloved wife is.

When the Zulu team was shot down, the entire African military component went on total communications blackout. We were there, and are still there, to support and train. It was unusual for the U.S. military to be part of active fighting. But it does happen and it happened that day. The SEALs lost an excellent unit of men, all fine and upstanding SEALs. I had served with Zulu and knew the unit. It was a tragic loss to the military professionally, and to me personally.

When we were sent back to the U.S., I tried unsuccessfully to call Ana. I should have called Paul to reach out to her, but it didn’t occur to me. I’m not used to having someone waiting at home for my safe return.

Ana’s mother was a pain in my ass for a while. The day Irene and her mother showed up at our house with the postnuptial paperwork, Ana laughed her ass off, and tore the pages into confetti. I would’ve signed the damn thing because I’m never letting Ana go, so it didn’t matter to me one way or the other.

I will confess to being a tad shocked to discover Ana had so much money she needed a prenup. Of course, the over-the-top wedding and honeymoon suite should have tipped me off, but I was so in love with her that I didn’t look too close at the trappings. Plus, she kept swearing hotel management had comped a lot of the expenses. To this day, I don’t know if that’s true or not, and I don’t care.

But we did give in to her mother on one item.

On the Friday before Thanksgiving, we replayed our wedding video for a group of her friends and social connections, followed by the most ridiculous reception you can imagine. Live music. Open bar. Flowing champagne. Lobster. Prime rib. A wedding cake that made me laugh.

The cake was white and elegant on one side with roses and a swag, like how I suspect Irene saw her daughter.

However, when the cake was turned, each layer had been decorated with a Navy motif. The bottom layer was in Navy colors. The Navy SEAL emblem decorated the top layer. On the middle layer, the baker had drawn a frog holding a trident.

We cut the cake with my sword, which Ana had loved. Of course, she ran around with it all night trying to “knight” our guests. No heads were lost in her endeavors, however.

Before you ask, yes, I did retire from the Navy. Not because Ana has an obscene amount of money and we didn’t need my salary. Again, I didn’t care then and I don’t care now. No, I retired to travel with her as she continues to tour and make records.

Randall did retire at the end of the year as Geoffrey had told Ana. We talked about it and decided to let Geoffrey take over where his dad left off. Geoffrey knows all the ins and outs of the business, even if I’m sure he’s still a little jealous of Ana’s talent.

Geoffrey and Linden are getting married in the spring. As Ana had suspected, Geoffrey was being pushed by his father to marry her. Randall had been sure Geoffrey’s sexual orientation would hamper his career as Ana’s manager. Ana and Sawyer both agreed that was ridiculous, and it turned out they were right. Nobody cared about Geoffrey’s love life; they only cared about scheduling Ana to play for them…at some nonsensical low payment. Yeah, that never worked. If anything, Geoffrey was tougher to deal with than his father, and Ana’s popularity only increased with each rise in her asking price.

She still plays concertos, but she’s hooked up with some country musicians for some experimental songs. So far, she’s loving the experience in Nashville and the reception from the public to the new music has been positive. She’s the only one who’s surprised by that. I’m not. I know my wife can do anything she wants to. And she knows I’m here for life. I’ll support her in any endeavor.

If the day comes that she wants to quit, I’ll support her in that.

If the day comes she wants a baby, I’ll support her in that also.

Until then, we’ll continue to practice…both the piano and the baby-making.

Sawyer