Tyler’s eyes filled.
“Yeah.”
I covered my mouth.
“She’s okay?”
“Not a scratch.”
The anger inside me broke apart.
I wanted to yell at him.
I wanted to hold him.
I wanted to tell him never to do anything like that again, even though we both knew he probably would.
Then Tyler squeezed my hand.
“That’s not what Reyes thought you knew.”
I froze.
“What does that mean?”
He took a slow breath.
“The department nominated me for the Medal of Valor this afternoon.”
I stared at him.
Tyler gave me the smallest smile.
“And apparently they approved it.”
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
Then I laughed through my tears.
I had driven to the station thinking I was going to surprise my husband for his birthday.
Instead, Tyler had nearly broken my heart, saved a child’s life, and somehow still looked embarrassed by people making a fuss over him.
I leaned closer.
“You’re still an idiot.”
He smiled.
“Yeah.”
“But I’m proud of you.”
His eyes softened.
“That part I’ll take.”
The next morning, Captain Reyes brought the cake to Tyler’s hospital room.
The entire crew came with him.
So did the balloons.
This time, when they walked through the door, everyone was smiling.
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So here is the real question: When loving someone means accepting that they may risk everything to save a stranger, do you hold on tighter out of fear, or do you find the courage to be proud of the very thing that scares you most?
If you liked this story, here’s another one for you: I thought our honeymoon would finally belong to only two people. Then Eleanor locked me out of my own suite and slept beside her son. By sunrise, one chair, two wedding rings, and a broken apartment key had forced Tyler to decide whether our marriage had ever truly begun.
