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“You said you wanted to talk?” she asked.
“You said you only wanted to kiss.”
She grinned. “I do, but I know you and how much you love to chatter. Share all the emotional junk.”
“That’s exactly what I was thinking.”
He pulled back and cuddled her against his side. She tucked her legs up under her and leaned into him. Did he really want to share the ‘emotional junk?’ His past? His family?
Pressing his lips against her forehead, he tried to think where to start. Myra simply waited. “You talked about how your dad trained you to be a warrior.”
She nodded. “He’s our county sheriff, so he had a decent amount of training himself. He also spent money he shouldn’t have for me to learn skills he had no expertise in like Tae Kwon Do and Jiu jitsu.”
“Why did he initially start training you?”
“He said from the time I was young, I moved like a ninja. I didn’t like traditional sports and I balked at dance or music. I’d rather knock the girl next to me down on the soccer field than kick the ball.”
He chuckled at that, and she grinned beautifully up at him.
“I took to everything he taught me and begged for more. I’m not sure whose obsession with me being a female warrior came first, but we were both equally invested in it. When my mom died …” She took a slow breath. “It became a way to connect with my dad and have a plan for my life and provide the means to help my siblings.”
She paused, and he wondered if she meant help train her siblings or help them financially.
“You think you and I aren’t eloquent or emotional,” she continued. “Wait until you meet Sheriff Tueller.”
“I can’t wait.”
She froze in his arms. “Are you serious?”
“I was kind of joking, but yes, I want to meet your dad and your family.” He studied her. He was very serious about this relationship. Was she?
She relaxed against him. “He’ll give you a hard time.”
“I hope so.” He smiled at her, then sobered. “Have you been reluctant about getting into a relationship because of your dad and the goals you both had?”
“Yes.” She nodded. “But when we talked earlier tonight, I told him I was interested in you and he said he wanted me to be happy and you’d be a fool if you didn’t want me.”
“The last statement is very true.” He ran his fingers through her silky hair.
“Very smart man to admit it.” She rested her hand on his abdomen, and his muscles instinctively tightened. He could claim he was accustomed to her touch, but it still lit a fire in him.
He tried to focus on what he needed to tell her. “My dad was similar to yours in some ways. He lost my mom and trained my brother and me to be warriors.”
She nodded for him to continue.
“But I can’t imagine my dad ever saying that he wanted me to be happy in a relationship.”
“What?” She straightened in surprise. “Why?”
Ike pushed out a breath. “Losing my mom like he did, he blamed himself, and then he regretted letting himself love so deeply. He retired from the military and focused on Aiden and me. I still wonder if he resented us for him missing out on his goals and dreams with the Marines.”
“But you were just boys who had lost their mom tragically,” she protested.
“He never said he resented us, but he did train us to do what he couldn’t accomplish. We were to become automatons, bionic boys, superhuman.”
She stared at him. “Ike. You are the most impressive warrior I’ve ever known, but your dad wanted you to be a machine?”
“Yes. Protecting, serving, defending, fighting; that was all that mattered. He was brilliant, kind, and loving, but he got a different look about him when he taught us to not let down our emotional walls, protect ourselves and any woman from pain and devastation. Now I wonder if he was so damaged by my mom’s death that he made himself believe a relationship could never work for a warrior.”
