The hallway ended in the kitchen, which took up two thirds of the back of the house. Directly across from us was the triple-wide, accordion-style glass door that had been a bear to install. She noticed it right away.
“That can’t be original to the house.”
“It’s not,” I said. “During the week the electricians installed the new wiring, my dad and brother came to visit. We took out the picture window that was there and cut awaymore of the wall to make this fit, rebuilt the frame, hung it, and voila.”
“Sounds easy,” she said.
“It was a fucking nightmare.”
She furrowed her brow. “The way you talked about this.” She spun in a slow circle, taking in the modern gray and white kitchen, then the partial stone wall with the large fireplace that created a small divider between the kitchen and dining room. “Did you do all the work yourself?”
“Most of it. With the help of some friends with strong backs.” I nodded to the huge glass door. “And Dad and Jamie. Dad was a general contractor. I spent an untold number of summers working on construction sites.”
“That explains a lot. Did you ever think about going into the business? This place is amazing. Really beautiful. You’d be great at it.”
“Thanks, but no, I never seriously considered it.”
“Why not?”
I rubbed the back of my neck just thinking about the aches and pains that followed a day of construction, the sunburn and hardened skin from working outside in every kind of weather, the exhaustion that felt good at the end of the first couple of days, but got old fast when you woke up just as wiped the next morning. “Probablybecauseof all those summers. It can be brutal.”
“So, you picked an easier line of work.”
I actually hadn’t. There was nothing easier about living in shit conditions for weeks on end, dodging bullets and surviving attacks, extracting buddies from behind enemy lines. And worst of all, sometimes watching comrades fall. “The Army wasn’t easier. Different, for sure.”
“And what about working in private security?” Shewatched my face carefully like she was trying to read something in it.
I grinned, making sure to reveal nothing that would make her suspect there was more to my current job. “Living my best life.”
“Even when you’re acting as a bodyguard?”
That one was trickier. Everyone on the team was a bodyguard for each other, but that was really stretching the definition of the word. And Christ, I hated lying to her. “The worst part of my job is dealing with the occasional asshole. Even that’s not so bad after I win them over with my charming personality.”
Bella sniffed around the edges of the glass door, putting nose prints on it. She glanced at me and whined.
“It appears it’s time to show you the back deck.” I slid the doors along the track. The three of us stepped out onto the deck and I closed the door behind us, even though the humidity and the bug population were lower than normal.
“Wow, I love this so much.” Cami spun in a circle again as Bella stepped off the deck into the grass, her nose pressed to the ground. “Wait, do you have a fence, because dogs can get carried away following the scents of squirrels or other animal.”
“It’s a natural wood one. It’s a little hard to see it from here, but it runs right along the tree line on both sides and the back.” I pointed to the gate. “And that leads to a footpath through the woods.”
She wrinkled her nose and turned from side to side, looking at the forest. “I’m trying to picture where the path would lead.”
“To Garnet Street.”
“Garnet. I wouldn’t have guessed that. Isn’t that where your office building is?”
“Yes. It’s two-and-a-half miles from here, going through the woods, with a couple of turns along the way. I run there most days to get a warm-up before PT. Physical training. It’s an important part of my job.”
But I didn’t want to talk about the job because that meant more dodging and subterfuge. With Cami, I just wanted to be easy. To be normal.
“I should show you the rest of the house, but it occurs to me you might be hungry,” I said. “I can throw some steaks on the grill.”
“That sounds great. Maybe in an hour or so?”
“Something to drink, then? I have iced tea, juice, milk, something stronger.”
She closed her eyes. “I would kill for something stronger, especially if you have wine.”
