I couldn’t let his obvious injury sway me and wait, kick him out? The nerve. The moment stretched out. I glared at him whilehe looked as if he had all the time in the world and relaxed. Damn it, how could he come back into my life and just stand there looking like he wanted to eat me up and comfort me at the same time?
Before I could respond, he spoke, and the obvious changes in his voice hit me. Deeper, raspier, and the world-weary inflection hard to miss, yet compelling enough that I remained silent.
“Did you know that your life really does flash in front of you when you're close to death’s door? I didn’t. Not until the only face I saw was yours. The bullet could have taken my life, but now I believe it saved me from never seeing you again. I’d really like a chance to talk. Not here, I get that. But soon. Because Sweetpea, there’s a lot you didn’t know back then, and that’s on me.”
Was my mouth hanging open because what in theever-living-Swifty-universe-of-song-lyricswas I living right now?Wait, did he just use the nickname I’d only let him get away with all those years ago?He claimed my personality was too nice to be stuck with the name Astrid. He had no way of knowing that in elementary school, the kids had called me “Astrid the Asteroid” or just plain “Asteroid,” making me hate my name for years.
Then, with the smile that had haunted me all that following summer after he disappeared and, okay, also my twenty-something dreams, Chase nodded and spoke.
“I’ll be staying with Kane if you want to hear what I have to say.” Then, with all his six-foot-something swagger, he brushed past me, our shoulders; well, my shoulder, his muscled bicep, touched. A sharp tingle that roared through my nervous system, and then he was gone.
Blowing out a long breath, I looked around the room and made sure it didn’t need to be reset for the next appointment.But that was just a stalling tactic. I didn’t want to go back out to the reception area until I was sure he was gone.
And he was staying with Kane. On my mountain? Okay, not all mine, but the mountain that was going to officially be my home—tomorrow.Shit!I needed help. And much-needed perspective. Grabbing my cell, I fired off a group text to all my local female friends.
Me: emergency margaritas 6p @ Renaldo’s
The replies were quick, and I couldn’t hold back my laughter as I read through them.
Mika: What's up? BTW, Berkley’s on board too she’s right here with me.
Addison: Need more info!Will bring the squirt for cuddles.
Zoe: Got you Plus baby’s craving Tex-mex
The others I included in the text couldn’t make it but demanded details later. And to see their immediate replies gave me all the warm fuzzies.And I had to laugh at Zoe’s response. At eight months pregnant, her cravings had been swinging wildly from spicy foods to wanting nothing but fruit smoothies.
Somehow, I made it through the rest of my day, giving my patients the attention they deserved. I’d mastered compartmentalizing my personal and professional lives from each other, but still every time I heard a male voice that was anywhere close to the deeper register of Chase’s my heart skipped, and I froze for a split second until confirming it wasn’t him.
How was it after all these years that mere minutes spent with him could turn me back into the needy schoolgirl he knew? And, oh, my Lord, he’d morphed into a sinewy, bound, super soldier like in one of my son’s video games. Sexy as hell despite the limp and the internal injuries from his chart.
Who had Chase London become, and did I want to find out?
CHAPTER TWO
CHASE
My last missionhad been well, my last. But that wasn’t the plan. A bullet had fast-tracked my retirement. And had it been a hair's breadth to the left, I’d be in a wheelchair right now or worse. Instead, I had a limp and constant muscle pain I refused to numb with prescription meds.
After an hour of mindless driving after seeing Astrid, I drove up Pineville Mountain with the window of my new truck open. I hadn’t driven a new model in years, always using mass transit or making do with the ancient wrecks that kept me under my enemies' radar.
But thanks to a payout for services rendered and a pat on the back for a job well done I couldn’t discuss with another soul, I drove the latest model truck from my boyhood dreams and inhaled the pine-scented air. I liked to think it was laced with possibilities.
And yet, the irony wasn’t lost on me that had I not been severely injured, I wouldn’t be experiencing any of this.
Buried within layers of deniability and alternate personalities, the thought of being Chase London again had been weighing heavily since I’d been airlifted out of my last mission under enemy fire. That assignment wasn’t supposed to be my final ops, and yet here I am. Back in the one place I could never stop thinking about, and all the what-ifs that came with poor choices in my youth.
And I’d thought plenty about the girl who had never left this place. Finding out how her life turned out since the night I’d walked away had been the easy part. But now, getting closer to my brother's place high up on Pineville Mountain, the harder part would begin.
Apologize to Kane, meet his wife, Chassie, ask for a place to stay, to heal and maybe, just maybe, get a chance with Astrid again.
That hadn’t been my original plan after I was forced to leave the SAC three weeks ago. Hell, I had no plans other than to get myself out of the hospital bed, back onto my feet and see if there was anything for me to do in my hometown.
But somehow, call it fate, coincidence, or maybe it’d always been inevitable that we’d cross paths again. I ended up at the clinic she worked. Now I was stretched out on the hard therapy bed and itching to capture her reaction when she walked through the door.
It had been my first stop because I hadn’t bothered to tell Kane I was coming. Or our younger brother, Ross. He’d been a kid when I left. As far as I knew, they both still thought I was working back East for some fancy security firm, my original cover story when I first went undercover.
Parking my rig outside Kane’s rustic cabin on the grounds of the Triple R Lodge, my gaze took in the compound and the surrounding cabins scattered amongst the Ponderosa pines.
