Page 106 of Rescuing Mary

They stared at each other for a long minute before Truck sighed. “I hate to admit this, because I have a feeling you’ll be throwing it in my face for quite a while, but I need to lie down.”

Mary blinked, then shook herself out of the haze she’d been in. “Shit! Of course. Are you dizzy? Come on, the bed’s right here.”

Truck chuckled. “I’m not about to keel over, woman. Chill.”

“I just…I’m worried about you. Maybe I should sleep on the couch tonight,” she fretted.

“Absolutely not,” Truck said sternly. “I know you worry about me, and you have no idea how much that means to me.” Truck sat on the bed and pulled her to him. Holding her hands and looking at her, he said, “But there’s no way I want to spend even one night away from you if I can help it.”

“I think I can manage that,” Mary said with a smile. “Are you hungry? I can make you something to eat.”

“I could eat,” he told her as he settled back on the bed.

Mary hurried out to see what was in the kitchen that would be easy to make. She wasn’t the best cook, but she’d be able to come up with something to keep him satisfied. Later, when he was more up to it, they could cook together. For most of the time she’d lived with him, he’d done all the cooking, simply because she either wasn’t hungry or was too sick to do it herself.

Mary still wasn’t convinced she would make a good wife, but she’d do her best. She trusted Truck, and that was what mattered. Smiling, she opened the fridge and bent over to see what there was to eat.

Chapter Seventeen

It was the night before Fletch and Emily’s naming party, and Truck had decided that Mary’s time was up. The first two days after he’d gotten out of the hospital, he’d done a lot of sleeping. Then his days had been filled with shooting the shit with his friends. He knew Mary had arranged the visits and he loved her even more for it.

She and Rayne had gone grocery shopping one day and had bought enough food to feed an army. And that’s pretty much who had been at his apartment in the last week. An army of their friends. Little Annie spent the night and they’d watched Cinderella, twice. Another night, Mary had invited Trigger over and the three of them talked until midnight before the other Delta had finally excused himself to go home.

Even Macie had come over for dinner. Truck hadn’t really gotten a good explanation of what had happened all those years ago, and why she’d never contacted him, but she had definitely changed over the years. Of course, it had been two decades since he’d last seen her, when they were both basically still kids, but she used to be outgoing and smiled nonstop. Now she seemed nervous and uneasy, even around him, which he hated. He found himself doing everything he could to keep conversation light and easy, not to bring up anything that might distress her.

He wanted to know everything about his sister. About her job designing websites—primarily for authors, but really for anyone who contacted her. He wanted to know why she wasn’t married. He wanted to know everything about her high school years, and her college ones too. He really wanted to know about their parents. If she was still in touch with them, if they’d had anything to do with her not talking to him after he’d left home, as he suspected.

Basically, Truck wanted to know every little detail about her life, but he could tell that asking anything too personal would make her clam up. So he kept things simple, talked mostly about himself and his teammates. He even talked about his commander and the other Delta Force team he was in charge of, as Macie seemed especially interested when he brought up Colonel Robinson.

There would come a time when he’d need to have a heart-to-heart with Macie, and they’d need to clear the air once and for all. They’d have to discuss what happened all those years ago. But for now, he was content having her back in his life.

There hadn’t ever been so many people in and out of their apartment, and Truck suspected Mary was doing her best to avoid being alone with him, especially at bedtime. She’d told him one evening that she was trying out a new recipe, and she’d be in bed soon. Of course he’d been fast asleep by the time she’d finished.

Another night, she’d called Rayne just as he got off the couch to head to bed, and then she’d had the nerve to spend the night on the couch.

He was done.

Truck knew Mary was freaking out about sleeping with him, but she was done avoiding him. She needed to face this hurdle head on, like she did just about everything else in her life, including her job.

She hadn’t needed to resign from the bank, as the regional manager put everyone on paid leave until they could rebuild the vault and reassess their security measures. They’d reassured all the employees that if they wanted to “pursue other options,” the bank would do whatever they could to help them.

Mary had been brainstorming what she wanted to do with Rayne and the others, but she hadn’t made a decision. She was moving on with her work life, now it was time to move on with her personal life too.

Mary was currently sitting on the other side of the couch from him, her attention stubbornly fixed on the television. She was flicking channels, but Truck could tell she wasn’t really paying attention.

He stood, and hated that Mary flinched slightly, but he ignored her discomfort, walked right up to her, and leaned over and picked her up.

“Truck!” she exclaimed, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Your head! Put me down!”

“No,” he said calmly. “It’s time for bed.”

“I have things I need to do first,” she said somewhat desperately.

“No, you don’t.”

“Yes, I do.”

“Nope.”