Page 41 of Rescuing Mary

Ghost chuckled. “I wasn’t going to offer,” he said, pretending to be offended.

Truck kept up a witty back and forth with his friends, all the while attuned to the back hallway. He was curious as to whether the woman would walk by their table again or if she’d go the more obvious route to her table via the back of the restaurant.

Within minutes, she reappeared—and walked straight toward him again.

Truck couldn’t stop the small smile. He knew it was lopsided, but he didn’t care. Having this unique-looking woman check him out felt good. Really good.

This time when she passed the table, he nodded at her. She didn’t speak again, but gave him another small smile in return. Truck wanted to turn and watch her ass as she passed, but he refrained.

“She was checkin’ you out,” Hollywood observed.

“Yup,” Truck replied.

Hollywood opened his mouth to say something else, but the waitress appeared with their steaks. They smelled as good as Truck remembered, and he was glad the quality of the food hadn’t diminished in the last three years.

When she was done setting their lunches down on the table, Truck snuck a glance over to the bar. He was surprised to find the women’s booth vacant. All that remained was an empty plate, two glasses, and what was obviously the signed bill on the table.

Feeling disappointed, Truck turned his attention back to his food and his friends. It wasn’t as if he could have strolled over to the woman and given her his phone number, not when he was missing such a big chunk of his life. It felt wrong, somehow, to even be interested in anyone. He had no idea why that was, but knew if he tried to explain himself to Ghost and Hollywood, they’d change the subject.

They’d taken the doctor’s orders to heart, to not rush his memory. To let him recall things on his own. Which was super frustrating because so far, he hadn’t recalled shit. He didn’t remember anything about the other Delta team or the mission in Africa. The last thing he still remembered with any clarity was being in Iraq…which was apparently years ago.

It was maddening—especially when he caught his friends communicating silently, as Hollywood and Ghost were right now.

Deciding to not call them on it—maybe if he pretended he didn’t know they were keeping shit from him, they’d relax a bit and actually talk to him—Truck took another bite of steak and pretended to be interested in what his friends were saying.

“So?” Rayne asked when they were outside.

Mary shrugged, still reeling from her small encounter with Truck. She’d been sure he would ignore her presence as she walked by the table. But instead of ignoring her, he stared, his brown eyes piercing in their intensity. For a second, she thought he was going to stand up and take her in his arms and tell her how much he’d missed her.

She’d squeaked out a small “hi” when she passed him, and he didn’t move. Didn’t come after her. Didn’t declare that seeing her had cured him. But Mary felt his eyes on her ass as she walked away and entered the restroom.

It had taken a couple minutes to regain her equilibrium, and she’d frantically texted Rayne, asking if she should walk past his table again, or if she should go the other way. Rayne had encouraged her to walk by Truck again, so she had. And the second time he’d nodded at her.

It was depressing and exciting at the same time.

She had never, not since she was fourteen years old, made the first move in a relationship. Not once. She’d always let the guys come to her. But…it felt good. Empowering.

“Mary!” Rayne demanded. “What happened? I couldn’t really see much.”

“Nothing to get excited about. I said hi when I went by the first time, and he nodded at me when I went back by.”

“That’s good,” Rayne declared.

“Is it?”

“Oh, yeah. They went out to eat last night, just to get him out of his apartment and to make sure he was okay. When the waitress hit on him, Ghost said he didn’t even look twice at her.”

“What?” Rayne hadn’t told her that. Neither had any of the other women. “When were you going to tell me?”

“Oh…uh…soon. But I wanted you to get the first contact out of the way before I said anything,” Rayne said quickly.

The thought of anyone hitting on Truck made her want to pull their hair out by the roots, but what was really scary was wondering about Truck’s reaction. She remembered how he’d acted when the paramedic at the bank had hit on him. He’d been offended that anyone would dare make a move when he was with her.

But now that he didn’t know he was with her, Mary wondered if it was only a matter of time before he sought attention from the opposite sex. After all, she knew how long it had been since he’d had sex. At least a year. She wasn’t sure what his bedroom activities were before that, but she had a feeling he’d been celibate since he’d met her.

“When are they going out again?” Mary asked Rayne as they walked to their cars.

“Um…I’m not sure.”