Page 60 of Missile Strike

Isabella pushed forward with another question before Danny decided to call it a night.

“What did you like best about being a Navy SEAL?”

“Finding out what my limits were and pushing past them. My teammates.”

“What did you not like?”

It was his turn to ask a question, but he didn’t call her on it. He’d been out of her life for thirteen years. She wanted—no—needed to know what had made him the man he was now.

His expression blanked, as if he’d drawn the shade down over his emotions.

He took a measured sip of his beer before answering. “Losing friends. Realizing your teammates know more about your life than anyone else because after all those deployments, you don’t have anyone else.”

She glanced at him from beneath her lashes. “Then who was Consuela?”

And how important was she to you?

Danny groaned. “I met her in a bar. She was…” He searched for a word. “Adventurous. It was fun, but nothing serious.”

Adventurous.

Isabella’s nails dug into her palm.

“If you named your car after someone you weren’t serious about, then has there been anyone you actually fell in love with?” Her pulse pounded in her throat, dreading the answer.

He grimaced. “It’s my turn to ask a question.”

“Humor me.”

Danny leaned into the sofa. Propped his feet on her coffee table. Didn’t meet her eyes.

“The Teams don’t exactly make having a relationship easy.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

He toyed with the label on his bottle of beer. “There might have been someone once I could have loved.”

Jealousy roiled her stomach. “It didn’t work out?”

Something shifted in his expression. His voice roughened. “No. Bad timing. What about you?”

“There was one man.”

A boy, actually.

He studied her for a long moment, whatever he was thinking hidden. “And?”

She swallowed the emotion threatening to close her throat. “Same. Bad timing.”

Danny rolled the bottle between his palms. “Bella, if you could live your life with no barriers, no fear, what would you do?”

What would she do?

The dreams that came to mind felt ridiculous, lifted straight from the pages of a novel instead of real life.

“Go to space? Be a spy?” she threw out. Her voice quieted. “I don’t know. I wish I was brave, like you.”

She started at the feel of his palm against her cheek.