Page 107 of Overkill

“I’m making you look more…rosy. Less pale. It’s in all the Austen movies.”

Well, if it was good enough for Jane Austen…

I let her my sister continue.

When his shadow finally crossed the threshold, I was doing what anyone in a regency film would have done. I pretended to be busy.

I pretended I was just so engrossed in my laptop, I didn’t even notice the man I had dreamed about was finally hear!

Act cool, Mel. Don’t act like yourself. Act like someone who isn’t an obsessed fucking loser.

I typed and scrolled even as his sock-covered feet entered the edge of my vision.

Only when he cleared his throat did I look up.

And I wanted to melt. He was so handsome, and—What happened to his beard?

“Hi,” I breathed. Even clean shaven, he was still handsome as hell. Handsomer than he was with a beard. How was that possible?

In a silk shirt and nice trousers, he was just shy of business casual.

I was wearing teddy-bear pajamas and my old Yale hoodie.

Life sucked.

He took a step back, straightened, and fisted his hands at his sides like he was standing at attention.

Miriam hurried to the door and leaned on the frame, mirroring Marcus on the other side. They did a piss-poor job of hiding. I shot them a glare, and they ducked their heads aside only to slowly lean in again. Snoops!

“My name is Gregory Isaac Vedder,” he had amazing posture. His shoulders were so square, his jaw so sharp he could cut. His sleeves were folded up his forearms, his mouth-watering veiny forearms hypnotizing me as he held his hands out to his side. “I was born in Belfree, Kansas. My upbringing was rough, and I don’t talk to my family anymore. At seventeen, I ran away to join the United States Army and taught myself to read. Since then, my life was being an operator—Special Forces—until I was shot and medically retired.”

I straightened, wishing I could stand so I wasn’t looking up at him like a child staring at the prince on whom she had a crush.

He reached up, muscles straining against the forest-green linen shirt as he, probably unconsciously, pulled out the tie from his ponytail and ruffled his hair.

“I have no kids. I’ve never been married.” Greg retied his hair as he continued. “I spent the last five years voluntarily unhoused. I rode the rails, traveled, prayed in the houses of other religions. I’ve spent a lot of time figuring out what I want to be happy and fulfilled, and I know that I want…is this.”

Miriam squealed. I slammed my fist into the drywall to shut them up, but then I heard Marc’s snicker and Miriam’s grumble.

“Can I sit?” He unclenched his fists and wiped his palms on his trousers, leaving a bit of darkness there. Were his hands sweating?

Why did that make me love him so much more?

He didn’t wait for my answer. He sat, and one knee moved a mile a minute as his foot bounced.

“I’m handy. I have built an entire house before. I also come with a pretty substantial savings, a retirement pension, and 100% disability from the Army. I come with Tricare Health Insurance, the Post-9/11 GI Bill that you can use for school, and if I were to become the legal guardian of Marc and Miriam, they could access it too, along with the Yellow Ribbon Programs in some states. In state schools in New York, they might qualify for free tuition, I’m not totally sure. I’m willing to give them everything I’ve got because I know that matters to you.” His earnest green eyes stared at me. “What do you say?”

I blinked. “You’re…asking to take Miriam and Marc away from me?”

“What? No! I’m…Shit.”

There was a giggle from the other side of the wall, followed by snickering. Like children rather than the teens my siblings were supposed to be.

“Fuck.” He ran a hand through his hair, completely pulling it out of its ponytail again and letting it swish down to his broad shoulders. “I’m saying that…I want to help you go back to law school.”

He looked sideways at my screen, frowned, then shook his head.

“I mean to Yale Law.” He scratched at his jaw, and I wondered if shaving made him itch. “I fixed up my truck. In the back is everything you would need to basically live in it. It’s got a bed—a pretty comfortable cot—and I installed a heating and cooling system attached to batteries, so you wouldn’t even have to run the engine while you slept. It’s also damn secure—bulletproof secure—because I can’t…I won’t let what happened to you happen again. I also replaced the radio, so it actually has that CarPlay thing where it automatically links to your phone.”