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“Your mom clearly loves you a lot.”
He nodded. “She’s a good woman. You talk to your family much?”
She laughed, but there was nothing funny. “Only to chat about what I should be doing.”
“They have an opinion on your lifestyle, huh?”
“Oh yeah. My dad practically picked my fiancé from a list of suitors and all but kicked me down the aisle.”
Dex didn’t say anything. She felt bad. That had come out wrong.
; “He’s my ex now, obviously. But I just—”
“Sounds like your dad was trying to set you up with an upstanding guy.”
“Upstanding?” Try controlling and bland. “Well, it’s been a tricky few months, but it’s part of the reason I’m out here.”
“Ah, I get it,” Dex said, and there was an air of annoyance wafting from him. “You came out here, doing all this list stuff and getting lost in the wild with the likes of me to piss off your father.”
If she’d only heard the words, she might have been insulted, but she could see from the expression in his face that he wasn’t judging her. Just making an observation.
Besides, she couldn’t deny the truth of what he’d said. “Pissing off my dad is a bonus. But I came out here for me.”
He didn’t say any more. Just like her. The difference from driving with him in the truck to his mom’s place and now going out to the coast was crushing. Because there was no flirting, no smiles, no easy conversation. All that was between them were the hard reminders of why they didn’t fit together in all the ways that mattered.
He called her a princess for goodness sakes, and it hit her just then that what she’d thought was an endearment was his own bittersweet red flag. Deep down, Dex thought she was a spoiled princess, and maybe she was.
“Well, suppose we better get this training done,” he said. “You still up for it?”
She nodded, then hung her head and wondered how the hell she could get back to feeling strong…not weak.
She wrung her hands together, but they felt heavy, like they were handcuffed. She pulled her hands apart and pressed them against her legs. She wouldn’t be trapped. And she wouldn’t be tied to someone because she needed them just to survive.
She glanced at Dex. He didn’t look at her. Didn’t smile or try to touch her.
They’d driven for ten minutes when she thought how quickly this had turned sour.
“Maybe you should take me back home,” she said.
He shook his head and looked at her, a smile in place. “And miss out on your training?” She just wished she could tell if his smile was genuine or put on for her sake.
“I’ll sign off on your hours. You don’t have to do this.”
He shook his head. “And let you lie for me? This is going to be by the book.” He pointed out the window and to some small structure off-road ahead of them. “Hey, you’re not allowed to look so sad. Not with what I’ve got planned.”
“What you’ve got…? Where are we going, anyway?”
He looked back at the road. “Just wait and see.”
Chapter Nine
“This is terrifying!” Michelle yelled over the whipping propellers and loud noise of the helicopter.
“It’s also a shit ton of fun!” Dex yelled back. He tugged on her life jacket and checked her entire body one more time to make sure she was secure. It was just the two of them, leaning out of the helicopter as it hovered fifty feet above the water. There were two other search and rescuers in the copter with them for this adventure.
“You wanted to fall, right?” Dex asked. “Here’s your chance, princess.”
