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CHAPTER 7
Evan
We satside by side with our shoulders touching. I don’t know what possessed me, but I needed to feel more of her against me, so I pulled her legs up over my lap. She shifted and settled and looked pretty damn content, like we’d been doing this forever. I would worry about what that meant some other time.
“I’m going to tell you a story,” I said. “Once upon a time, there was a Green Beret.”
“Ohh.” She rubbed her hands together. “So it’s a sex story.”
My eyes went unfocused and I lost my train of thought for a few seconds. Did she realize what she could do to me with just a few words? “A sex... It’s not a sex story. How did you get that?”
She shrugged. “Green Berets are very sexy, so I assumed.”
The woman was an unrepentant flirt and I liked it more than I should have. I also really liked the thought of kissing her. At this rate, we would never have a real conversation. I wondered if that was subconscious on her part or part of her plan. “If you can comport yourself, Dr. Bond, I will continue with my story.”
She grinned. “But of course, Mr. Prescott. Do go on.”
“As I said, a Green Beret. He loved his job and was good at it, and…” I was making it sound superficial when what I really wanted was to have an honest-to-God heart-to-heart with her. “To hell with it. That’s not cute anymore.” I shifted to angle my body toward hers. “After my parents died, I got guardianship of Kerri. I went to a nearby college so we could live in the same house and she could stay in the same high school. I signed up for the ROTC program to pay for my education so there would be enough money from the life insurance for her to do whatever she wanted to. By the time I finished college and had to ship out for my service commitment, she’d been in college for a year and it was going great. I visited her as often as I could and, three years later, she graduated and became an ER nurse.”
“I like her already,” she said.
The two of them would get along well, I realized. “She would like you, too,” I said, then continued. “I thought things were going great with Kerri, until I visited her right around the time I was deciding whether to re-enlist. She was dating this shitty guy who was making her doubt herself, and she was so down. I mean, grief hits everyone differently. In Kerri’s case, she’d developed a penchant for loser men. That’s when I knew I had to come home. So I didn’t re-up. I served the rest of my time and headed back to Philly. It felt totally right, but also really wrong.”
“I understand,” she said, and I believed she did.
I hesitated for a minute, dreading sharing the next part. But something about Red stirred me to have a meaningful conversation. And besides, I’d known for a while I should talk about it with someone who wasn’t Kerri or Bennet, both of whom already knew the story. “I entered the police academy,” I said.
She didn’t look as surprised as I expected. Maybe I still acted like a cop. Or maybe nothing really surprised her. She probably wouldn’t flinch when I told her the rest of it. I was on the verge of spilling my guts when I realized that, while she might not be fazed by my confession, she might be repulsed. I swam back into shallower waters.
“It was different and hard and there was a lot more shit to come, but in the end, it was the best decision I ever made,” I ended lamely.
She raised her eyebrows, seeming to expect more. I didn’t speak.
After a minute, she said, “Thank you for telling me.”
I wished I could give her more of myself, but that was as far as I could go right now. Maybe it would be enough. “I hope it helps with whatever decision has you so down.” I stroked my thumb across her silky soft cheek. “So tired.”
She furrowed her brow. “One of those times you were checking me and giving me water, did I tell you I hadn’t slept well in ages?”
“You did.”
“Was that before or after our hug?”
I smiled, happy she had remembered pressing against me while I’d held her in my arms. “During.”
“Thank you for holding me and for letting me sleep.”
“All my pleasure.” It had been, and I would do it again if she let me. The air in the room changed, became charged.
She stared into my eyes and I could see her hunger. Lust and physical need, but something else, too. I thought about her admission when she’d been more asleep than awake, about her epiphany regarding her job and her fear of failing her coworkers who were also her friends.
“You might need to change your life trajectory,” I said. “Or you might just need to rest. When’s the last time you took a vacation?”
She looked surprised. Had the thought never occurred to her? “We have down time between missions, and—”
“That’s not vacation.”
I pulled her toward me. It felt like she belonged in my arms. She relaxed, and I hoped she felt it, too.
