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Nope. Not going there, Freya.
She tightened her shoulders and lifted her chin. “Hi. Thanks for not saying anything in there. About us.”
He laughed. It was a low, sardonic sound the made her belly flutter. “You’re welcome, but I don’t think it mattered much. They all knew. We didn’t handle it well.”
She felt herself deflate. “Yeah, I know.”
He took a step closer but stopped short several feet from her. He didn’t seem to know what to do with his hands and finally shoved them into his pockets. “Didn’t think I’d see you again after waking up and finding you gone.”
Oh, shit.
She couldn’t—
She didn’t want—
She had to extract herself from this situation. Now. “Hey, you know, Nathaniel—”
“Nate,” he corrected.
“Nate.” She hated that she liked the sound of his name. Everything was easier when she hadn’t known it. “The other night was fun and all, but—”
“You didn’t expect to see me again.”
“Yeah. Sorry.”
He held up his hands and backed up a step. “No, I get it. It’s okay.”
If only that could be the end of this awkward conversation. If only she could just say, “Great, have a nice life”and walk away. But she couldn’t, so she had to suck it up. “Um, but, since we’re actually going to be seeing quite a bit of each other for the foreseeable future, we should get a few things straight. The other night was always meant to be a one-time thing and it won’t happen again. Given the situation, anything more would be… unprofessional.”
“Yeah, uh-huh.” Tight-lipped, he nodded. “Read you loud and clear.”
“Good.” Now that it was settled, she had no reason to linger here and stare at him. Other than she was mesmerized by all that red hair, lighter on his head and darker in his wild beard. She’d never known she had a thing for gingers until she saw him sitting by himself in that Fairbanks bar over the weekend…
She mentally shook herself before she wandered too far down that particular memory lane. “Good. So, uh, I need to talk to Bree—”
“Right. Yeah. She’s in the dog yard. Straight out the door, around the left of the building.” He mimed the directions with one hand as he spoke.
“Thanks.” She turned to follow his directions but found she couldn’t leave yet. “Hey, Nate?” She spun back and reached into her pocket for her business card before she could second-guess the decision. She scribbled her cellphone number on the back of the card and held it out to him. “In case you need to get in touch for any reason.”
“Thanks.” He didn’t touch her as he took the card. Not even an accidental brush of their fingers. She told herself she wasn’t disappointed.
“I’ll find your dad.”
For the first time since their unexpected meeting, he met her gaze. Bright blue, it hit her with all the force of an arctic wind. “But not alive.”
So he had heard.
She opened her mouth but couldn’t voice the automatic platitudes. He deserved more than that from her. “No. I’m sorry. I don’t think we’ll find him alive.”
Some emotion crossed his face, but he hid it again before she could pin it down. Fear? Sorrow? Anger? A messy mixture of all three?
“Bree’s in the dog yard,” he said again, hunched his shoulders, and walked away.
Freya wanted to take back everything she’d just said. She wanted to go after him and comfort him. She didn’t. It wasn’t her place.
Her job was to find William Hunter, dead or alive. Nothing more, nothing less.
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