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“Yep.”
I looked up and met his gaze, and realized again that I barely knew him.He’d lived an entire life that I hadn’t been part of, not for a moment, but I wanted to know everything, and that scared me more than a little.
Not least because I’d be flying home before too long.The days were ticking away.
“What happened?If you want to talk about it,” I added.Maybe he didn’t want to.
Rick swallowed visibly, his eyes closing for a second, before he took a steadying breath and told me about the explosive device in Afghanistan, and how the brothers’ mom liked his tattoo tribute.
“She said they weren’t really gone, so long as she remembered ‘em.”His voice broke on the last word, and he tugged on the brim of his cap, looking uncomfortable.It was the first little fissure I’d ever seen in his laissez-faire persona.
“It was really kind of you, Rick.”
Every day so far, I uncovered something new about him; a gentler, vulnerable side to a multi-faceted man.
A man it would be hard to leave on the other side of an ocean.
Every minute we spent together made that clearer.
He made a little sound that could have been either agreement orlet’s talk about something else.
“So,” he broke the silence, and just like that, the bared-raw part of him was smoothed over.“You ready for your first real American diner experience?”
I shut the door behind me and locked up.“I am.”
“You look nice.You got a little…” He tucked a stray wisp of hair behind my ear.His touch was gentle, but I felt it all the way to my underwear.
“Thanks.My hair does what it wants.”
He started to walk and I fell into step behind him.“I am sometimes jealous of my mum’s bouncy waves, though.”
“You have gorgeous hair, Maddie,” he replied softly.
We walked in companionable silence for a few heartbeats.
“I gotta warn ya,” Rick began.“Don’t judge a book by its cover with this place.It looks like it’s one slammed door away from being condemned, but it does the best damn steak and eggs, and pancakes, I’ve ever had.”
I looked up at him cheekily.“And do you make it your business to be an authority on such things?”
“Hell, yeah, I do.Any Southern boy who doesn’t know a good steak or pancake stack should be stripped of the title,” he grouched, then added, “In my opinion.”
His smile was contagious.He was gorgeous.He was a walking invitation to fall deeply in lust.
But it was more than that now.I’d learned a little about his past, seen a few of the scars he carried, peeled back the layers.
It’s getting to be more than lust.And therein lay the danger.
“I didn’t ask,” he suddenly said, stopping.“You wanna drive or walk?”
“I’m fine to walk.”
Rick slid his hands into the pockets of his jeans as we strolled.Across the street, two kids of a similar age rode scooters up and down driveways.A small dog that looked to be part rat chased them enthusiastically.
“So, anything you really want to try at an American diner?”
I put my hands into the pocket of my sundress—I made it a habit these days to only buy dresses with pockets because fuck the patriarchy—to stop myself from sliding my arm through his.It seemed so natural and I could not give into my weak desires.Not after I had categorically denied that this was a date.
“What would you recommend?”
