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“I had an assignment in Bolivia. I fell for a woman. I thought she was perfect, but she wasn’t. She was working for a local cartel, and I was compromised.” My chest tightens at the memory, but it slowly eases when Maitlyn’s hand grasps mine, and she squeezes. “I still remember how she walked into the restaurant one-night hand-in-hand with one of the cartel’s generals. I had to fight to leave and not say anything to her, but with how she looked at him, she never looked at me like that. She was obviously his and never had been mine.”
Maitlyn puts her hand on my thigh and rubs in a soothing gesture. I don’t react, my soul and heart taken back to Bolivia.
“I got out, and I never looked back. But the need for danger and action is in my blood. I went a different route, though, the Hot Shot team.” I shrug and wipe my hands down my face as if wiping away the past and coming to the present.
We remain silent for a while, then Maitlyn says, “That sounds hard— both the Bolivia thing and the danger you currently face. Do you like what you do?”
There’s no judgment or pity in her voice. Just pure curiosity, and it makes me happy how accepting she is of it all. How it just is and doesn’t need to be explored.
“I do. It’s a taxing job, but when I’m off, I feel like I can decompress.”
“You get time off?”
Chuckling, I warm inside. She’s too damn adorable.
“Yeah. It’s a seasonal job. There aren’t too many forest fires in two feet of snow or spring rains.”
I’ve been watching her face, and even in the shadows, I catch her rolling her eyes, and I imagine making them roll for another reason. Something less amusing and more full body to body.
“Duh. Okay, so what do you do for the rest of the months of the year?”
“Recovery mostly, but I help my hotshot buddy build and remodel homes. Decks are my specialty.”
Maitlyn’s head swivels towards mine, and I know I surprised her with the revelation. “That’s cool. You have a slew of talents, don’t you?” her voice has this husky tinge to it that lights a hope inside of me.
“How about you?”
“Oh, me. Nothing that cool. I’m an accountant in Missoula.”
Nudging her with my shoulder. “That’s a hard job too.”
She shrugs. “I find myself in numbers. They make sense when the world doesn’t. I don’t always fit in. With numbers, there’s not much reason to wonder the why of events and issues. Whereas people, I can’t figure them out. I’m always wrong. I’m always wondering. Like, why aren’t you taken, Jake?”
“Who says I’m not?”
Her hand and body jolt from mine so fast I imagine she could stop time with the move.
“Maitlyn, I’m kidding. I’m not a cheat.”
Slowly her face pales in the small lap light I turned on a little bit ago. In the smallest voice possible, I barely catch what she says, but I get enough to understand.
“My ex was a serial cheater.”
“Asshole,” I grumble and turn to Maitlyn.
A little smile lifts the corner of her mouth. “He was the king of assholes.”
“No, no man is a king when he does that to a woman. He’s a joker, a fool. The jester who shouldn’t be taken seriously.”
The sadness oozes from her, and I cup her face gently in my hands.
“But I was the fool who kept thinking I was fine and saying I was fine. Who didn’t want to see what was right before me.” Her broken voice has me tearing in half, and I want to slay all her dragons and bring her the happiness she deserves.
“Then decide not to be fine, Maitlyn. You have the option and can decide. There’s a time for being fine later. We all find our kind of fine in life, one way or another. I believe that.”
Her pink tongue sticks out and licks her lips slowly, and I can’t take my eyes off the motion. I lean in, and my heart pounds as she meets me, and our lips touch for the briefest of moments. So quick, so fleeting, but enough to pack a punch.
Maitlyn sucks in a breath and pulls back.
