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“I’m meeting with a group of former teammates. It’s casual.”
“I’ve never been to war, Finn.”
“I have a feeling that’s not exactly true. But it’s more of a celebration. It’s the Navy’s birthday, and the SEALs in the area get together with friends. There will be other civilians.”
“That’s nice.” Her heart pounded at the idea of going anywhere with him outside of work, and the idea of being his friend. That sounded like trying to work in an ice cream shop and never having a single scoop.
Standing, he gathered his notes from the table.
“We’ll be at the Limerick Bar, if you change your mind. They have amazing pot pies and tasty local IPA beer. In case you need more of an incentive.”
Laughing to herself, she tried to rid her mind of the idea of him as her dessert.
“Okay, thanks for the invite, but I probably won’t see you there.”
His playful smile lit up with an intensity she hadn’t seen before.
“Are you laughing at me?” she asked. Could he somehow read her unprofessional thoughts about him?
“No. More like laughing at myself. You’ve successfully and firmly made it clear you don’t want to be friends. But it just makes me want to try harder.”
Her mouth fell open, and her mind turned to mush. The overpowering urge to kiss the smile off his handsome face made her stand too.
“You want to be my friend?” In that moment, she would have guessed there was a different, more physical reason he’d invited her to the bar.
“For starters, yes. You’re interesting, a puzzle, witty and funny when you let your guard down a little. Also we both enjoy good food and mint, so it makes sense that we’d be friends. In my mind.”
“Mint?”
He leaned closer. “Your hair smells like a sugary mint.”
His dashing smile pulled up more on the left side, leaving his lush lips in a pout. He was sexy and adorable all at the same time. It wasn’t fair how disarming he was.
“I don’t usually have time for friends, and people at work will assume it’s something else between us.”
“Maybe you need to make time for friendships, and it doesn’t really matter what the other rookies think. You’ll be their new boss in no time.”
The implication was that he thought she would win the junior partnership. Before she could respond, he pushed in his chair and made a move toward the door.
“See you later if you change your mind, or tomorrow,” he called and then was gone.
Hailey stewed for another twenty minutes. Her personal life was a little sad with only a few people she would consider friends. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if she tried to be friends with Finn. He already knew two of her secrets. But it didn’t mean they had to hang out together outside of work. She’d planned to go to her gym tonight anyway.
After locking up the conference room, she changed into her sweatpants in the lobby ladies’ room before leaving for the night. She took a local bus to the jiu jitsu gym where she practiced self-defense techniques.
In college, they offered free classes to students, and she’d been studying the skills since. Her childhood was spent worrying about what to do if someone tried to hurt her, and jiu jitsu class was the first time she felt confident about defending herself. She’d barely escaped her last foster care home and had the scars to prove it. Finn had seen one of the remnants of a not great childhood, but there were others, and some no one could see. The burn was the last time anyone put their hands on her and the catalyst that forced her to run away at sixteen.
She’d been terrified someone would find her, but it turned out, no one bothered. As a foster kid, she’d been desperate to find some kind of family and started bugging her social worker about her history. Eventually, the overworked case manager let her read her file. With just a few names listed in her bio, she managed to track down her maternal grandmother in Virginia Beach. Arriving on the stranger’s doorstep after several days of bus rides, she easily convinced her only living relative to let her stay until she turned eighteen. The older woman was living on Social Security, a recovered alcoholic, and happy to have someone help her around the house. Hailey made herself as useful as possible, got her GED, and enrolled in the local community college. Then she attended the local state college while working two jobs, graduated with honors and met a professor who said she had a mind for law.
Walking through the well-lit gym, she shook off the memories of her past. A slight man with jet-black hair trimmed in a crew cut style greeted her. He was the manager and owner of the gym.
“What’s happening, Hay?”
“Ready to tussle?” she replied.
“Yes, always. I’m glad you made it. We have a few new women joining the class this evening.”
Although Hailey didn’t like people very much, she did enjoy helping women learn self-defense. It was a crucial survival skill, one she wished she’d had sooner in life. She visited the gym at least two nights a week. One night, she trained with one of the instructors, and the other night, she helped the instructor out by acting as a subject for new students to see techniques they could learn to master.
