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“Interesting,” Halo said. “I’ve only just met Nutsbe, but the few times I’ve mentioned his name to a woman, that’s the reigning sentiment, ‘his poor mother.’ Curious.”
“Hard to explain to a guy. On the other hand, I bet your mother’s quite pleased that you came out of the military with the name Halo.”
“She is, actually.”
He leaned forward, his finger gently circling the string of bruises on the tops of her feet. “These weren’t visible yet when you were in the street.”
“Pole kisses,” Mary said. “I get them every time I pole dance.”
“Is that a popular sport where you’re from?” Halo held her foot in his hand, massaging over her toes.
Normally, Mary would be reticent for a man to touch her feet unless she’d just stepped out of the bath. But oddly, it was a flash of thought and then gone. She’d just enjoy the sensation. “Pole dancing? Not really. No.”
He turned her foot to look at the string of bruises up the inside of her leg from ankle to thigh. “These bruises in this pattern are from climbing the pole?”
“Yes, it happens every time.”
“Does it hurt?”
“Being on the pole hurts a lot, yes. It feels like a whole-body Charlie horse. I’m not really holding the weight of my body on the pole with my strength. Let me put that a different way: while strength is required, it’s not what’s keeping me on the pole in my various configurations. It’s my skin pressing and sliding against the metal until there’s enough friction to keep my body up.”
He winced. “If you’re not doing it to earn a living, why would you do that to yourself? Sounds a bit masochistic.”
“It’s rewarding.”
“I watched a video of you going up the pole and was wondering why you took off your clothes. But you’re saying you need friction.” His finger had been tracing circles around the bruises on her calf. He was slowly working his way up her leg.
“Exactly. And even then, if the pole was too slippery, no matter my strength or technique, I wasn’t going to stay on or move up.” She pushed her hair back behind her ear. “When I watched your guy powering up the pole, I knew it wasn’t oiled or even polished, especially with his pants and shoes. I was running to help when I saw the pole tip. I figured I was lighter.”
“And out of the mists came Mary.”
“Oh, stop.”
“I’m not giving you a hard time. I’m in awe.” He slid the skirt of her dress higher on her legs and painted a warm palm along the bruises on her thigh. “So, fortunately, the pole wasn’t oiled.”
“Yeah, it had a good amount of texture, better friction.” Mary was having a hard time focusing on the banality of this conversation.
Her mind stuck on the word friction; she wouldn’t mind if that’s where they were heading.
Right now, Mary wanted to scoot down on the bed, pull Halo’s weight on top of her, and wrap her legs back around his waist like she had earlier in the day—not out of survival desperation, but just to feel the comfort of how their bodies fit together.
And yet, she wasn’t entirely sure about the dynamics at play here, so she continued, “From the ground, it looked like the pole reached like a tree limb right out to the family. When I got up there and saw how far they were. That mother.” Mary tucked her chin as her ribs clamped down hard on her heart. “As a mom, I can tell you sometimes, when my kids were in danger, I became that proverbial mama bear and other times, my whole body shut down. It’s a flip of the coin what my brain decides to do. I have seen it time and time again in the emergency department where I worked as a nurse.”
“Today, you were the mama bear. I think that brains, for the most part, assess correctly. We act when it’s best to act. Sometimes, survival depends on freezing in place. You have to trust your instincts. The mother was up there with so few choices and little hope except for someone to show up. And you did that.”
She caught Halo’s gaze. “Honestly, I was on the sidewalk watching things unfold,” she whispered. “And then I saw those little boys’ faces. They were my kids. Mine. My little boys up there with death breathing its dragon breath at their necks.” She lifted her hand, turning it beside her head. “It was a switch that went off in my brain. And I believed they were my sons. There was nothing that would have stopped me from getting to them. And then, when I was up there and saw their faces, I realized they weren’t mine. I didn’t recognize those boys. But that didn’t change anything.”
She’d told this to Deidre earlier, and Deidre brushed on by the sentiment. Deidre hadn’t been on that balcony and hadn’t experienced what she and Halo had gone through.
Right now, the look in Halo’s eyes told her that he understood. “Can I tell you a secret?” Mary whispered.
Halo put his hand over his heart.
“I was sent here to Tallinn to save them. Specifically. The time. The location. Sent here to climb the pole.”
Halo held still.
“It’s my birthday destination. Let me explain. I came here with my best friend, Deidre. She’s a little more woo-woo than I am. A lot more woo-woo. Anyway, Deidre found this woman in Switzerland who looks at your star charts and decides where in the world you can travel on your birthday, a place that will change how you progress on your life’s journey.”
