Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 107710 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107710 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
“In New York.”
“Yes, hence our impending nuptials.” She seemed jumpy. “Can we go back inside now?”
“No.” He took a step in her direction and tilted his head, seeing her through fresh eyes. Still as tough as ever, but wounded. Patch it up. That’s what he wanted to do, but he had no idea how. “They should have noticed. You should always be noticed.”
That caught her off guard and she fumbled through a thank-you.
“It’s a hell of a balance, wanting your family to be proud while also keeping them at a distance so you can be your own person.” What he wanted to say next felt too personal. It was about his best friend and his knee-jerk reaction was to keep it to himself. Still, he forced the words out, even though they felt like they were traveling through barbed wire in his throat. “Sam struggled with that a lot—having his father as a commanding officer. They cut off the father-son part of their relationship out of necessity. So there would be no distracting emotions in the mix—those can get a man killed in our line of work, you know? But when they had some down time and wanted to reconnect, it wasn’t so easy. Probably because they’d seen how smoothly each could . . . detach, you know?”
“Yeah,” she breathed. “That’s exactly right.”
Holy shit, was he on to something? Did he have the potential to actually help simply by being honest? The barbed wire was still there, along with the desire to hold all of his Sam memories close, but he was determined to make Natalie feel better. If opening up a little about Sam, at least for tonight, was how he accomplished that, he’d do the hard thing. “That’s why Sam and I were so close. He stayed with my family on holidays. My mom sent him birthday cards with twenty-dollar bills tucked inside. My dad took him fishing, even when I wasn’t around. We were brothers.”
Emotion shone in her eyes. “Were you surprised to see his father the other day?”
“That’s putting it mildly.” The scar tissue on the back of his shoulder throbbed. “I retired early from the team after we lost Sam. I just couldn’t operate the same.” Not after what I let happen on my watch. “The CO and I didn’t part on bad terms, but it was . . . I don’t know. It was like he didn’t welcome me doing something so drastic over Sam when he was just planning on staying in the exact same place. Does that make sense?”
He appreciated the way she thought it over for a moment. Then, “Yes. It does.”
“Mostly, I wish Sam were here to see how much his dad cared all along. I wish he were here for . . .” Momentarily unable to speak, August gestured between them.
“For the wedding.”
August cleared his throat hard. “Yeah.”
The evening hummed around them, the buzz coming from inside making the sidewalk seem all the more silent. Intimate. He couldn’t read Natalie’s expression, but he thought there might be a touch of wonder in it for some reason. And then, “I got forced out of my hedge fund in New York,” she blurted. “For making a seriously bad trade that lost the company a lot of money. Like enough to buy three private islands and still throw a party. Lost a lot of respect in the process. I was the youngest partner. The only woman. But overnight, I became a liability and they fired me. My fiancé broke off our engagement because I no longer fit into our world.” She lifted a shoulder and let it drop. “That’s what happened in New York.”
Damn. He couldn’t imagine this woman making a mistake painting her fingernails, let alone one that cost a bunch of suits their mansion funds. And even more pressing, what man in his right goddamn mind would let Natalie Vos get away?
He wanted to shout a bunch of words—“that spineless motherfucker” chief among them—but this was a vulnerable moment for her. Even he could recognize it wasn’t a time for threats and anger, despite the fact that he sorely wanted to let loose on the wrongs done to her. Still, he reined in the burst of adrenaline and kept his voice steady as possible.
“If he bailed that quickly, Natalie, he never had enough integrity to deserve you in the first place.” He kept his expression serious. “Thank God you found me.”
Her lips sort of quivered up into a smile.
August smiled back.
And he wasn’t entirely certain, but he was pretty sure they’d made some headway tonight. Not to mention, he’d learned something. When he shared things with Natalie, she shared back. He needed to remember that, because he wanted to know everything going on in her head. Wanted that badly. For now, he was going to bask in the glow of progress with a woman who’d once called him a walking sewage plant.