Page 12 of Building Courage

“Hum, that sounds suspicious. She hired him, but he’s warning you about her. They weren’t lovers, were they?”

The microwave kicked off, and she got a towel to remove the bowl. “He’s a little young for her. But anything’s possible. Both of them said they’d met when she interviewed him four years ago. He’d have been maybe…twenty-three, twenty-four. But that’s only a guess.” She sat down at the table and took the first bite.

“What’s his name? I’ll do a Google search while you eat.”

She felt odd giving him the information; it was a little like stalking. “This is good. Is this a new recipe?” she stalled.

“No, but I did add some extra garlic and some Italian sausage to the hamburger. What’s his name?”

She studied her food before answering. It wasn’t stalking if she looked him up to see if he had a social media presence. “Tucker Giles. He’s in the Navy.”

While she ate, Martin surfed the net and sipped his tea.

“He has no Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter profiles. I’ve run a background check, and he doesn’t have a record.”

“Jesus, Martin!”

He looked up, his expression innocent. “You said you wanted to feel safe. I’ve ordered the report.”

“He’s in the Navy, Martin. They might track someone checking up on one of their personnel.”

Completely unphased, he said. “They probably go through background checks for housing and credit checks all the time. Relax.”

She supposed he was right, but she felt like she was invading Tucker Giles’s privacy. Just as her privacy had been invaded. “The Navy would discharge him if he were a drug addict or a criminal, Martin. I don’t need a background check to know that.”

“But you do need one to allow you to trust him enough to sleep with him.”

Once he got the bit between his teeth, he would not let it go. “That isn’t the plan, Martin. Learning to scuba is the plan.”

“You’ll be isolated underwater with him in a hostile environment. Do you think you’ll trust him enough for that without a background check?”

There was something wrong that Martin was so manic about this. “Martin, I’m not going to read the report. If I start running background checks on every person I meet, where will it end? Do I run checks on every model I hire or every parent I sell a picture to? Or do I run one on you? Is there anything in your background you wouldn’t want me to know?”

He raised his head slowly.

“Do I tell all the people I come in contact with that I’m going to run a background check on you before doing business with you or accept you as a friend?”

He stared at the computer screen silently for a moment. “How will you know he’s trustworthy if you don’t run a check?”

“I won’t, any more than I knew I could trust you when we first met. I’ll have to make that determination after we’ve known each other for a while. Look, I need to be able to live my life without constantly distrusting my instincts about people.

“I trust you,” she said. “Is there any reason I shouldn’t? Should I run a background check on you?”

He shook his head. “No. I’d never hurt you, Brynn.”

The tension in the pit of her stomach eased. “After I’ve started my scuba lessons, once we’ve spent some time together, I’ll know whether I can trust Tucker or not. He’s a stranger right now. Just because I found him attractive doesn’t mean there can be anything between us.”

Martin closed the computer. “I get it. Doing the background check would almost make you more paranoid around him.”

“I’d feel like I was lying to him if I didn’t tell him I ran a check on him. What kind of start to anything, even a business relationship, would that be?”

“Okay. Forget I ran it.”

She drew a slow, relieved breath.

“He’s never even had a parking ticket,” Martin said.

“Martin!”

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