Page 64 of Never In My Wildest Dreams

“Still bitter about the muscle loss?” He got that. It was why, even when he traveled, he continued workouts.

“I am. How is it fair that you can be so diligent for so long, and then two weeks without training, you lose it all?”

She was an athlete. It was the only thing that made sense. Someone made her high-protein, healthy meals. She was singularly focused and preoccupied.

“Favorite person in the world to hang out with?” she asked.

“Used to be my dad.”

“That’s fine. If no one’s replaced him, you can still say him.”

“Okay, then. My dad.”

“Tell me about him.”

“He was smart as hell.” See how she did that? Get him to open up so easily? He didn’t know what it was about her. With her warm body stretched out beside his, her hair smelling like flowers, and the easy way she talked to him, it was like they’d known each other forever. If it wasn’t so ridiculous, his answer would’ve been her.

You’re my favorite person to hang out with.

“How could you tell?” She bit half a peanut. “Maybe you were young and dumb, and everything he said sounded smart. Maybe he wore sweaters with elbow patches, so he justlookedsmart.”

She cracked him up. “You have a weird way of looking at the world.”And eating peanuts. “But I can answer that. My dad read everything, and he remembered. You’d be talking about a soccer game, and he’d throw out some random fact. He could recite the ingredients in Cheerios because he’d read the back of the box as a kid.”

“My dad’s like that. I love it. You can ask him the most random question, and he’ll have an answer.” She popped the other half into her mouth.

“Before law school, he got an engineering degree at the Naval Academy, so he was fascinated by how things worked. I remember when our disposal wasn’t working, and the plumber said it couldn’t be fixed. We had to buy a new one. When my dad came home from work, he just stood there staring. About thirty seconds later, he gets his tool kit, lies down under the sink, and fixes it.” He smiled, remembering his awe. “I asked him how he’d done it, and he said, ‘I just broke it down. I tried to figure out what made it work.’ He kind of shrugged it off and said he’d gotten lucky that time.”

“But it wasn’t luck. It was his engineer brain.”

“Yeah. He read everything, watched documentaries. He just knew a little about everything.”

“You miss him.”

So much. “Yeah. He was an impressive man. He flew fighter jets.”

“Really? Like inTop Gun?”

“Exactly like that.”

“What was his call sign?”

“MOTO.” Again, he smiled. “For Master of the Obvious.”

“What? That’s mean. Why did they call him that?”

“He was the first in his family to go to college. No one in his world had done anything like the Naval Academy, and he wanted to fit in.”

“So, he tried too hard?”

“Yeah, exactly. He didn’t feel like he was as sophisticated as the other guys, so he compensated by explaining things.” Done with the sandwich, he set his plate on the nightstand. “What about you? Who’s your favorite person to hang out with?”

“You.”

Her unabashed honesty knocked him on his ass. Because he would’ve given the same answer had he not been so…

So what?

Afraid of getting attached to someone he’d never see again.

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