Page 33 of Remade

“It’s so old,” he groaned through a laugh. “It’s even older than you.”

I dipped down and nipped at his earlobe sharply.

Fucking asshole.

Why did he feel the need to add the “even”?

He grinned and snuggled closer. “Want more cornbread?”

“No, I’m stuffed. But you can hand me one of those wipes.”

“Yessir.” He handed me one and placed all the food containers on the chair next to the bed. “How do you think our first official date is going?”

Fan-fucking-tastic. Although, I’d show him something better when I got out of this room. “Under the circumstances, couldn’t have been any better. I was thinking, when Alex comes home, we could go to my favorite steakhouse.”

“I’d like that.” He smiled and plopped down on my shoulder again, and I kissed the top of his head. “Isn’t it safe for her to come home now?”

I hummed. “It is, but I thought I’d give her another week with my sister’s family. Mostly because my ma would freak out if she found out I was staying in the med bay.”

It was time for Alex to return to school too.

Other than Intel working on tying up loose ends—aka, keeping tabs on the Hahns and checking if they had any reactions to what was going on in this corner of the world—the case was finally over. And it would take a while to process that. Mainly, it would take a while to convince the cynic in me that it actuallywasover. With large syndicates like this one, it was almost impossible to be sure.

“Does it feel weird for you?” I asked curiously. “With the assignment, I mean. That it’s over.”

“Hmm. A little.” He pushed pause on the movie and turned on his side to face me better. “It’s mostly weird because part of me expected this big moment of closure when you hunted down the guy guilty of…you know.”

I nodded once. “I’m afraid that’s something you’re gonna have to get used to. For smaller ops, you hardly know anything about the person you’re either hunting or protecting. And for bigger ops—like this one—there’s still an in-and-out factor. You go in, do your job, and walk out—and someone else takes over.”

In this case, the Feds. Their big crackdown on a “notorious drug trafficking ring” was all over the news.

“If you ask anyone from Intel, they can’t wait to move on,” I added. “They’ve been working this assignment for almost two years.”

Leighton pursed his lips and drew an aimless circle over the bandage on my arm, his touch so light I didn’t feel it.

“It’s still better than what Ryan told me—the assignments that carry the agency, to use his words.”

That made me curious. “And what would those be?”

“Security gigs…? He mentioned oil rigs, mining operations, and freighters.”

Ah. Yeah. “That’s legit. Many of our junior operators start there to get their feet wet.”

He made a face. “I hope I can skip that part.”

I grinned. He loved skipping ahead, this one.

“I reckon you’ve skipped enough steps,” I said. “But speaking of Ryan—what’s the plan? I heard he’s flying home tomorrow.”

“Ummm, yeah…” Leighton turned sheepish and, what was that, nervousness? “So, he was actually supposed to fly home last night, but then he spoke to his parents and told them about me.”

I felt my eyebrows hitch. “Damn. Are they coming here, then?”

“Yeah. Some of them. His mom and dad, and uh…Ethan and Willow.”

Willow.

“That’s great.” I leaned in and kissed him on the forehead. “Did Ryan by any chance tell you about Willow?”

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