Page 29 of Sackett
“Good evening.My name is Alyssa.I’ll be your waitress tonight.Can I start you off with something to drink?”
Sackett motioned for her to go first, Selena placed her drink order then she listened as Sackett and Alyssa discussed the different options and flavor profiles.After a couple of minutes, he made his decision, and she left to get their drinks.They fell quiet for a few minutes and they each made their dinner choices by the time Alyssa returned with their drinks and took their food orders.
“What’s the plan for this evening?”Sackett asked once they were alone at the table.
“I mentioned it earlier, but I’ve got some work I’ve got to get done.Is there anything you want or need to do?”She didn’t want him to feel like she thought everything was all about her.
Sackett shook his head.“I’m here to guard you.I’m here to make sure you are safe as you do your business here in town.If something comes up that I need to do, I’ll let you know.Let’s go with whatever you would do if you were here on your own.I’m not going to make things harder for you unless I have a reason.If there’s a reason I want to change things up, I’ll let you know what the issue is so we can discuss the details and figure out how to deal with it.”
Some of the tension she’d been in her shoulders seemed to drain away.She’d been worried that there were things he wanted or needed to do and that it would conflict with what she needed to do.
“If you were here alone, what would you do when you were done here?”He leaned back in his seat, getting comfortable while they waited for their food.
Selena waggled her head from side to side while she thought about it.
“I’d probably stop somewhere and pick up a bottle of wine, maybe something for dessert later, then go back to the room and find something on TV to listen to.I’d spend the evening in my pajamas, working and watching TV.”
“I’m not much of a wine drinker, but that sounds like a great evening to me.”
“I don’t require that you drink wine, or even that what you have is alcoholic.The point is to relax and get some work done at the same time.”
“Sounds like a great plan.What do you usually watch?”
Selena lifts one shoulder in a dismissive gesture, “Depends on what channels they have.If nothing else, I can usually find a movie I don’t mind listening to while I work.Is there anything you’re not willing to watch?”
Sackett shrugged.“I can’t think of any hard nos off hand, but I’m sure there’s something.To me it’s background noise, more often than not.”
“Don’t watch a lot of TV?”
“Not really.I will watch it occasionally, but I don’t have anything I have to see every episode of, or even that I look forward to it coming on.”
She frowned and tilted her head as she watched him, wondering what he did if he didn’t watch TV.Hers was on nearly all the time if she was at home.It had taken a long time for her to realize she used it as her company when she was home alone.How did he handle that?Did he ever sometimes just ache to have someone else to spend time with?
“What are you thinking?It looks like you’ve got some heavy thoughts going on in there.”
She lifted one corner of her mouth in a wry smile.“I was wondering what you do if you don’t watch TV.”
“It’s not that I don’t watch, just that I don’t watch much.I watch more movies than TV, but I read more than I watch anything.”
Surprise washed through her.She didn’t think she’d ever encountered a man who read much unless it was required for their career.Sure, women read, but she couldn’t remember the last time she saw a guy reading for pleasure.
“You’d rather read than watch TV?”She couldn’t help the surprise in her voice.
“Most of the time, yeah.”He lifted one shoulder and let it fall.“I mean sometimes I just want to veg out but most of the time, if that’s what I want, I find an audio book.”
She shifted in her seat, leaning a little closer as the idea of a guy who would rather read than sit in front of a TV intrigued her.It made her wonder if maybe there was more to this bearded man than she’d first thought.Maybe the gut deep attraction was more than her body aching for something it hadn’t had in longer than she cared to admit.
She’d been wondering how they’d spend so much time together, with nothing but Donna in common.Now though, maybe there would be something, even if they’d never read any of the same books, they at least had a love for reading.She couldn’t wait to find out if they had more in common than she’d thought.
“What do you read?”
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“I’llreadalmostanything,as long as it catches my interest.But I earned my nickname by always having a book in my back pocket.”He remembered those early days in the army with a bit of nostalgia.He wouldn’t go back and relive them, but he could remember the first time he felt safe.The first sense he’d gotten of family.Even if it was only relative to the hell he’d grown up in.Not that he shared that part of his past with anyone.
Selena tilted her head, and a crease formed between her brows despite her smile.“Sackett?How do you get Sackett from a book?”
“I was working my way through Louis L’Amour’s Sackett series at the time.Someone was behind me, and rather than read my name off the tape on the back of my cover, he called me by what he could see on the book in my pocket, which happened to be Sackett.”He shook his head as he remembered someone teasing him about reading and what he’d read.He hadn’t fought it because he thought being called Sackett, after what he felt had been some pretty rough years, but what a family was supposed to be, was far better than using his abusive, alcoholic father’s name.
