Page 65 of Will Bark for Pizza
“You still like it?” I asked. When we all served together, we were Blackhawk mechanics. Some of us had also been crew chiefs. But I got out when they made me a platoon sergeant and told me I couldn’t work on helicopters anymore.
“It’s something to do,” Thoren answered noncommittally, his head swiveling over his shoulder for another look at Alyssa.
I searched my memories but couldn’t recall her name coming up in conversations when we served. But with the way they kept sneaking glances at one another, neither wanting to be caught by the other, I’d bet there was history there.
“And if I get Alaska, I don’t care what they make me do.”
Kat returned with Luke’s to-go burger just as his phone buzzed on the table. A call, I suspected. She waited for him to stand before handing him the bag.
“You’ll be there tomorrow?” Kat asked him about the surprise party.
“I will.”
She patted him on the arm, probably because she couldn’t easily reach his shoulder with them both standing. Luke towered over most people, me included. “Be safe out there.”
Luke nodded on his way out the door.
“You boys good?” Kat asked, taking Thoren’s empty bottle. “I can bring you another.”
“Bring it to the table over there,” Thoren said, pointing to an empty high-top near the dartboard. “And a round of drinks for the ladies.”
“Play nice, Thoren,” Kat warned.
“I always play nice,” he said, sporting a mischievous smile that suggested I should talk him out of this.
But the truth was, I’d been thinking the same thing. Maybe Nana was right to get on a plane and come straighten me out. Because the draw to Red was too damn enticing, and even if she was pissed at me right now, tonight I didn’t feel much like fighting the pull.
I felt like taking a risk.
TWENTY-ONE
KIRA
“Nope. No boys allowed,”Alyssa said as both Thoren and Beckett filled a nearby high-top with a giant plate of food.
My stomach rumbled at the sight of it, despite having inhaled a bacon cheeseburger and Kat’s special seasoned fries less than an hour ago. Considering dessert awaited us—courtesy of Aspen—I shouldn’t be tempted to steal a nacho.
But I did anyway.
“Careful,” Beckett said, one corner of his mouth tipped up in a half smile.
I shouldn’t like it. I shouldn’t like anything about the man buying Mom’s bookstore. The same man who kept it a secret, and blindsided me earlier today. But tell that to the butterflies throwing a fucking rager in my belly, remembering the way he held me during my panic attack. They caught a whiff of his delicious scent—some unfairlysexy mixture of pine needles and manliness—and shut off contact with my logical brain.
“You wouldn’t want to get kicked out for stealing.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time I was kicked out of here.”
If I were smart, I’d call it a day and head back to the farm. Except, I didn’t have a ride since I left my Jeep behind when I dropped off Husker.
“So I’ve heard,” Beckett said.
“You ladies aren’t afraid of a little friendly competition, now, are you?” Thoren’s question was directed ninety-nine percent at Alyssa. They were locked in a staring contest.
Those two had a special love-hate relationship on account of Thoren breaking her heart over a decade ago when he enlisted in the Army without telling her. But I was too distracted with my own dilemma of the six-foot-two variety to unravel whatever was currently happening in their soap opera.
“You suck at darts,” Alyssa said to Thoren.
“You’re good, though,” Beckett said to me, his voice low enough so only I could hear. I made the mistake of flickering my gaze to his, and my traitorous nipples tightened as a result.
