Page 9 of Luck Be Mine
“You’re welcome.” He grinned and settled next to her. “Are you good?”
She’d proven she could find a comfortable spot once and now she’d do so again and again until she’d healed and became strong once more. She would find a way to chase the sadness from Hunt’s eyes if it was the last thing she did.
“You know the one thing I like about you?”
He gave her a puzzled frown, his green eyes tracing from her hairline to her lips, over scars she studied in the mirror and hated. “Only one? What?”
“You plan ahead.” She grabbed a cookie and commandeered the remote while he packed her drawing items back into the bag and set them on the floor by the bed. She found and started the movie.
He gave her the side eye but settled next to her. She was gratified he laughed over the chicken burrito scene, and the stress dropped from his face when the aliens appeared.
The cookies were gone and the chips unopened when she gave into the tug of his warmth and shut her eyes. Dinner would have to wait.
§§§§§§§§§§
Home – Ten days
◊The Saga of the Red Sofa ◊
Hunt glanced through the peephole and then did a double take. Robert “Bax” Baxter, his team’s communication guru,twisted his face into a goofy grin and centered his mug on the peephole. What the hell?
He flipped the lock and opened the door.
“Don’t ask. I got orders.” The young man dropped the face and elbowed his way into the apartment. “Where’s Doc?”
“Asleep.” Her color had moved from the pale of a severely injured person to flushed cheeks with less restless movements in the last ten days.
She got mad the first night he’d tried to sleep in the recliner, insisting he belonged beside her. The demand surprised him. His big body accidentally rolling into hers would hurt. But being next to her calmed them both. Together they’d gradually added small comforts to ease her pain and help her settle. Her eyes still told a hard story, but being home gave her balance.
Hunt shut the door behind Baxter. “What orders? Are you back at work?”
“Yes, starting Tuesday.”
Hunt’s return was still a couple weeks away. He was fighting the need to keep Cait close against a strong wish for the normalcy of the job.
He snorted to himself.
There was nothing normal about his job. Missions would wreck all the home plans. Training cycles only lasted so long.
“What orders?”
“My mother’s. She talked to Doogie’s mother, and they’ve hatched some plan that includes running all of us around.”
“Like?”
“We’re arranging your apartment to make Cait more self-sufficient. Stocking food, too. Mrs. Dugan says we need every minute to get Doc ready to be here without you.”
Doogie’s mama would arrive for an extended visit in two weeks, and she planned to stay for two months. It was somethingof a miracle Doogie wasn’t bitching about the visit already. His mama tended to be specific in her orders.
Hunt’s stomach pitched. It wasn’t only about returning to work. It was the thought of leaving Cait, of not being here if she struggled. How could he protect her if he wasn’t home?
Baxter stayed silent and let him work it through. Smart. “The day is coming, LT. Unless you aren’t coming back.”
“I am. Soon.” He made the expected commitment but had no idea how to battle the husband part of himself. How did other married men do it?
Baxter interrupted the panic of his indecision. He missed the first part of what the man said and focused to sort it out. “…they’re on their way up the stairs with a sofa.”
“What sofa?”
