Page 69 of Defending You
“Sure. Go ahead.”
She bowed her head and closed her eyes, and he did the same.
“Father, thank You for bringing us this far. Thank You for all the help You’ve given us along the way. Thank You for keeping us safe in the rain, and for delivering us safely to Shadow Cove, which we pray You’ll do today. Protect us between now and then. Give us wisdom and knowledge to face everything coming our way. Thank You for Asher for all he’s already done. Bless him in a thousand ways. And bless our food. In Jesus’s name…”
“Amen.” He smiled at her across the table. “Thank you for that.”
“Sure. Seems like we should thank God. I mean, I don’t know where we’d be without Him. And if not for you, I’d be dead, so…”She said it so matter-of-factly, then lifted her burger and took a bite as if there were nothing else to say.
She might be dead, and the thought of it twisted inside of him. It was one thing to protect a teammate or a stranger. Protecting Cici had become something altogether different.
And here she was just talking to him as if everything was fine. All the tension between them had somehow washed away in the rain. “You’re very…gracious.”
She looked up from her meal. “What do you mean?”
“You should be furious with me.”
“Oh, that. Well…” She waved off his words. “It’s fine.” She took another bite.
He watched her, this woman he’d judged so unfairly. “I shouldn’t have kissed you, and I shouldn’t have acted like it was your fault. I shouldn’t have been rude about the whole thing. I actually do have some self-control. I just wasn’t employing it this morning. I’m sorry.”
She set down her burger and studied him across the table.
When she said nothing, he prompted her with, “I hope you can forgive me.”
“Are you apologizing for kissing me, or for being rude, or for accusing me of starting it?”
“Uh…yes?”
“You’re forgiven for the rudeness and the accusations. I won’t forgive you for kissing me because I’m not sorry you did. I don’t know about you, but it’s not every day I get kissed like that.” Though she’d held her eye contact, it slipped then. “I refuse to regret it.”
Her tone turned almost defensive at the end, as if she thought he’d judge her for her words.
“I don’t go around kissing women without their permission.” He lifted a piece of fried fish, then put it back down. “I owe you an apology for that.”
“I thought it was nice.”
“Inappropriate.”
She considered that, her head tilting to the side. “Okay. It was both.”
Both nice and inappropriate? Was that a thing?
Well, it had been. She was right.
“Maybe it wasn’t so nice for you.” Her eyebrows hiked like the surprising thought had just occurred to her.
“Cici.” He wasn’t sure what she saw on his face, but her lips twitched. “Obviously, it was nice for me. It was so nice that…” He didn’t finish the sentence. Didn’t tell her about his workout or his cold shower or the fact that, if there weren’t a table between them, if they weren’t in a public place, she’d be pressed between the wall and his body right now, his lips on hers.
Did it matter that they were in public? The place was empty. Who cared what the server saw?
Oy.
Stop.
How did she do that to him?
“So.” Cici’s tone was bright. Maybe she needed a subject change as much as he did. He didn’t hate that thought. “What was your favorite thing about being a SEAL?”
