Page 18 of Finally Mine
She stepped down onto the sidewalk. “I am?” There was a lightness in her words and in her eyes that sparkled under the streetlights, and Aldo couldn’t think of anything he wanted more than to kiss her right then and there.
There was a low rumble behind them, and Gloria flinched, the light fading from her face, was replaced with a flash of fear. Aldo turned, putting her behind him, and spotted a neighbor two houses down wheeling their trash bin to the curb.
He turned back, intending to rub the goose bumps off her arms with his big, warm hands. But when he reached for her, she took a nervous step back. “Sorry,” she whispered, hunching her shoulders.
“Gloria.” He said her name softly. “It’s okay.”
She gave a jerky shrug of her thin shoulders that broke his heart a little bit more. “No. It’s not. And I don’t know if it ever will be.” Her whispered confession destroyed him.
“Sweetheart,” he tried again. But when he saw her nervously swipe her slim fingers under her eye, he couldn’t stop himself. She couldn’t cry in front of him. He’d never give her a reason to, he vowed.
Slowly, carefully he wrapped his arms around her and held her against his chest. She tensed against him for a second, and with a sigh too big for her body, she let go and relaxed into him.
“Have you thought about talking to someone?” he asked gently.
“I’m talking to you, aren’t I?” Her muffled voice carried just enough annoyance that it made him smile.
“I meant a professional. Like a counselor, a therapist. Someone who knows what you’re going through.”
She was quiet for a long moment. “I don’t have health insurance. And I’m not sure if I even have the words to talk about anything with anyone.”
He wanted to fix it for her. Wanted to step in and solve every problem she faced. But that wasn’t what she needed. Gloria needed to find out that her own two feet were steady, dependable.
“Everything is going to be just fine, Gloria Parker. You wait and see.” They stood there under the night sky, and Aldo stroked his big hand over her back until her shivers went away.
10
“About time,” Aldo said, tossing his duffle in the back and climbing into the passenger seat of Luke’s truck. They were needed on base for the usual pre-deployment medical exam and a handful of briefings. The perpetually early Luke—Captain Garrison for the next day or two—was running twenty minutes behind and had a shit-eating grin that wouldn’t quit on his face.
“I’m not that late,” Luke argued, pulling away from the curb.
“No explanations needed. I can see from the stupid look on your face why you’re late.” Luke Garrison was getting some. While Aldo would, of course, rub it in his friend’s face, he was happy to see Luke finally moving on with his life.
“You’re full of shit,” Luke shot back.
Aldo snorted and changed the radio station. “I’ve known you since I saved your ass from that beat-down in first grade. I know your stupid looks.”
“And I still maintain that I could have taken those guys on my own.”
“There were three of them, and they were in fourth grade,” Aldo said dryly.
“Well, if you didassistme in that situation, I saved your ass from drowning in the lake when we were twelve.”
Aldo shrugged. “I thought the ice would hold.”
“We were grounded for all of January for that one,” Luke recalled.
They chuckled. “Our moms were so pissed. So, what does Claire think of Harper?” Aldo fished. Luke was a fucking underground bunker. He didn’t open up easily. Or ever. Every once in a while, Aldo took a crowbar to his friend. Mostly to test the man’s mental state. And partly just to screw with him. It’s what guys did.
After a brief, stony silence, Luke crumbled like an origami crane. “She loves her. Thinks she’s just what I need.” That shit-eating grin was gone.
“Is she?” Aldo prodded.
“What Ineedis peace and quiet. Harper is anything but that.”
Aldo laughed. It was Luke’s fatal flaw, believing that what he needed most was to be left alone with his grief and regrets. If anyone could convince him otherwise, Aldo hoped it was Harper Wilde. “So why is she here?”
Luke shrugged, taking the ramp for the highway. “It started as a favor. The girl had no place to go and no way to get there.”
