Page 9 of Flashback
“Oh, I have, but I didn’t have a yard in any of my previous places, so neither were necessary. And as much as being part of the army is a team thing, I never really socialized outside of the job unless it was in a bar. Plus, I spent a lot of time deployed.” He’d spent the majority of his time deployed. Before and during his short marriage.
“Well, you’re making up for it now.” Gray smiled at the waitress when she put their burgers on the table. “Thanks, Janie.”
“Need anything else?” the teenager asked.
“Nope.” Gray arched a brow at Rylan.
“I’m good. Thanks,” Rylan added, smiling at the young woman. “So, am I up next then?”
Gray picked up his burger. “If you want, but maybe we should let Christian have this one and swap you out for Grant next month.”
“Done.” Taking a huge bite of his burger, Rylan made a mental list of what he needed to buy between now and then. He had a few weeks to get his backyard ready to host his first barbecue so he could take his time finding what he wanted.
He grinned around another bite of burger.
He’d be ready. Couldn’t wait to have his new house filled with his new friends and take another step forward into his new life in Sunnyville.
5
Mazey grabbed her backpack off the passenger seat and got out of her truck.
She was early. Even earlier than the thirty minutes before the start of her shift her boss had asked for.
Taking a deep breath, she slipped her backpack on, hit the lock button on her key fob then headed for the front door of Mercy-Life.
Alyssa wasn’t on today’s rotation but had told Mazey to call if she needed a pep talk or an explanation or just a friendly voice in her ear. With a smile on her face, Mazey pulled the door open and stepped into the dark foyer.
And ran smack into a wall.
Except it wasn’t a wall, and as her ass hit the tiled floor, she couldn’t help the burst of laughter that preceded the air from her lungs.
“Oh shit. Fuck. Sorry.” Two strong hands curled around her biceps and lifted. “Damn it. We really have to stop meeting like this.”
Mazey couldn’t do anything other than match the smile of the man pulling her to her feet. “Yes, yes, we do. Because this seems to be becoming a habit.”
“Are you all right?”
“Yeah.” She shook out of his grasp and brushed off her backside. “My backpack cushioned most of the blow.”
“I really am sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going. Again.”
She smiled up at him. “Maybe you should start watching where you’re going then.”
“Funnily enough, this only seems to happen with you.” He grinned, a sexy quirk of his lips that drew her gaze. “So maybe I’m not to blame.”
Mazey decided to take some blame for last week’s crash but not today’s. Her eyes hadn’t adjusted to the dimmer light inside the building when he’d barreled into her today. “I’ll cop to being half at fault last time but not this time. I couldn’t see anything but darkness once I stepped inside.”
“And that’s what I was heading outside to deal with.”
“What?” Tipping her head, she asked, “What does going outside have to do with this dark foyer?”
He pointed up. “Light’s out.”
Glancing up, her eyes now wholly adjusted to the minimal light, Mazey could see the light fixture had been removed, the bulb socket empty. “Okay.” She still wasn’t sure what that had to do with him going outside. Her confusion must have been written on her face because he grinned and explain further.
“We’re out of that type of bulb, so I’m heading into town to buy some before my shift starts.”
“Shouldn’t that fall to maintenance?”
