by Taylor Hart
Turning to her, he noticed the scent of her strawberry shampoo again. She had a mole right above the right side of her lip, and he thought it was just plain sexy. “I want to know what would force somebody into thinking ‘a plan,’” he said, making air quotes, “would be moving to Slab City and living with the homeless.”
They pushed on a couple more minutes. He wondered if she didn’t want to talk about it, but she slowed down, going into a walk. “The first couple of months married to him were like a fairy tale. I mean, he was already an attorney. His father was the mayor of the town. He’s an only child and was expected to have a political career, too. I didn’t really see his mean side until one night he came home from the club, a place he would go with his father and the other men in town, drunk. He was all hyped up and complaining about his father. I tried to calm him down, and he backhanded me.”
Nick’s gut churned.
“I was such an idiot. He told me it was my fault, and I felt bad. I slept in the guest room that night, and the next morning he’d made me breakfast. He had flowers. He stayed home and nursed my cracked lip. He was so sad and he apologized profusely. I wanted to believe him.” She sighed. “Our relationship became a cliché, textbook domestic violence incident. He would be fine, then his mood would cause him to flare up and say mean things, hit me, push me. Then he would make it up in some extravagant way and be so nice.”
Nick focused his breathing, but his heart broke with every word.
“I was about to leave him, go stay with my aunt, when she died. Heart attack. She was in her early seventies and she’d raised me after my parents passed. So I stayed longer, but I knew I had to go. I knew my parents and aunt wouldn’t have wanted that for me. Unfortunately, it took another bad incident. This time he didn’t backhand me; he used his fist. Broke my jaw.” She broke off, touching her jaw as if it still ached.
He glanced at her, unsure if he should take her in his arms or let her keep going.
“Of course I lied on the report, said I fell down the stairs. At this point his parents got involved. They didn’t approve of Hal’s actions, but they took his side. They wanted me to remain silent, but I told them if I didn’t get signed divorce papers, I would tell everyone. So they made me sign confidentiality papers. They tied it all up legally and called it a ‘company’ matter, and I signed to get out.
“Even though I had nothing, I filed and moved out. I finished nursing school the next year, scraping by waitressing in this dive at night on the dinner shift. I could do my homework when I wasn’t busy, and it paid enough to get by. But I told you, he stalked me. He would leave notes. Text me from a burner phone.”
“Did you report it?”
She sputtered out a laugh. “Yeah. I reported it. I hadn’t reported it when we were married, so he made it seem like I was sour grapes. Then …” She broke off.
They had gotten to a little manmade lake by the housing development when she stopped, putting her hands on her head and staring out over the lake. “By the end, it just felt like I was losing my mind. I didn’t know if he had people following me, but it felt like it. I was exactly like one of those people in a Lifetime movie—paranoid, freaked.” She sighed. “I still am.”
He stared at her ice-blue eyes and raven-black hair. She was beautiful, even sweaty.
“What?” she asked him.
“Nothing,” he said quickly. “Do you need to rest longer, or should we head back? I had something I thought we could do today.”
“Aren’t we supposed to be on the down low?”
“We are. No one knows we’re here. No one knows I’m even here.”
“Except your brothers.”
“Yeah, but they don’t count. They’re like Fort Knox.”
She frowned.
“You’ll like it. I promise.”
They jogged back, and he was impressed she didn’t let up. He could have gone longer, but it was roughly five miles, which was a pretty good run.
“Get showered and we’ll grab something to eat. You’re going to like it.”
It had taken some maneuvering to set up. Well, if Nick were honest, all he’d done was look up a couple things online and made some calls.
He wanted to do this for her, make her feel like it was a real vacation.
Chapter 10
Of all the things Ava could’ve imagined being taken to, a skydiving place hovered around the bottom of the list. Her heart kicked up a notch and she let out a little laugh, staring through her window at the planes. “Oh my gosh.”
“You said you wanted to fly.”
Yeah, she did. This would be amazing. She was speechless.
He pulled up to the training area. “We have to go through some training, but we’ll be able to jump tandem in a couple of hours.”
The training was extensive, but living out one of her dreams felt amazing. The tremble in her hands as the plane lifted off wasn’t from nervousness this time—it was pure excitement.
Ava stood at the door of the plane a while later with a backpack strapped to her back, looking down on Jackson Hole next to Nick and their two trainers. They would jump at intervals.
Nick turned to her and yelled through the wind. “As close to flying as you’ll ever get!”
She laughed and marveled about how new and wonderful it all felt. “Thank you!”
He took her hand and grinned. “Let’s do this!”
The instructor prompted her to jump. When she did, letting go of Nick’s hand, she was shocked at how free she felt. The wind rushed at her face, stealing her breath away, and it was complete weightlessness and terror—but a good terror.
Ava wanted to fly forever, but at a certain point, her tandem buddy yanked her wrist up to slow their altitude, which was the sign to pull the parachute. Reluctantly, she yanked the cord, and they jerked up into the sky as the parachute came out. She looked up and saw Nick above her, his chute open too.
It all went by so fast, it felt like they were on the ground and she was watching the instructor cleaning up the chute in less than fifteen seconds. The instructor got everything loaded, and they waited and watched Nick and his instructor come in. Nick made landing look easy, and before she knew it, she was running to him.
Unlatching himself, he turned to her, a goofy grin on his face. “We did it, Slab girl!”
She high-fived him, but he caught her halfway with his other arm around her waist and held her close. She laughed and eventually pushed away from him. “That was awesome! Let’s do it again!”
Even though they didn’t do it again, Ava had to admit she felt pretty good as she and Nick sat on the back of the Jeep, eating their Subway sandwiches and drinking bottles of water, looking out over Jackson Hole Mountain.
“I will admit that I had this teeny-weeny bit of niggling fear that the parachute wouldn’t open.”
“Trust.” Ava enjoyed echoing the word he’d acted so superior about.
“True. We can trust each other. After all, we are engaged.”
She let out a light laugh. “Oh brother.” Leaning back, she wrapped up the rest of her sandwich and stuck it back in the bag. “Hey, you’re going to give me a complex that you really don’t want to marry me.” The way he said it so casually made her imagine what it would feel like to kiss him. He hadn’t shaved, and he had that perfect stubble going on.
“Aren’t you going to eat any more?” Nick asked quizzically, like her joke had gone right over his head.
“No,” she said. “I’m good.”
“You need the strength. Eat.”
“Hmm.”
“What?”
“Do you have to know everything that’s in my head?” she asked, knowing she wouldn’t tell him.
He grunted. “Sorry.”
“I haven’t felt like eating for, well, for a long time. It’s not that I didn’t want to sometimes, but my stomach hurt. A lot. Nerves, my therapist would say. She encouraged me to eat more, said it would help stabilize my moods if I could keep my blood sugar in
check.”
They both sat for a second, and she watched him take a large bite of his meatball sub and shove it into his mouth.
With exaggerated slowness, she opened back up the bag and got her sandwich out, taking another bite.
He grinned at her.
“Shut it.”
They both enjoyed the sunset. It was gorgeous. Blues, oranges, pinks.
Giving her a tentative look, he turned back to the sunset. “Why did you like Hal?”
“What?”
“Initially.”
“Oh.” It felt like it had been so long since she’d thought of Hal in that way.
“You don’t have to tell me.”
“No,” she said, wanting to explain her old feelings. Maybe she needed to talk about them for herself. “Hal was a good pretender. Actually, he is really charismatic to people who don’t know him, or to people he wants to see him in a certain way. It’s pretty awful, but he said all the right things. He became what I wanted, I guess, and then I lost myself in his world and it felt like it was too late to come out. When my aunt passed away, it jolted me from my life. I just knew she wouldn’t want me to live that way. I … at her funeral, I swear I felt my parents there. Everything that the minister said about my aunt’s life, how good it was, how much she gave to others … I just wanted to be that, ya know?”
“That’s why you finished your nursing degree.”
“Yeah. I like the feeling of seeing someone come in with a lot of injuries and leave perfectly healthy. I mean, it’s ER, so it’s not perfect, but we usually get them to the stage where they know the next doctor they need to see or they have a game plan. I like it.”
“Mother Teresa.”
“What?”
“I was just thinking how Mother Teresa actually had someone die in her arms and vowed she would never let people die alone, and that’s what led to her life’s work.”
“Oh, believe me, I’m not Mother Teresa.”
“I know, I didn’t mean—”
“Believe me, Nick, I … I haven’t been a huge use to the world.” She winked at him. “I don’t have a savior complex.”
“I don’t believe you’re not of use.”
She sighed. “Maybe if I can get past this, I could contribute to humanity in some small way.”
He briefly put his hand over hers, giving it a gentle squeeze. “Another day is gone. Three more.”
It was true. These two days had gone fast with him. She stared at Nick. There was more than the physical attraction to this man. He was good and kind and it was doing something to her, making her feel things she didn’t want to feel for any man again.
Ava looked down at what was left of her sandwich. “So you know all about my relationships; now tell me about yours.”
Not looking at her, he shrugged and wrapped up his trash to put it in the bag. “Not much to tell.”
“C’mon, how old are you?”
“Twenty-five.” He retorted in a miffed tone. “What of it?”
She grinned, biting back a comment about how he was too handsome to not have had a relationship.
There was silence for a few minutes before Nick admitted, “I have never been close to a woman. I kind of have this thing about waiting until marriage, and it’s been a hard thing with some of the women I dated. And I really am married to my job. It’s consuming. I just started moving into the detective side of things. It takes a lot.”
“Are you … you’ve never …”
“I’m old-fashioned. I believe in waiting until marriage.”
It was the first time she’d seen him vulnerable. Staring into his melted chocolate eyes and seeing the way his whole body tensed, all she wanted to do at that moment was reach out to him. But this whole conversation proved something; Nick Freestone was good. Too good for damaged goods like her. “I respect that.” She swallowed and thought about his confession.
“You do?” He turned, lifting an eyebrow.
“Hal … was the first, I mean.” She didn’t know why they were talking about this. “I waited.” They were silent for a bit longer before she changed the subject. “So, you never told me what you would do if you could do anything.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you asked me and I said fly, and you really had me fly today. So, what do you want to do?”
“If I had superpowers or in real life?”
“Both.”
Letting out a breath, he cocked his head to the side. “Well, easy for superpowers. Teleportation. I mean, if we’re including the X-Men.”
“I’ve never seen the X-Men, but we can include them.”
“What?” He gaped at her. “You’ve never had Storm, Logan, and other X-Men as part of your life?” They shared a laugh, and he shook his head. “Should we go?”
“Yep.” The chemistry between them was growing by the second, and she needed to push it away. Now was not the time for anything like that.
Going to her side of the door, he flung it open for her, and she gingerly got in. “I’m glad you like adventurous stuff, because I think we’re going to have to stop and get some popcorn and then binge on a show I think you’ll like.”
“Oh yeah?” she asked, loving that things felt so natural with Nick. With Hal, there had always been so much pressure to feel like she was saying the right thing or being the right model wife. But with Nick, it was easy. “What show is that?”
Flashing her a grin, he pushed on the gas and they pulled out of the little lookout they’d been at. “We’re going to remedy this X-Men naivety.”
Chapter 11
After watching the first two X-Men movies, Nick looked over at Ava. She was staring at the screen, automatically shoveling popcorn into her mouth. Noticing him looking at her, she frowned. “What?”
“You look happy.” Staring at her, he was again struck by how naturally beautiful she was. It’d been an amazing day. He’d been a bit worried about taking her skydiving, thinking she might chicken out. This little jet-black girl had guts.
She stopped mid-chew, and a slow smile filled her face. “Okay, I like X-Men. Not as good as the cult classic What about Bob?, but good.”
He frowned. “Never seen it.”
“You have never seen What about Bob?” She chucked more popcorn into her mouth. “Mmm, Mmm, this food is so good. Mmm.”
“What are you doing?”
Throwing a piece of popcorn at him, she laughed. “It’s the funniest part of the movie. Oh my gosh, we’re going to have to watch it.” Reaching for the remote, she snatched it from the armrest next to him.
“Hey!”
She giggled and lunged for the other part of the couch, hitting the pause button on the movie.
“It’s eleven-thirty,” he protested, but he secretly didn’t care.
Scanning the shows on Netflix, she found it and started it. “You wimping out on me, Freestone?”
He thought it might be the first time they were kind of flirting—really flirting, not thinking about this being an escape from her stalker. Leveling her with a glare, he crossed his arms. “Hey, I can hack it, if you can hack it.”
She grabbed a pillow on the couch and shoved it beneath her head, cozy and smug.
Half an hour later he was admitting to himself he was actually enjoying the comedy, but when he turned to get her reaction after a funny scene, he noticed her falling asleep. Standing, he moved next to her and took the remote, pausing it.
She began pulling herself up. “Okay, I’m going to bed.”
“Okay.” He finished shutting off the entertainment center.
“Today was a great day. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
She wagged her finger at him. “But I get to pick what we do tomorrow. I doubt I can figure out how to teleport us, so no luck there.”
“Nope. My vacation.” It was also a good reason he used to pay for everything— because he’d picked it.
She sauntered to her room.
“I’m doing an
outside check, then I’ll check in with you,” he called out.
“Okay.”
He stepped out into the chilly air. Trudging around the house, he pulled out his gun and kept it at his side, just for safety.
As he walked around the side, he thought he heard a branch break. Startled, he took off in that direction, going behind the trees. Nothing was there. He guessed where someone might be hiding and, taking a chance, rushed through some bushes around the side and up the bike path. No one.
Quickly, he circled back to the house, wishing it had a fence. That might make it more controlled, but with the bike path and national forest close by he knew he couldn’t control the space.
He went to the front of the house and did a quick sweep, then made his way to the garage and put the code in. His heart rate was still kicked up a notch.
He got inside and commanded himself to calm down. It wouldn’t suit to worry her; she was already jumpy enough, even though he noticed she hadn’t been quite as jumpy tonight.
“Everything okay?” she called out from her room as he locked the door between the house and the garage.
“Everything’s good.” He went to his room, got a pillow and blanket, and went to make his bed in the hall outside her door.
Nothing was okay. He decided to wait a bit and then call Frank if this feeling didn’t leave.
Nick wasn’t sure what time he was jolted awake, but the first thing he was aware of was the steel of the gun in his hand.
“Oh my gosh!” Ava stumbled over him.
Reflexively, he let go of the gun and blocked most of her fall by turning his body so she landed on his side.
“What are you doing?” she called out, untangling herself.
Reaching for his gun, he pushed back and stood. “Protecting you,” he grunted.
Ava sucked in a breath and crossed her arms. “I thought I wasn’t in danger.”
“You aren’t,” he retorted, but had a little quiver of doubt.
“What are you not telling me?”
Figuring she deserved to know, but hating to have to tell her, he hedged, “Where were you going …” He glanced at his watch. “At two-thirty in the morning?”
