by Low, Gennita
Flynn slid from the truck and circled the house to the backyard gate. Letting himself through, he smiled when Maya bounded out to meet him. Willow had just let herself through the gate from the exercise yard.
“Give me a few minutes to get cleaned up and we can go.”
He almost told her not to bother, they could just order in, but he didn’t want to voice his insecurities. Or disappoint her. So he let her disappear into the house.
Maya leaned into him, tail wagging. Guinness came over to investigate the visitor, gave him a lick on the hand, then wandered away to chew on a red rubber Kong.
Willow came out the back door just a few minutes later and Flynn almost swallowed his tongue. The black t-shirt had been replaced with a pretty, delicate, blue shirt and skirt outfit. Her long black hair had been curled toward the ends, and drawn back into a wide clip to sway across her back. Subtle eye makeup made her eyes positively shine. Her pink lips were even pinker than normal, and glossy. Flynn felt his mouth water at the thought of tasting those lips, to see if they were as sweet as they looked.
A hard slam of need hit him in the gut, and it was all he could do to stay where he was. He did stand and offer her a slight smile. “You look very nice, Willow.”
She beamed at him, her cheeks flushing. “Thank you very much. I don’t get a chance to be pretty very often.”
“You’re always pretty.”
She stared at him for a long few seconds, then glanced away to clear her throat. “Thank you, Flynn. I think that’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever been told.”
Shit. He’d made her cry. He didn’t mean to do that.
The next time she met his eyes, though, she’d blinked away her tears. “We can go anytime.”
Flynn nodded and turned for the gate, not saying anything. He held it open for her to cross through, then jogged ahead of her to open the truck door.
Trepidation swamped him as he slid behind the wheel. The thought of being around a lot of people had him walking the edge of panic. “I, uh, don’t go out very often, so I don’t know what kind of pizza places are around here.”
Willow looked at him out of the corner of her eye. “Can I make a suggestion?”
“Please.”
She gave him directions to a narrow brick building on the west side of town in Arvada. Flynn wasn’t wild about the area they drove to. Too many hiding places. And some of the locals seemed too interested in what they were doing.
Or maybe that was just his own paranoia reading more into the situation than was actually there.
“Please tell me you don’t come here alone,” he grumbled.
Willow smiled up at him as he walked her to the front door. “Okay, I won’t.”
Flynn glanced at her, unable to believe she would tease him. But she stepped into the restaurant before he could tell if she were lying or not.
Willow knew the woman at the hostess stand by name. They chatted like old friends as the younger woman led them to the back of the restaurant. Flynn was surprised when she led them to the very last corner booth. Willow sat on the door side, leaving him with the wall at his back. Flynn looked at her. Did she realize what he needed or were things just falling as he needed them to?
The waiter came to the table, and again Willow knew the young man by name. “Water please, Aaron.”
The kid’s eyes flicked to him, and Flynn felt like he was being judged. “Same.”
Aaron disappeared. Flynn leaned over the table.
“Do you know everyone here, or is it my imagination?”
She shrugged and grinned. “I used to work here. On the weekends when I was working my way through medical school. They paid well, I got to take home leftovers, and they knew my family before they moved to Florida.”
Flynn sat back in his seat as Aaron brought their water. He glanced at the menu, but took Willow’s suggestion on a pizza they could share. One of the waitresses dropped off a plate of cheesy garlic bread, redolent of fresh spices.
Willow reached for one before the woman had even left. “You’ll love the bread. It’s a house specialty.”
The bread was truly incredible. Eating it gave him an excuse not to talk. Willow didn’t push, though. She sat eating her own bread and sipping her water. Occasionally she brought up topics for discussion and he participated as much as he could, but he could tell she was a little disappointed. She went into a discussion about her family in Florida, but he only half listened. Flynn hated feeling like he was letting her down. He had a million questions, but articulating them as he sat in such an open environment proved difficult. The wall at his back, which he thought would be a good idea, turned not so great as servers kept popping through the doorway beside their booth. Flynn turned so that his back was angled to the corner of the booth.
Willow chewed thoughtfully, but didn’t say anything as his anxiety ratcheted up.
“There’s a window in the top of the door. Would it help if I let you know when someone was coming through the door?”
It would, but he refused to admit that to her.
She seemed to understand that though, too. Her eyes flicked up and a second later a waitress sailed past their table. Willow kept her head high, and when she saw somebody coming through the door, her eyes flicked in that direction.
Some of the rigid tension in his spine eased. Whether she realized it or not, Willow had just become a part of his team.
Mace wagged his tail beneath the table of the booth across from them.
Willow’s golden eyes tracked a person coming toward their table, and Aaron appeared carrying their pizza. He set a little stand beneath the pie and gave them each a plate, then disappeared.
Flynn didn’t know if he could eat or not. Willow pulled a piece from the pie to her plate, then put one on his plate. “It would be a shame to waste this pizza. At least try it.”
She sat with her eyes on the door, giving him time to take a bite. Flynn had to agree it was one of the best pizzas he’d ever had.
They made it through dinner, packed up the few leftovers and left. Flynn felt like a schmutz, ruining their date the way he had.
“I’m sorry,” he told her, holding the truck door open for her.
She glanced at him and frowned. “I’m not. I had a lovely dinner with you.”
Flynn leaned between the door and the frame, needing to explain more.
“Crowds mean danger to me.” He flicked his gaze back to the restaurant. “There were twenty-three people in there, probably too many for me to take on alone.” He couldn’t help but grin. “But I would have done my best.”
Willow laughed at his bravado and reached out to hold his cheek. Flynn forced himself to stand, unmoving, as she caressed the bristly beard down to his chin, and he felt obligated to be blunt. “I’m not a regular guy, Willow. I can’t take you out dancing or to a fair without planning exit strategies and collateral damage. I’ve been stateside for three years now, but I still live as if I’m in a war zone. To some extent I probably always will. I don’t know that anything will ever change that. And I don’t know that that would be a good environment for you.”
She raised a brow at that.
“Do you see me pulling away? Cringing at what you do?”
She waited for him to shake his head.
“Did I not give you the backup you needed for that situation?”
He stared at her, shaken that she could understand the fear he did not want to give name to.
“Dancing is overrated, although we may have to work on the county fair. That’s one thing I simply cannot miss. I love animals more than people, so as long as you make an effort every once in a while to get out, I think we’ll be fine.”
Leaning in, she pressed a soft kiss to his lips.
Flynn felt like he was drowning; in her scent, her taste and the emotion she stirred in him.
He opened his mouth to taste her, and a visceral need erupted. It had been so long since he’d been with a woman, but he didn’t even think that was it. It c
ouldn’t be just any woman. Willow was the one who had been taunting him in his dreams for so long.
Willow saving him from himself.
She tasted of Italian herbs and lemon. Angling his head, Flynn forced her mouth wider, needing to taste everything she had. She met him move for move. Fingernails dug into his ribs, then burrowed beneath his shirt to his skin. Flynn shuddered at the first intimate touch he’d felt in years.
He stepped closer, unable not to. One of her hands drifted down to his ass cheek and squeezed, and he hardened to the point of pain. Oh, hell…
The hairs on his neck rose, and he realized how exposed he was, kissing her out here on the street. With a final, lingering nibble, he pulled away. He scanned the surroundings, but didn’t see any immediate threat. It was probably just his own unease. Circling the truck hood, he slid into the vehicle.
Willow had dragged the seatbelt across her midsection, but still looked a little dazed. Flynn grinned at her hazy expression. “Are you okay? You look a little flushed.”
She gave him a smack on the arm. “Can I help it if I’m recovering from one of the hottest kisses ever?”
Flynn swallowed and looked at her, trying to decide if she was bullshitting him or not. She looked totally sincere. And aroused. The erection he’d been trying to tame renewed, making him shift uncomfortably.
Willow leaned toward him with a satisfied look on her face. “Yeah, I’m not the only one, am I?”
Grinning with her, he started the truck and shoved it into gear.
Willow rubbed her fingers against her thumb on her right hand, remembering the feel of his hot skin. And he’d been muscular. It was obvious he worked out because the man didn’t believe in loose fitting t-shirts. Seems like everything he had fit him like a glove. But she wanted to see. She wanted to be like any other woman and drool over a hot body.
Hell, if he showed the inclination she would maybe do more than that. In spite of how she felt about her own body.
It wasn’t like they didn’t know each other. He’d been coming into the office for the better part of a year, once, sometimes twice a month even.
Something occurred to her suddenly, and she sat back against the bucket seat. “I don’t even know your whole name. Or what you do.”
Flynn glanced at her, his face lit by the lights of the dash. His teeth flashed for the barest second before he turned back to the road. “My name is Flynn. You know that.”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “You had your tongue down my throat. I think I can know your name.”
She lifted a brow at him, waiting.
He seemed to be mulling something over, but he tipped his head slightly. “Joe. Joe Flynn.”
Hm.
“But if you call me Joe, I probably won’t respond to it. I’ve only ever been called Flynn.”
She tucked that little tidbit of information away, happy that he’d given her another piece of himself.
“And I work for an investigative service on the north side called Lost And Found. Background checks, surveillance, that kind of thing.”
Willow turned her whole body to him in surprise. She hadn’t expected that. “How interesting! You get the dirt on everybody.”
He shrugged his broad shoulders. “Sometimes. Other times it’s sitting in a car for eight to ten hours a day doing nothing, day after day.”
“So where are you from Flynn? Seems like I still don’t know very much about you.”
Turning onto the 265 on-ramp, he glanced at his mirrors, then her.
“My family is in a little town outside Atlanta. Mom, a couple sisters. My dad died years ago.”
She frowned in sympathy. “What made you join the Navy?”
Merging into traffic, he shrugged his broad shoulders. “My dad had been Navy, so I always kind of had the idea I would have to join before I did anything else. Where I come from, there’s not much of anything to do but join the military.”
“And fight the Walkers, right?”
Cranking his head around, he laughed out loud.
Willow grinned, tickled that he’d gotten the pop culture reference to The Walking Dead. Joe Flynn just got a little cooler, in her eyes.
They chatted about five million things on the way back to her place, and even when they pulled into her driveway they sat there and continued to talk in the darkness.
Flynn had restrictions about what he could talk about in relation to his service. Most of it was covert ops. Willow wasn’t concerned about that, as long as it didn’t affect the now. She had a feeling Mace had played a huge part of his life over there, but when she asked, he shook his head.
Willow’s natural curiosity chafed at being stifled like that, but she guessed she understood. Lives depended upon secrets. Especially in places like Afghanistan. And if he didn’t want to talk about his lost partner, it was his prerogative.
Flynn left her at her door with a knee-melting kiss. It was on the tip of her tongue to invite him in, but she didn’t think either one of them were quite ready for that. So as he walked out the door with Maya at his heels, she allowed herself to watch his fine ass disappear from view and dream about when the time would be right.
Chapter Four
‡
It seemed like Willow had just gotten to sleep when her phone rang. Two hikers had gone missing on the Chicago Lakes Hike near Mt. Evans. They were supposed to have returned the previous afternoon but had failed to check in with family. Heart racing, she promised to be there within an hour and a half.
Guinness was already on his feet, tail wagging. When the phone rang during the night like that, he knew it was a good possibility they would go to work. Willow used the bathroom and dressed, debating whether or not to take Flynn and Maya.
What the hell.
She dialed his number and he answered on the second ring, totally clear voiced. “Hey, I was just thinking about you.”
Willow grinned, glad that he’d been as restless as she had. “Well, as much as I appreciate that, I just got called in on a search. Did you want to come with me?”
Silence stretched on the other end of the line and she wondered if she were moving too fast for him. When she’d mentioned going on a search, he’d seemed agreeable, but maybe she’d read him wrong.
“Sure,” he told her quietly. “How much time do I have?”
“I’ll be by to pick you up in twenty minutes. Will your boss be okay with this? You’ll need to be off at least a day.”
“I’ll call him to check. I should be fine. I’ll be ready when you get here.”
Willow hung up, then called the office line to leave a message for Sue to reschedule patients or to ship them on. Willow had worked out a partnership with another local vet to take her overflow when she had searches come up, so she called that vet’s line as well and left another message.
Then she started packing her trail bag. Essentials were already inside; she just added a couple liter bottles of water and a couple of apples. There were enough provisions in her pack to last several days if she needed to.
They were out the door within fifteen minutes of the initial call. And in front of Flynn’s apartment building ten minutes after that.
Maya bounded out like she was going on a great adventure, making Willow laugh as she opened the back door of her full-sized SUV. The dog leapt in as if she’d been waiting forever, greeting Guinness like old friends.
Flynn tossed his backpack in the back, then climbed into the passenger seat. There was a pinched look around his eyes, and she wondered if she’d made the right choice in bringing him.
“Are you okay? I can do this alone. You don’t have to come with me.”
He met her eyes in the gloom of the cab. “I’m fine. Seriously.”
Shoving the truck into drive, she didn’t question him any more than that.
It was a quiet drive for the most part. Flynn asked for details about the operation. He had hiked the Bierstadt trail before, but not the Chicago Lakes trail. He requested details on the op.
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Willow grinned at the way he made it sound military.
The missing hikers were supposedly experienced, so she was curious why they’d gone missing. Injury landed at the top of her list. The trail was treacherous; one of the most dangerous in the Colorado range. Hopefully only one was injured, but the other was smart enough to stay planted, caring for the other.
They wouldn’t know until they got there.
When they arrived at the trailhead, several ranger trucks as well as private vehicles crowded the parking area alongside the road. Willow parked where she could and pulled her pack on. Guinness whined with excitement as she slipped his neon orange reflective harness on. She tossed a similar harness to Flynn for Maya.
“This particular mountain is a little deceptive because it goes down before it goes up. Put that on her, but once we get there, hang back from me at least twenty feet. Do you have your pack?”
Flynn nodded. That worried, pinched look still tightened the skin around his eyes, but they glinted with excitement. The darkness would perhaps help him feel more secure as they walked toward the large group ahead of them.
Ranger Roger Thompson, her contact for the operation, met her in the middle of the road that lined the lot. He held out a hand and shook hers briskly.
“I appreciate you coming out, Ms. James. I tried to get one of the teams out of Vail, but they were tied up.”
“No problem, Mr. Thompson. Tell me what’s going on.”
His flashlight flashed as he moved it toward a green Suzuki wagon. “The car’s been here since yesterday. A couple, Mike and Katie Gerhardt, left yesterday to summit, but they haven’t been heard from since about 2 p.m. yesterday. They called her mother when they reached the peak, then started down the slope. But they never got here. Her mother is the one who called us this afternoon.”
“Nobody else saw them? This is a fairly popular hike.”
He shrugged in the dimness. “Nobody’s stepped forward.”
No, that would be too easy.
“Okay, if I can get something from the car, we’ll head out.”
She pulled her jacket around her. It wasn’t winter, but chilly. If you were caught out here without the proper protection, hypothermia was a definite possibility. Flynn had put on a long-sleeved Henley and sweatshirt, and he had a nice pair of hikers on his feet.
