Page 13 of Strike Fast

He nodded but didn’t elaborate. He didn’t want to bitch to her about his problems. “Autumn sees it and tries to run interference whenever she can. I don’t want that for her. And when I’m away, even for training, she constantly worries that something will happen to me. If I don’t text or email her every day, she thinks the worst.”

“It’s because she’s bright. She understands the risks of what you do.”

“Yeah, and I don’t know how to keep her from worrying.”

“I don’t think it’s something you can protect her from, Reid. It’s one of the ways she expresses her love for you.” Tess aimed a soft smile at him, and damned if it didn’t set off a burst of warmth in his chest. “She told me all about the trip you guys just took. She’ll remember it for as long as she lives.”

He hoped so. “It was awesome to spend so much one-on-one time with her. I never get more than a couple days at a time with her at most.”

“And your ex agreed to let her go, so that sounds promising.”

He grunted.Not really. I had to fight like hell to make it happen.But enough of him bitching about his problems like a little pussy. That was the opposite of sexy, and he was trying to get Tess interested, not turn her off him for good. Though he’d sworn off relationships since the divorce, he could see himself trying something like that with Tess. They clicked on so many levels.

“What about your family?” he asked.

“My parents, older sister and her three girls live back in Nevada. We’re pretty close and I fly home to visit whenever I can. You?”

“Just my aunt, who raised me.” She was watching him again, and he sensed her silent question so he continued. “My mom’s sister. She and her husband raised me, down in Pascagoula.”

“Oh. Did you spend much time with your parents?”

He shook his head. “Never really knew them. They were both killed in a car wreck when I was ten months old, and my aunt wound up taking me in. She was sixteen years older than my mom, so she’ll be eighty-five this year. She’s really slowing down lately.” It was going to hurt like hell when she went. She was his last living link to the family he’d lost.

“Why did you join the DEA?”

“I wanted to stay in the action, and I wanted to make FAST. I’m not exactly a desk job kinda guy.”

She chuckled. “No, I can’t imagine you behind a desk. You were SF before, right?”

He nodded, surprised. “You been asking about me?”

The hint of a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “Maybe. You worried?”

“No.” Pumped that she was interested enough to ask about him, more like it.

“I’m former army too.”

He smiled at her. “Hooah.”

“Hooah,” she said with a laugh that made something swell in the center of his chest.

He couldn’t remember ever connecting with a woman like this before, or so easily. Not even Sarah, who he’d married and had a child with. Before everything had gone to hell.

He told her a couple funny stories about his SF days, enjoying making her laugh.

Tess shook her head as they kept walking. “You sure haven’t had it easy, have you?”

He half-smiled at the teasing note in her voice. “Guess not.” Although a lot of the shit he’d gone through was self-inflicted. “But not as tough as a lot of people have it.”

Up ahead, a jazz group was playing in a lookout built into the promenade, the slow, sultry strains reminding him of home as they drifted on the warm night air. “You want to sit and listen for a bit?” he asked, gesturing to a bench nearby.

“Sure.”

She sank down on it next to him, the outside of her thigh pressing against his and her delicate pear scent swirling around him in a delicious cloud. They listened to the music for a while. A few minutes in, Reid glanced over and caught the vestiges of a bittersweet smile on her face. “You okay?”

“Yes, it’s just this song. It was one of Brian’s favorites.”

Oh, great. He hadn’t meant to upset her. “You want to head back?”

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