Page 5 of Found Forever

He cracked a small smile.

“So was I right? You’re a well-read foodie?”

Tilting his head slightly, he nodded. “I like books and food.”

Her grin was jaw-dropping.

There was a very good chance Joanna was the most beautiful woman Decker had ever seen.

“How old are you?” she asked, abruptly changing the subject.

“Forty-five. How old are you?”

“Thirty-four.”

He nodded.

“And are you still off saving the world from drug lords and fanatical dictators? Or have you decided to hang up your cape and tights and leave crime fighting to the young SEALs without silver in their hair?” At that, she lifted herhand from his shoulder and swept it through his hair on the side by his temple, where he was indeed sporting several strands of silver.

Her fingers in his hair felt incredible.

He wanted to grab her hand, kiss her knuckles and encourage to keep playing with his hair. He could have easily just closed his eyes and allowed her to do it for the rest of the night.

“Slowing down,” he said, his eyes going wide when the last syllable came out slightly croaked like he was some prepubescent teenager.

She giggled and removed her fingers from his hair. “What does that mean?”

“Taking fewer missions. Being selective and not doing anything nearly as dangerous as I used to. Leaving that shit to the young pups.” He cracked a half-smile. “The oneswithoutany silver in their hair. I’m easing my way into retirement.”

Her fingers found their way back into his hair. “I think it’s sexy. Distinguished. You’re like a silver fox.” Her gaze pivoted around the room until she found Barnes. “He’s gone full gray, and he’s still hot as hell.”

Decker snorted. “Yeah?”

She shrugged. “Embrace what you’ve got. Play to your strengths.”

“I’ll try to remember that.”

“How long are you here for?”

He exhaled and frowned, shaking his head. “No clue. As long as I want, really. Nate and Mieka are heading out on their honeymoon in a couple of days, so I might see if Asher needs a hand around here for a bit.”

She blew out a breath in a way that accentuated her bottom lip. His gaze fell to it and the desire to lunge out and bite it was damn near debilitating. “Mieka asked me if I wanted to sub for her while they’re gone. I jumped at the chance to get back into dancing. I’m sure I’ll be rusty for the first few days, but I’m excited. Well, a nervous ninny about teaching, because I’ve never taught before. But I’ll take anything if it means I can dance again.” Her huff of a laugh was humorless. “Anything to keep from going back to Toronto and the job I hate.”

Even though he knew what she did for work, he asked anyway. “What do you do?”

“I sell high-end real estate for my brother’s real estate firm. But I actually can’t stand it. The clients are so bloody pretentious, I want to clobber them all with the hood ornaments of their over-priced cars. It’s also really demanding. Like, I can’t have a life. I need to be at their beck and call, always. I was on a date, and I had to leave midway through because my client called and wanted me to get them into a viewing of a house because theyheardit was hitting the market the next day and they wanted to see it before it was officially listed. So I had to call the listing agent and get my client a viewingthatnight at like ten o’clock.”

A frisson of something resembling jealousy niggled at the nape of his neck when she mentioned being on a date. That was weird. He had no claim on this woman and yet the idea of her seeing someone, of her dating, sat awkwardly in his craw. He worked his jaw back and forth and forcefully shoved that weird sensation away.

But he could still feel the ghostly touch of the green-eyed monster.

Weird.

He rarely felt jealousy over anything.

“Another time, I had to sell the tickets I bought to a concert—last minute—because my client wanted to see a certain house in the evening, from sunset through twilight and until every damn star in the sky was out. We were at the house for ages.”

That sounded goddamn awful to Decker. And he must have been making a face to convey his feelings because Joanna nodded.

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