Page 15 of Take Me Away, Cowboy

Goddamn, he was a fine-looking specimen.

“Well, I’d have gone shouting that from the rooftops if I thought it would have earned a hug from you earlier.”

Paige laughed. “Yeah, sorry about that. I’ve, uh, been known for my spontaneity.”

“How’s that working out for you?” Owen looked down at Paige and smiled. She breathed him in, catching the scent of sawdust and sweat, not unlike her brother when he worked with her dad, but more… musky, manly. It made her dizzy.

“Good, so far,” she said.

It was innocent enough, but how long had it been since a man had unabashedly flirted with her?

Had made her feel special, attractive?

It feltgood. Bordering on dangerous.

“Can I ask you a question?” she added, looking up at him from underneath her lashes.

“I dunno, can you?”

“Ha ha,” she said, her voice light, but serious. “I want to know why you got out. Of the Marines, I mean. Don’t you get to retire if you do twenty years?”

“You do. But I got forced out. Medical retirement.”

Owen’s shoulders tightened as he spoke.

“I’m sorry. Was it, you know, over there?”

“My injury?” he asked.

She nodded, noticing the shift in mood.

“Yeah. Humvee accident. Do you know what an IED is?”

“One of those bombs they hide in the road?” Paige asked.

“Those are the ones. Well, they got to be easy to find, so the Afghanis got better at hiding them. Could be a Coke can on the side of the road, or it could be the grisly end of a tank. We missed one and it lit us up. Like Fourth of July kind of fireworks, but not as pretty. I was one of the lucky ones, but it gave me this.”

He lifted his shirt and she saw a long lightning bolt-shaped scar along his shoulder, several branches leading off towards his bicep and spine.

She shivered.

“And the others?”

He rubbed his thumb along a black bracelet, a straight metal band that wound around his wrist bearing three names that Paige could see, along with dates.

They were all from the same year she’d been in Turks.

Her hands trembled as she made the connection.

He’d been through so much she would never understand, that most people would never understand. And yet he was there, beside her, strong and able and healing, at least on the outside. The rest she’d never fully know, would she? She placed a hand on the bracelet, biting her cheek to fight back tears. He looked down at her, a thin smile on his lips that didn’t reach his eyes, a sadness behind them.

“So, uh, enough about me,” Owen said, clearing his throat and taking a sip of his beer, “tell me about you.”

Paige lifted her hand, used it to bring her bottle to her mouth and take a long drink, feeling it warm her back up in places she’d gone cold the past few minutes. Her hands steadied.

“What would you like to know? I’m a pretty open book.”

“Let’s start with your answer to the question I asked you last night. Since it kept you up all night, I’m curious about where you land. Is it push or pull?”

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