Page 73 of Second Chance Savior

I hadn’t realized how much those summers had meant to River too.

I had accused River of leaving me behind and not caring about our friendship. Now I knew the distance between us had far more to do with his feelings for me. I’d had no idea, of course.

And I had wound up withhis brother. Causing drama that I never would have wanted.

He sat up and scratched his head. “I still need to find out why Jud Hale contacted you yesterday. And you’re probably hungry.”

Ugh. Myotherex. Because my past mistakes were unavoidable at the moment.

“I guess we skipped lunch.” I realized we’d eaten almost nothing today, except for the snacks Hodge had packed for us. And River was right. My stomach was hollow. Maybe that was something about having great sex. It woke up all the other appetites that you were ignoring.

I sat up and pulled him into a kiss. He had covered us with blankets a while ago, and they pooled around our laps. I felt the tiniest twinge of self-consciousness having my breasts on display, because this wasRiver, which was ridiculous considering what we’d just been doing together.

“I’ll find us something to eat,” I said, “and you can check out my phone.”

“Are you going to hand over your passcode? Or do I need to break in?”

“I suppose I could save you the trouble.”

He smacked another kiss on my lips, then jumped up. Igot an eyeful as he crossed to a shelf of clothes. River was clearly not self-conscious of his nakedness in the least. Nor should he be.

He pulled on a pair of sweats, then tossed me a T-shirt, and I caught it. It had NAVY emblazoned across the front. When I put it on, River swaggered over to tug the fabric down, arranging my collar and the sleeves and generally fussing over me. “I like you in my shirt. You don’t make it look as good as I do, but?—”

I reached around and smacked his ass cheek. He went over to the kitchen area, cackling, his smile so wide and beautiful my heart twinged.

While River messed around with his computer stuff, I dug into the cabinets that actually held food. There was a bunch of non-perishable items that I could get creative with.

“I’ve got MREs too,” he said over his shoulder. “If that’s easier.”

“No, I can work with this.” I selected a can of chicken, some packets of mayonnaise, crackers and seasonings. “I can almost make my mom’s famous chicken salad. Minus half the ingredients, but this will do.” I selected a jar of roasted red peppers to get some kind of veggie in there. I had no idea how long we would be here and didn’t look forward to the idea of eating military-style rations.

“I did love your mom’s cooking,” River said. “Didn’t know you took after her.”

“I learned. I’m a woman who lives alone and has a demanding career. If I didn’t prep ahead for some go-to recipes on the weekends, I would eat nothing but takeout and cheese and crackers.”

“Hey, I eat nothing but takeout.”

“Says the guy with an unlimited budget.” And the body of a twenty-five-year-old, though I kept that observation to myself.

While I put our lunch together at the counter, I peeked at what River was doing on the kitchen table. He’d set up some sort of contraption. It was like a box made out of wire mesh. He placed my phone in the box, then slipped his hands through the two holes in the front.

“What is that thing?” I asked, coming closer to watch him.

“A Faraday cage.”

He told me how it would cancel out the signals coming in or out of my phone. There was no cell service out here, but he wanted to be completely sure that no one could possibly use my device to track us. I also wouldn’t get any updated notifications, obviously, but River would be able to read anything my phone had already downloaded before I switched it into airplane mode and turned it off.

I stood at his shoulder while he powered my phone on. He could see the screen through the mesh. “But what about the holes for your arms?” I asked. “Why can’t a signal get through there?”

He entered the passcode on my screen and thumbed to the messages app. “It has to do with the size of the wavelengths. I can explain it all if you want.” He launched into a bunch of technical details, only stopping when he realized I was just standing there in silence, blinking at him.

“Not having trouble following, are you?” he asked.

“Not a chance. You’re just…so sexy right now,” I murmured. “I can’t get over it.”

With a mischievous grin, he grabbed his black-framed glasses and put them on. “How about now?”

Dead. I was dead.

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