Page 45 of Mistletoe and Malice
“Okay. Thanks.”
“No problem.”
“So, what else?”
“You’re very nosy.”
“I am.” She took a bite of the sandwich. Maybe she was being nosy. But her curiosity had its limits, and she was dying to know who was with him, looking oh-so-cozy in the picture on his wall. “A woman?”
Taking his own hefty bite, he lifted his head and chewed for a moment, watching her with a thoughtful expression until he swallowed. “Maybe.”
“The blonde?”
His brow crinkled. “What blonde?”
Okay, that was interesting. “The one from your house. In the picture on your wall.”
His face blanched, and he dipped his head. “The blonde.”
“She’s lovely.” She hoped she hadn’t stepped too far into his personal business. He always seemed to shut down if she got too close. “Is she … special?”
“Yes.”
“Serious?” She took another bite and wished she didn’t care. Was she a girlfriend? Current? Former? And why did that idea make her pulse catch?
Several ticks of the clock above the table went by in silence before he cleared his throat. “My wife.”
That last bite of sandwich went down hard. “I thought you said you weren’t married.”
“Theresa passed away four years ago. Leukemia.”
Her heart constricted. “Oh, I’m so sorry.”
“So am I. She was a spectacular person. We were childhood pals, started dating in college, and got married a week after we graduated.”
“Then you were married a while before she … well, you were married a while.”
“Ten years.”
“And you had no children?”
“We wanted them. But after years of trying and a lot of tests, we found out she couldn’t. We were on the list to adopt, but then she got sick, and for two years, our lives revolved around getting her well. We thought we’d licked it when she went into remission. But less than a year later, it came back. She died waiting for a marrow transplant.”
Her heart ached for the tragedy he’d endured. “I’m so terribly sorry for your loss. It was obvious from that picture you were happy.”
“We were.”
“Is that when you decided to get lost in work? After she died?”
His gaze turned wary. “Why do you say that?”
“I asked Paul if you’d always done special assignments. That it didn’t seem right for such a young man to give himself so wholly to his work. He said you used to work in Tech Ops before moving into the field a few years ago.”
“After I got shot, Theresa wasn’t thrilled that I went back into protection services. So, instead of working on a detail, I took a position in Tech Ops. Once she was … gone, I needed to get out of the office, do something more active.”
“Did you give yourself time to grieve?”
“I thought I had. Then, on the first anniversary of her death, I completely fell apart. It hit me like a ton of bricks. Had to take some time off because I could hardly function.”
