Page 8 of The I Do Over

“This place used to belong to his wife, Josie. It was her place from before they met and they did live here together for a little while, but they recently moved to a bigger place. Josie’s pregnant and they wanted a house with a big yard and all that.” He took a sip of his water before continuing. “She decorated this place and everything in it looks like it was custom made for the space.” Then he laughed softly. “My lease was just about to end on my condo and I always liked this place, so it just made sense to make an offer on it.”

“And she didn’t mind leaving the furniture behind?”

“Not at all. They wanted to pick out stuff that they both liked and would work for the new house.” He glanced around with a smile. “So I lucked out.”

“Is any of this yours? I mean…I’m sure you have furniture or personal items of your own that you wanted to keep.”

He shrugged. “Not really. I spent fifteen years in the service and when I got out, I was used to living a more minimalist lifestyle.” Another shrug. “We were so busy getting the business started that I didn’t bother doing much with the condo. It was a rental and everything I had was there for function.”

“That sounds so…” She stopped herself before saying anything that might offend him. But Knox being Knox, didn’t let it slide.

“So…what?”

“Sad,” she replied. “I can’t imagine not having at least a few items in my home that were strictly there for…for comfort or to make me smile.”

“Yeah, well…” And that was all he said before, “Come on. We’ll sit in the living room.”

With another nod, she followed. He was already sitting on the huge sectional and she wondered if she should sit or stand.

And wondered.

And wondered.

“Uh, Maddie?” he asked.

“Right,” she muttered and sat down on the opposite end of the sofa. But when she looked at him, all the words—everything she had rehearsed—escaped her. Suddenly she didn’t know why she was here or what she wanted to say because all she could see was the boy she had fallen in love with when she was fourteen years old, the one she loved enough to marry.

Knox looked at her expectantly and the only thing she could do was look at him helplessly.

He put his bottle of water down on the coffee table before leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees. “Okay, I can tell you’re on the verge of a panic attack, so why don’t we just take things slow,” he suggested. “Why don’t you tell me what you do for a living?”

Her shoulders relaxed a bit as she nodded. “I’m a physical therapist. I specialize in sports medicine and sports-related injuries. I’ve got a practice back in Chesapeake.”

“That’s awesome,” he said as he leaned back against the cushions. His smile was genuine as he added, “Good for you.”

“Thanks. And you started up the security company?”

He nodded. “It was something Daniel, Xander, and I talked about while we were still in the Navy. We sort of started to put things in motion the year before we all got out so we’d be able to hit the ground running once we were back.”

“How did you end up in Raleigh?”

“Daniel’s from here and talked about how much he liked the area and how he thought it was a good central location for the East Coast,” he explained. “I didn’t really care too much about where we set up. I just wanted to get started.”

“Do you specialize in any one specific thing?”

“Not really. We all had the same kind of training, but I guess if I had to pick something, I’d say that I’m the one who handles a lot of the background checks and anything computer-related. Turns out I’m good with technology and finding things other people can’t find.”

She laughed softly. “You’re lucky. I mean about being good with technology. I think anything tech-related hates me. I have an assistant who literally has to handle everything with the computer and she even sits with me when I get a new phone to talk me through it.” She shook her head. “It’s like I need my own personal tech support. She’ll be thrilled to know that I was able to program your address into my GPS all by myself.”

“Well, things are always changing and if it’s not something you have to deal with on a daily basis—or if you have someone to do it for you—then I imagine it would be hard to keep up with.” He stretched and rested his arms along the top of the sofa and Maddie had a feeling they were done with small talk.

After shifting to get a little more comfortable, she let out a sigh. “I’m sorry.”

One dark brow arched at her. “For being bad at technology?”

And yeah, she knew he wasn’t going to make this easy on her and he was a bit of a smartass.

“Knox…”

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