Page 51 of Tough as Steele

She had to work hard not to let her mouth drop open. “What? That’s crazy. Zeke’s never been anything but polite and professional.”

“So have I, but I suspect I have a thing for you too.” He opened his door and slid in, not giving her a chance to respond.

Probably a good thing. What could she say in response? Nothing came to mind, that was for sure. She got in, buckled her seatbelt, and tried to process his statement.

“I freaked you out.” He revved the engine. The sound rumbled in the quiet as he draped his arm over the back of her seat to reverse out of the driveway.

“Not freaked…okay, maybe a little,” she admitted.

“Freaked in a good way or bad?” He glanced at her, but turned back and steered the car onto the main road.

She gave it some thought. “I’m not sure. Even if I were in the market for a relationship, these feelings are developing really fast. Too fast. Way too fast. And that leads to problems. Like not knowing who a person really is.”

“Sounds like you’ve been hurt by a falling too hard too fast.”

“Yeah,” she said, surprised herself with her honesty. “Not long ago, I split with a guy—Brad. At first, I thought he was a decent guy, and we had what most people would call a whirlwind romance. But then I got to know him. Man, he had a lot of baggage from growing up in a dysfunctional family.”

Nate tapped his index finger on the wheel then gave her a quick glance. “What kind of baggage?”

She didn’t really want to get into that and shouldn’t have continued the conversation. “That question’s a bit personal for our professional relationship, don’t you think?”

“You don’t have to answer.” His tone almost dared her to ignore him.

For some odd reason she wanted to reply, and yet she didn’t want to. She really didn’t. So why was she opening her big mouth again? “His parents fought a lot, and it turns out that was standard operating procedure with him too. The moment things got tense, he didn’t want to talk things out, just yelled at me and bolted. He’d go on a bender and come banging at my door in the middle of the night, expecting me to let him in.”

“That’s really odd,” Nate said with conviction. “I’ve only known you for a day, and it’s obvious that you would never tolerate that kind of behavior.”

“You think so?” she asked, once again surprised he would peg her this early on.

“You’re too confident in yourself to let any man treat you that way.” He met her gaze for a flash of a second before looking back at the road. “And you know you deserve someone better than that.”

Yeah, he’d nailed it, but sadly it had taken her a few months of trying to change Brad before she’d given up on him. She had her reasons. Sure she did. For one, it was hard to find a guy who wanted to date a detective. Brad hadn’t minded her profession, and she hadn’t wanted to start over. “If I ever got involved again, I’d want someone like my dad or granddad.”

“Tell me about your dad.”

She watched him carefully. He’d expressed interest in her, but was he just passing time, or did he really want to know?

Her gaze drifted, enjoying the way the sunlight played over his hair and highlighted the lighter brown colors amidst the deep black, all of it looking soft and quite touchable. She started to lift her hand to find out.

“I’d really like to hear about him,” Nate said.

She lowered her hand to her knee. “He’s extremely considerate, but also brave and willing to put his life at risk for others.” She almost sighed as she thought about what a wonderful father he was. “He’s a great encourager, often sharing his faith when people need it. Growing up, he would leave you feeling like you could conquer anything, and then he would go to work to hunt down and lock up bad guys. Well-rounded I guess is what describes him best.”

“Sounds like a great guy.”

“He is.” Her mind automatically compared Nate to her dad. Nate had shown compassion and love to Clarice in front of others, not seeming to care that he was a detective and a big, bad former SEAL. He was committed to his job. Committed to Mimi and the sense of family. He respected women.

The guy was totally different from Brad. She’d fallen for him based on his charm and good looks. She suspected Nate could be very charming if he wanted to be and could sweep her off her feet too. But despite what she’d witnessed so far, Nate could be like Brad in that he was very good at hiding things. After all, as a former SEAL, Nate was trained on escape and evasion. Few men could hide things better than a SEAL.

She was falling for Nate, too, and she didn’t want to see the real guy who might be too tempting to resist. She believed he was as good and decent as he was portraying, but that still didn’t mean she would follow her feelings. She didn’t trust them. Not one bit. “I think we lost sight of our original conversation.”

“We did.” He smiled at her. “I thought you were trying to avoid it.”

“Avoid, no, but all that’s left to say is, no matter what, we’ll continue to keep things professional. Keep focused. Mimi needs us to.” She said the words. Meant them even. But her heart creased from speaking them aloud. She didn’t actually like her own decision. But if she’d learned anything on this job, she’d learned she didn’t have to like what she did as long as she was doing the right thing and was motivated by protecting the innocent people who needed a caring and compassionate detective.

Nate parked down the street from Jessica’s trailer. After the shootout at Wigg’s place, Nate wanted Londyn to stay in the car. He didn’t suggest it, of course. Never would. Part of respecting a woman was coming alongside her in whatever she chose to do for a living, even if she chose a job where she could get shot.

They stepped into the bright sunlight, and he dropped sunglasses onto his nose. He watched her through the dark glasses as she stepped onto the sidewalk, his whole being telling him she was something special. He’d never experienced this feeling. Never.

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