Page 8 of With You

Maybe I was being obvious with my own obsession. I couldn’t bring myself to care what other people thought because the only person whose opinion I actually cared about was currently walking toward me, overnight bag in one hand and a travel mug filled with coffee in the other.

My nervous fidgeting ceased as my eyes hungrily took her in. I was like an addict, consumed by need until I got my next fix and saw her again. She was dressed casually in a loose t-shirt and black jeans that were ripped at the knee. Her pants were tucked into her usual laced-up leather boots and I wondered not for the first time if she wore the same pair or if she had them lined up in her closet like tidy little soldiers.

All that soft blonde hair of hers was braided away from her face, revealing her unease. With me? With the assignment? I wanted to stomp up to her and demand the answer but was smart enough to know that would be wholly unwelcome. I rolled my neck and tried to think of something to say that would help her relax.

“I hope that isn’t your first cup of coffee, Hebert, we have a rendezvous at fifteen hundred and can’t be stopping for poop breaks.” What the actual fuck?

Sam stopped walking, shock replacing the uneasiness of before. Then she shrugged it off and gave me that grumpy look I loved. “I won’t be discussing my bathroom schedule with you. Especially since we both know it’s men who take a shit twelve times a day.”

She shoulder-checked me on her way past. Okay, I deserved that. I rounded the hood of the car and leaned into the driver’s side to pop the trunk. Then I stood there awkwardly as she dropped her luggage next to mine.

Yup, this assignment was off to a great start.

“You driving?” She raised one perfect eyebrow, a few shades darker than her pale hair.

“Ugh, I can. Yeah, that way you can eat breakfast.” I held up the box, like the peace offering it was.

She walked to the passenger side and slid into the seat. I lowered into my own and started the car before I presented her with the treats. She broke the seal and lifted the lid, pleasant surprise softening her features as she breathed in the delicious sugar.

“Powdered sugar?” She looked at me questioningly like she didn’t understand why I’d bother to do something nice for her. Were things really that bad between us?

“I asked Lily what you typically liked. She gave me some of those cookies, too,” I nodded to the bag on the center console between us. “It’s no big deal,” I added quickly. Yup, no big deal that I happen to know all your favorite foods, movies and bands. Jesus, I was a stalker.

“Right, well, thanks.” Sam picked up a donut with long, delicate fingers and took a bite. “Holy shit, these are worth the extra cardio.”

We both laughed and the friction between us lessened. Donuts were magic. I pulled the car out of the parking lot and headed for the highway.

“I was thinking we could debrief on the way.” Sam licked errant sugar off her fingers and reached into the backpack at her feet, pulling out a stack of files. I kept my eyes trained on the road, trying to ignore the sight of her pink tongue as it swept over her full lips.

“Sounds good,” my voice was gruff. I cleared my throat, wiping my sweaty palms on my jeans. Work talk was safe, an area where we were comfortable.

She flipped through the files I’d compiled last night, instead of sleeping. I’d left them in front of her door just as the sun was coming up. Not that it had been a hassle, Sam’s door was all of five feet away from my own. We were neighbors, a fact that was both amazing and terrible at the same time.

Amazing, because after years of separation, I finally knew where she was and that she was safe. Terrible, because the woman of my dreams spent her nights just steps away but behind a locked door where I wasn’t welcome.

“This guy knows we’re coming, right?” Her skepticism had me snorting a laugh.

“Fuck, I hope so. The last thing I want is to have a shotgun blow a hole in my stomach.”

The lead that Gray wanted us to follow up on was with a man that lived alone on a ranch in the middle of nowhere. He’d assured me, multiple times, that Sebastian Thompson wasn’t dangerous, he just liked his privacy.

Privacy that he’d more than earned. Thompson was a fellow Marine and received a medical discharge after his final mission ended with him standing too close to a car bomb when it detonated. He was lucky to be alive. But I’d met way too many of us that had the same fate—they rarely felt lucky.

When she finished, Sam closed the folders and slid them into her backpack. With no more work talk to keep us occupied, I strummed my fingers on the steering wheel, searching for a topic of conversation.

“You ever play car games?” Sam said, startling the hell out of me. “We spent a lot of time on the road, me and Mom. It’s hard to keep a kid occupied when you’re sitting in a car for hours on end, you know?”

I stored that new bit of information like a computer file. Sam never talked about her family much, but I’d known it was just her and her mom growing up. Whenever my family was actually in the car together, my brother and I were expected to be quiet and not embarrass our parents in front of the driver. A car game would have been out of the question.

“Like, ‘I spy’?” I threw her a smile before refocusing on the road.

“That or the alphabet game. Ever heard of it?” I shook my head, excited to play a game with her.

“You take turns picking categories and we trade off naming something that falls within the category, but in alphabetical order. You win the game when the other person can’t think of something. Then you pick a new category. Want to play?”

“Yeah, sounds fun.”

“Pick a category.”

---