“Well,” Lauren said. “Let’s continue the tour?”
“Sure,” I mumbled.
“It’s good to see you again, Pipes,” Gates said to me.
“You too.”
Lauren quickly moved the two of us away.
“Did you see how he was looking at you?” Lauren whispered, laughing. “Oh my god. It was like he wanted to throw you down and ravish you right there.”
“Yeah,” I said weakly, confused and surprised.
“Imagine if Tony saw that. He’d flip.”
“Probably.” Then I blinked. “Where is Tony, anyway?”
“Who knows?” Lauren steered me back inside.
As we headed into the kitchen, Tony came up to us. He had a serious look on his face.
“Listen, babe,” he said. “I gotta go.”
“What?” I asked. “We literally just got here.”
“I know. I know. It’s just, it’s business. I gotta go.”
“The club?”
“Yeah, my job. It’s really important.”
“You drove here.”
“I know. I gotta go, though.”
“I can drive you back,” Lauren said. “Or there’s the train. You don’t have to leave.”
I frowned at Tony. “Are you sure?”
“I’m sorry, babe. It’s an emergency.”
“Okay,” I said, sighing. “Go. I’ll get back on my own.”
“You sure? I can drop you off back home.”
“No, I’m sure.”
“You’re the best, babe. Sorry.” He kissed me on the cheek and then quickly walked out of the room.
“Does he do that a lot?” Lauren asked me.
“Yeah,” I said. “His business is stressful. It’s a tough job, you know?”
“I know,” Lauren said, but I didn’t hear the edge to her voice.
I was too busy thinking about Gates.
I couldn’t believe that he was standing just behind me, right back in the yard. I could turn around and actually see him. He was real, not a figment of my imagination like he felt so many times over the last two years.
Gates had been just one night, but that night loomed large in my mind. Even when I wasn’t thinking about him, that night was still somehow in my mind. Every night since was compared to that night, and they were always lacking somehow. I never reached that sort of intense joy and pleasure that I managed to get to with Gates, not even with Tony. Nothing else compared.
And now he was back. I thought that I would be disappointed if I ever saw Gates again, but I wasn’t disappointed. In fact, he was more handsome than I remembered. Maybe it was the extra weight to his eyes, the intense mystery hidden there, but somehow I found myself even more intensely attracted to him than ever before. I had to take a deep breath and remind myself that I was with Tony.
I couldn’t just turn around and throw myself at Gates. That would be pretty inappropriate.
But I really, really wanted to.
It was crazy. I really wasn’t that kind of girl. I barely dated until I met Tony, since I was way too busy with work. But now all of a sudden with Gates back, I found myself feeling like a teenager again. It was stupid and I knew it.
“Come on,” Lauren said, pulling me out of my daydream. “Let’s go see baby Joey. He’s with his grandmom.”
“Oh, yeah. Your kid.”
She laughed. “Yeah, my kid.”
“Lead the way, mama.”
She laughed again and we headed into the other room, into a world of babies and little socks and dirty diapers.
But even while I was holding Joey and laughing at a story about him peeing all over Greg’s record collection, I just kept thinking about Gates. I just kept thinking about that night.
I knew it was dangerous that he was back, but I couldn’t help myself with him around.
Chapter 8
Gates
It felt weird to be back in the States, and even weirder to be standing in someone’s back yard drinking a beer without worrying whether a bomb was going to fall on your head.
Two years in Syria changed me. There was no other way to put it. I went to Syria one man, and came back a completely different one. Well, not completely, but the things I saw there, hell, some of the things that I did, it changed me. I had a new weight in my chest, a new patch on my soul.
Two years aiding rebel Kurds against the Islamic State. I saw them do horrible things, and I did horrible things to them in return. Most of my assignments were training and arming the locals, but every once in awhile Uncle Sam had me go out on a combat mission. Death always stalked along with me on those missions, whether it was the death of my men or the death of my enemies. Somehow, it always missed me, and so I continued onward. I had no other choice. I was fighting for the survival of my friends and my country, and I was proud of the work that I did.