Bright pink spread across her cheeks and she quickly looked away. “Do you think Randy knows I’m here?”
I should’ve known. I shut the water off. “Is that what this is about?” I asked formally.
“What do you mean?”
I turned around. “Why you’re putting up a wall.”
She wrapped her arms across her stomach and dropped her gaze. “I’m not putting a wall up.”
Bullshit. “Did I hurt you this morning?”
Her head popped up. “No,” she said firmly.
“I’m not talking about physically.”
“Where’s your accent?”
“Where’s the woman who was in my bed this morning?”
“You’re scaring me,” she whispered.
Coiled tension ripping through my muscles, I nodded and walked into the kitchen. Grabbing the first takeout menu my hand settled on, I dialed and rattled off an order then hung up. I didn’t glance at her as she stood nervously by the breakfast counter. “I’m going to my office to make a few calls. Stay inside.” I walked to my bedroom without waiting for a response.
Sitting at my desk, I had to count to thirty before I was calm enough to dial André. When he didn’t answer his cell, I called his office.
“Luna and Associates,” Ariel answered.
“Hey, Mama.”
“Talon.” I could hear her smile. “What’s happening, sexy?”
“Where’s your boss?”
“Who knows? He doesn’t tell me half of what he’s up to.”
I doubted it was even half. “How’s Conner?”
“Taking up the number-one slot in my all-time-favorites list.”
I smiled. “He makes the top of my list, too.” Her two-year-old kid was cute as hell.
“You only say that because he doesn’t talk.”
I laughed. “You’re probably right.” Then I sobered. The reason Conner didn’t talk wasn’t anything to laugh about. “What’s his doc say?”
“You know shrinks. They say the trauma of seeing me beat up was a blow he’ll need time to get over. Reassure him, love him, he’ll start talking again when he’s ready, blah blah blah. Like I don’t know how to be his mother.”
“You’re a great mother.”
“Damn, what’s gotten into you? Why are you being so nice? You trying to get laid?”
I smirked. “Always.”
“Ha.”
“Tell André to call me.”
“Call his cell.”
“He isn’t answering.”
“Really?” She sounded surprised. “That’s weird. He never goes off the radar. When’d you try him last?”
“Right before I called. He check in with you today?”
“No. I haven’t heard from him yet. And now that you mention it, he usually calls with some bullshit excuse just to make sure I showed up for work if he’s not going to be around.”
Fuck. “I’m sure it’s nothin’.”
“Are you lying to me? Should I be worried?”
I forced a laugh. “’Bout a former Force Recon Sniper? Shit, don’t waste your time worryin’ ’bout him. I didn’t nickname him Patrol for nothin’.” My phone beeped with a call from the gate. “I gotta go, darlin’. Hug the little man for me.”
“You know it.”
I hung up with Ariel, buzzed in the delivery driver and went downstairs to meet him. When I came back upstairs with the food, Siren was setting two places at the kitchen table. If I wasn’t in such a shit mood, I would’ve enjoyed the scene for what it was. I missed the life I’d had with Leigh. I missed waking up next to her, eating meals with her, knowing someone waited for me at home.
I watched Nic’s movements and couldn’t help but compare her to my ex-wife. They were totally different but neither wasted words and both were reserved. Leigh had come from money. She’d been polished, elegant. I didn’t know what Nic came from, but she had the same mannerisms about her. Despite her injuries, she was all woman, feminine and graceful.
I set the food on the table Leigh and I had picked out and suddenly it hit me. The familiar sharp pain in my chest wasn’t sharp. I’d just thought of Leigh twice and neither time had brought the grief or anger I breathed through every time something reminded me of her.
Thrown, I stared at the small blonde woman in front of me. Without warning, my favorite memory of Leigh played in my mind.
Her dark hair blowing in the wind, her skin golden from the Hawaiian sun, her head fell back in laughter at something I’d said. Drifting on our boards, waiting for the perfect wave to ride in, I reached over and grabbed her hand. Then I gave her the words for the first time. “Love you, LeighLeigh.”