“How long will it be until Liam and Hadley are back with the girls?” she asked, her voice low.
“Later. Don’t worry. We won’t miss them.”
“I, uh...wasn’t worried.”
She licked her lips, drawing his attention to her mouth, and suddenly that was all he could see. All he could think about. Her lips had filled out, along with the rest of her face. She’d grown into a woman while he’d been away, with some interesting new experiences shining in her eyes.
All at once, he wanted to know what they were.
“I’ve been wondering,” he said. “Why did you become a social worker? I seem to recall you wanted to be a schoolteacher way back.”
That was not what he’d meant to ask. But she lit up at the question. And the sunset? Not even a blip in his consciousness. Her face had all the warmth a man would ever need.
“I did. Want to,” she clarified. “That’s what I majored in. But I went to do my student teaching and something just didn’t work right. The students weren’t the problem. Oh, they were a bit unruly but they were fourth graders. You gotta expect some ants in the pants. It was me. There was no...click. You know what I mean?”
“Yeah.” He nodded immediately. Like when he hit his stride in BUD/S training on the second day and knew he’d found his place in the world. “Then what happened?”
“I volunteered some places for a while. Tried to get my feet under me, looking for that click. Then my mom calls me and says a friend of hers needs a receptionist because the girl in the job is going out on maternity leave. Would I do her a huge favor for three months?”
As she talked, she waved her hands, dipping and shaping the air, and he found himself smiling along with her as she recounted the story. Smiling and calculating exactly what it would take to get one of those hands on his body somewhere. He wasn’t picky—not yet.
“Turns out Sheila, my mom’s friend, runs an adoption agency. She’s been a huge mentor to me and really helped me figure out what I wanted to do with my life. See, I love children, but I don’t like teaching them. I do like helping them, though. I ended up staying at the agency for four years in various roles while I got my master’s degree at night.”
“You have a master’s degree?” That revelation managed to get his attention off her mouth for a brief second. Not that he was shocked—she’d always been a great student. It was just one more layer to this woman that he didn’t know nearly well enough.
“Yep.” She nodded slowly. “The county requires it.”
“That’s great.”
“What about you? I know you went into the military but that’s about it. You went into the navy, Liam said.”
“I did.” He shifted uncomfortably, as he did any time his years in Afghanistan came up among civilians. The top secret nature of virtually every blessed op he’d completed was so ingrained, it was hard to have a regular conversation with anyone outside of his team. “Special operations. It’s not as glamorous as the media makes it out to be. I sweated a lot, got really dirty and learned how to survive in just about any conditions. Meanwhile, I followed orders and occasionally gave a few. And now I’m home.”
Something flashed deep in her eyes and she reached out. Her palm landed on his bare forearm, just below the rolled-up sleeve of his work shirt. “It doesn’t sound glamorous. It sounds lonely.”
“It was,” he mumbled before he’d realized it. Shouldn’t have admitted that. It smacked of weakness.
“I’m sorry.” Her sympathy swept along his nerve endings, burying itself under his skin. The place she’d always been.
The place he’d always let her be. Because she soothed him and eased his loneliness. Always had. Looked as if for all the things that had changed, that was one constant, and he latched on to it greedily.
“It’s over now.”
His arm still stretched across the back of the seat. The slightest shift nestled her deeper against him and a strand of her glossy hair fell against her cheek. He wasted no time capturing it between his fingers, brushing it aside, and then letting his fingers linger.
Their gazes met and held for an eternity. A wealth of emotions swirled in her eyes.
Her skin was smooth and warm under his touch. She tilted her face toward his fingers, just a fraction of a movement. Just enough to tell him she wasn’t about to push him away.
He slid his fingers more firmly under her chin and lifted it. And then those amazing lips of hers were within claiming distance. So he claimed them.
Grace opened beneath his mouth with a gasp, sucking him under instantly. Their mouths aligned, fitting together so perfectly, as if she’d been fashioned by the Almighty specifically for Kyle Wade. He’d always thought that. How was that still true?