“I’m okay.”
“You look good.” His gaze moved over her body, and she barely held back the shiver.
She’d always liked his eyes on her. They felt intimate and familiar.
He ran his fingers through his hair, and that’s when she saw the ring on his finger. His wedding ring. He still wore it.
“You’re out,” she said quietly.
“I am.”
“You loved your job.”
“And look what it cost me.”
Her breath hitched. “That wasn’t why you lost me.”
“It was part of the reason.”
Thousands of women married Marines. She should have been able to cope with having a husband with those kinds of commitments. But that, in combination with the infertility and his mother…it had been too much.
Weak. The word had flickered in her head more than once over the last year.
“That doesn’t make you weak.”
Indie flinched at his words. He’d always had this freaky ability to know exactly what she was thinking. It was just one of the reasons she’d believed nothing could break them. Until something had.
CHAPTER 2
Colt shoved his hands into his pockets. It was his only defense to stop from reaching out and touching her.
A year. A whole fucking year of no Indie, and he was still supposed to keep distance between them. To not get close to those moss-green eyes. To not feel that soft skin of hers.
Fucking torture.
“You haven’t touched our shared bank account,” he said.
Her brows rose like the very idea was crazy to her. “We’ve been separated for a year. Did you expect me to?”
There were a lot of things he’d expected in the last year. To be separated from his wife at this point wasn’t one of them. “You’re still my wife.”
Her eyes flared.
Every unanswered call had killed him. Every time he’d come home to Amber Ridge and she refused to see him made him want to say to hell with his military commitments.
“Have dinner with me.” The words were out before he could stop them.
For a single second, longing flashed in her eyes. Shewantedto have dinner with him.
But then she blinked. “Crap, what’s the time?” She pulled her phone from her pocket. “I’m late.”
“For what?”
She didn’t answer his question, just spun and ran to the hallway table, where she put her pistol away before sprinting into her bedroom. The door closed with a definitive click.
His back teeth ground together. He needed to talk to her. He’d given her time to get used to the idea of him being back in Amber Ridge, but they needed to figure this out. He was home to stay, and she was hiswife, dammit.
He stopped in the hall and stared at a photo of Indie and Clara. He ran his finger over the wooden frame. A frame he’d hung. Only, it had held a different picture then.
