“Yes. And he turned into….”
“A cat,” she interrupts. “Seriously? You’re taking dating advice from a vision quest?”
I chuckle. “Well, they didn’t say dating advice. They said my life would change because of it. And you saved my life. More than once.”
“Charlie Foxtrot. You were in Kandahar,” Cat snorts.
“Yes. And I thought I’d die in Kandahar,” I level a look at her. “If it weren’t for you, I would probably be dead.”
She puts a hand to her mouth. “You were ambushed.”
I nod. “A member of my team, someone we respected, traded in his loyalty for money. Guy by the name of Neidorff sold secrets to the enemy, telling them where we’d be. The enemy attacked. He was killed. The rest of us were pinned down and running out of ammunition. I took off for our stash in our HUMMER, only wanting to protect the remaining members of my team, and was nearly killed doing it.”
“I didn’t dig too deeply into whom we rescued because the investigation was open and shut. But, as I recall, you didn’t have your name patch on your uniform.”
I pat the area over my chest where it had been. “Ripped off in the firefight.”
“I knew these tattoos looked familiar,” Cat places her hand over mine. Fire spreads throughout my body. “Why didn’t you say something right away?”
“Right away?”
“When my sister sent you to help me,” Cat frowns. “Speaking of, how in the world did our paths cross again?”
My hand has a mind of its own, intertwining our fingers together. Maybe if I hold on tighter, she won’t leave when I tell her.
“Ryker?”
“About that,” I bite my lip. “I’ve been looking for you for years.”
She tilts her head. “What does that mean?”
“Do you know how many Sabers there are in the world?”
“Um, at least seven. More if you count the kids with the different last names,” Cat laughs.
“There are quite a lot more,” I chuckle. “It was like looking for a saber in a sword pile.”
She frowns. “Is that why you got a job working for my sister?”
I shrug.
“Does she know about our history?”
I shake my head. “She knows about my service. She doesn’t know about our connection.”
“Oh, shit. I cannot wait to see the look on her face when you tell her,” Cat snorts. “Scratch that. I can’t wait to see what FLINT does when he finds out you bamboozled his sweetlalelei.”
“I’ll take whatever they dish out if that means we’re together at the end of it.”
She considers this for a moment. “What does together look like for you?”
“Together. Forever,” I answer. “You’re it for me. I love you. And even though you don’t love me right now, I’m patient. I’ll wait.”
Cat looks down at our hands. “I don’t want to get married.”
My heart nearly stops. “You don’t want to get married because you don’t feel the same way for me?”
“No,” she searches my face. “I love you. But, I don’t want to get married right now.”
