“Meg.” He curled his hand at her waist around her back, accidentally slipping under her top. “You don’t have to repay me. I’m not keeping a tab. You don’t owe me anything.”
“Please. Show me I’m not the only one who has human flaws.”
She wanted flaws, did she? He had them by the dozens.
“I’m trying to be nice here.” Her shoulders sagged. “I don’t do that often, so take advantage of it.”
His lips quirked. “Youcanbe a little schizophrenic at times,” he agreed. “Telling me off one minute, crying in my arms the next, then attempting to be nice.”
She got right in his face and poked him in the chest. “You try dealing with what I’ve been dealing with for the past year and a half. One of the first things I learned here was that I had to be tough. I couldn’t put up with any crap. And I had to take care of myself in any way I could. My brothers gave me lots of practice with the sarcastic comebacks but I also always knew they loved me. I haven’t had anyone around here love me since I arrived. Not even Eddie.”
Her face crumpled and he felt like a louse. She slumped on the couch with her back to him. Great, he’d hurt her feelings again.
He reached out and pulled her in close against his chest. Her body stiffened at first but when he didn’t let go, she drooped in his arms, giving up. He hated to see her this way.
“So if I tell you all my faults, you’ll feel better.”
She turned her face toward him and glared. “Go ahead, make fun. Yes, tell me youronefault then I’ll leave you alone.”
He chuckled. “There’s a lot more than one. Truthfully it may take some time if you want to go through the whole list. We might have to do this every night for a few months.”
She remained quiet but her body relaxed against him, waiting patiently. Not something she did often.
“You’re right about the dream making no sense,” he started. She shifted but remained leaning against him, her head cocked so she could hear his low words. “There were lots of people in it. You, Moreno, Barone, even Sonny and Gunther. But there were also a few people from Afghanistan.”
She spoke softly. “One of the damsels you couldn’t rescue?”
He inhaled her lavender scent again, filling him with her beauty as his memories were filled with anything but.
“We rescued her at first. She and her brother.”
“We?”
“My unit.” His mind pictured the guys who were like brothers to him. Jack, Scott, Drew, Nick, Keith. They’d had each other’s backs.
“Her name was Samira and her brother was Tariq. Their parents had been killed by the Taliban and they were roaming the streets begging meals. We cleared them out after some bombings decimated the village. They offered to help us.”
“And you let them.”
“Yeah. My understanding of their language was a little better than most so it was my responsibility to keep them safe and find out any information they had. It wasn’t much but we needed people who knew the area and could blend in, help us find the best routes through the mountains. The locals knew lots of them but we had no idea where they were.”
“What made them different from any other locals you encountered?”
He paused at the question, guilt rolling through him.
“They weren’t at first. But they were around for a while and I started teaching them some American card games. Samira was a regular card shark though Tariq could bluff with the best of them. I got too close. I even arranged for them to come back to the States with us. That was done occasionally with locals who helped the military.”
She pressed back against him and her hand squeezed his. Nothing sarcastic or wise had come from her mouth for a while. Nice. She stayed quiet, waiting for him to continue. He wasn’t sure he could. The memories were too painful. He’d spent a long time trying to push them to the farthest corner of his mind and had almost been successful. Until Meg came along and wiggled her way in to pry them loose.
“They gave us some information about potential weapons being used to kill our military, and some of their own people who didn’t support their cause. Unfortunately there was no way they could tell us where. They had to show us.”
He inhaled deeply, the trek through Afghani territory returning vividly to his mind. “Lots of things could have gone wrong but they didn’t. We found the weapons, learned of some new paths through the mountains that took time off our travels.”
She leaned against him more firmly now. Her head sagged back and her eyes fluttered. He rubbed her arm again and she shifted, gave a tired smile then snuggled deeper into him. She was awake, but barely. It was well after four in the morning. He caressed her arm some more, enticing her to sleep.
“Everything probably would have been fine,” he continued, needing to talk it out even if she didn’t hear. “But I was getting to know them, like them. Jack and Drew warned me not to, but I didn’t listen. I figured what harm could it do?”
“Jack and Drew?” Her sleepy voice drifted to him.
