He gestures at the stools set on the opposite side of the island. “Sit. You look tired.”
I arch an eyebrow at him. “I looktired? Gee, thanks.”
Nico stops mid-stir. “Shit. I didn’t mean it that way. You look fine. I just know you were up late. Which was my fault.”
As he looks at me, his careful veneer of confidence slips. And behind it, the same vulnerability I saw last night reappears.
He’s nervous,I realize.He really meant it when he said he wants to make up for what he did. But he’s not sure how.
Another layer of ice around my heart softens.
I slide onto a stool and peer at the contents in the mixing bowl. It looks like there’s an entire carton of eggs in there, plus about a pound of shredded cheese. “How many people are you planning to feed?” I ask. “Just us? Or a small army?”
Nico looks into the bowl. “Just us.” His lips quirk. “I kept adding eggs because it didn’t look like enough. So then I had to keep adding cheese to get the right ratio.”
“I see.”
He starts stirring again. “I don’t cook much. When I was active duty, I was traveling a lot, so it was easier to eat out or do microwave dinners. Things that wouldn’t go bad in the fridge if I was gone for a couple of weeks. And after, I was so busy getting the company up and running, there never seemed to be enough time.”
“How long ago did you start it?”
“Just about five years ago. I separated from the Army when I was thirty. And it took close to a year to get everything with Fox & Falcon up and running. Finding a location, creating a business plan, hiring employees, training them, getting jobs lined up…”
“You didn’t want to work with your dad?” Nico’s father owns a home security company, or at least, he did. From what I recall, it focused more on setting up systems in private residences, rather than the corporate and government clients Fox & Falcon serves.
Nico grimaces. Anger tightens his features. But he quickly smooths his expression into a more neutral one. “No. I didn’t. He wanted me to. That was one of the reasons he didn’t want me… Well. He wasn’t happy when I enlisted. He told me I was wasting my talents.”
“What?Wasting your talents by joining the Army? Fighting for our country? Joining one of the most elite Special Ops groups in the entire world?”
“I didn’t think it was a waste, either.” A faint smile lifts his lips. “And obviously, I didn’t listen to him. But while I was serving, I got the idea of starting my own company. One my friends could be a part of. Private security made sense, given ourexperience. But joining up with my father? No. I never wanted that.”
“You wanted to make something of your own.”
“Yeah.” Nico nods. “I did.”
He gives the egg mixture a final stir and sets the bowl aside. Then he grabs a nearby cutting board and sets a couple of red peppers atop of it. “Do you want peppers in the eggs, too?”
“Sure.” My stomach makes a hungry rumble. Last night I was too anxious to eat more than a couple of bites, so I’m starving this morning.
As Nico begins slicing the peppers, he asks, “I haven’t asked recently. With everything else… But how is your memory? Has anything come back yet?”
I sigh. “Not yet. Sometimes it feels like it’s right there—but then it’s gone.”
Nico looks up from the cutting board and gives me a sympathetic look. “I’m sure it’ll come back soon.” He stops. Glances at his watch. “That reminds me. The doctor is coming around noon. That’s another reason I took the day off. So I can be available when he’s here.”
“The doctor? Coming here?”
“Yeah. I know you’re supposed to have a follow-up, and I thought it would be better to do it here.”
“Nico.” I lean forward. “Doctors don’t make house calls anymore. Especially not neurologists.”
Two spots of pink color his cheeks. “Yeah, they will.”
“Nico. How much did you pay?—”
“It doesn’t matter.” He starts chopping again. “He’s coming here. Around noon. And after, if he says it’s okay, I thought we could work on some jigsaw puzzles. If it’s not too much for your concussion, that is.”
“Wait. What?” For a moment, I wonder if thisisall a hallucination, and everything that happened last night and so far this morning is just in my imagination. “Jigsaw puzzles?”
