Like they were precious.
LikeIwas precious.
“Just thought someone was attacking,” I whispered.
I felt a soft pressure against my chin before my head was turned, and I found Doc staring at me with those breathtaking eyes of his.
“It’s okay,” he said with a soft head nod. “It’s a fair reaction, given all you’ve been through. A deployment, and then straight into where Ranger and Ghost found you. But you are safe here. Even if we are attacked, there are contingencies to keep all of you safe.”
I swallowed hard. “Promise?”
He brought the back of my hand up to his lips and… kissed.
He pressed those luscious fucking lips to my skin… and actually kissed.
“You have my word as a man, Miss Elizabeth,” he said as he stood and dropped my hand.
I watched him walk back to the other side of the table before he took a seat, and then I looked down and realized… he fished my spoon out of my bowl. It sat there on the edge of it, shining and clean.
I wasn’t even sure when the hell he did that.
Or maybe there was another spoon.
God, I used to be so observant.
“I’ve noticed that you’re concerned with getting a message to your superior officer, but not to your family,” Doc said, pulling my attention back to him. “Is there a reason why?”
Well, I suppose that was one way to change the topic. “I was adopted.”
“Oh?”
I nodded. “I didn’t get along with my adoptive parents. Em was basically the only person in school that kept me sane. And then when I turned eighteen, I enlisted and never looked back. It was the quickest way out of this place, and at that time, Redd Valley didn’t feel like home in a very long time.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Miss Elizabeth.”
I shrugged and took another bite of the soup. “But Em stayed here, so I came back a lot to visit her. Especially after deployments. It’s sort of our routine that I come here instead of heading back to my barracks on base.”
“Which is how you knew something was wrong with her.”
I nodded and took a bite of the garlic bread. “When she wasn’t at that airport, even though we confirmed plans the evening before, the first place I went searching was the local hospital. Doctors’ offices. Hotels. Anywhere she could have possibly been overnight.”
“Did you check with her parents?”
I tilted my head side to side. “It’s not really something that I think about. I mean, she has her family and she keeps in touch with them, but she’s a bit estranged from them, like I am from mine. Calling her family was a last-ditch effort to figure out what had happened, and when I realized that she wasn’t with them, either, they started asking questions.”
“I can only imagine how hard that was for you to hear.”
“It’s why I went searching for her. I promised them that I would. That I’d figure out what happened to her. And I couldn’t let them down, you know? I couldn’t let her down.”
He reached over the table and placed his hand on my wrist. “You did good, Miss Elizabeth. You were on a trail you didn’t even realize you were on. I’d love to pick your brain sometime about how you ended up at that law firm.”
I smirked. “But not now?”
He shook his head and withdrew his touch. “No. Right now is for relaxation. We can dive down the lane of horrid memories another time.”
I searched his face for a moment, watching him take a few bites of food. But eventually, I couldn’t keep it inside any longer.
“Are you close with your parents?”
