“Because just look at you. Look at you. You burn so bright now, I can hardly stand to be here. Ishouldn’tbe here. If I was a better man I’d go now and never come back.”
“Better doesn’t sound like you never coming back.”
“Yeah, and I know that too. God knows, I know that too. Why do you think I came and then just sat in my car like a fucking moron?”
“So then stay. Stay, and be in this with me.”
“You make it sound so simple.”
“Itissimple.Unless some actual problem is in the way. Like a secret wife.”
She threw in the last one to try lighten things again.
Though it surprised her when it worked. A gleam of light flickered deep down in those dark eyes, and when he answered, there was just a hint of that wry quality his voice sometimes got.“I can barely flirt—do you really think a secret wife is a possibility?”
“Depends if the secret wife is into guys who believe their sexiness doesn’t exist.”
“No secret wives are into that. But only because you just made it up.”
“Ah, so we’re back to pretending you’re not a stone cold fox.”
Now his mouth was trying to quirk up at the corner.
Though he tried to hold it down.
He kept his tone firm.
“There’s no pretending when your nose has been broken around ten dozen times.”
“Don’t give me that bull. You read romance novels. You know busted noses on guys are hot as fuck.”
“Yeah, in books they’re hot. In real life, they’re evidence of lengthy prison sentences.”
“Is this your gentle way of breaking your ten year stretch to me?”
“It would be, if I thought making one up would turn you off.”
“Well, it’s good that you know by now that nothing would.”
“You’re only saying that because you don’t have the full story.”
“Let me guess. You did things for the government that you’re not proud of.”
She didn’t expecthim to fall silent at that. Mostly, because it was just a wild guess, but also because he had to know what silence would mean. It would tell her she was right, without a word from him. And it did. Man, it told her ithard.
“Oh, I think that’s a bingo,” she said, in a voice that sounded way too awed and much too hushed. But thankfully, he got the reference toInglorious Basterds.
And that kind of brought things back to earth again.
“It’s just bingo,” he said.
Then she couldn’t help laughing.
“Fuck,your movie knowledge is so good.”
“I don’t think my movie knowledge is the thing worth mentioning here.”
“Well, you know me. I never focus on the thing worth mentioning. It’s always about who you are right here and now and all the ways in which you’ve proven yourself to be the best of men—when really I should be obsessing over the murky past you quite clearly wish had never happened.” She shrugged one shoulder, casual but not. Kicked her wry tone up a notch.“Don’t worry though. When we get to act three, I’ll google you and have a meltdown because you murdered the defense minister of Mexico with a washing machine.”
