“Almost two years to the day after I moved back in with her.” His gaze returned to hers. “I was at school when the counselor came and pulled me from my classroom. I was only ten, and our past was such a clusterfuck of chaos I was sure when I saw the police officers waiting for us in the principal’s office that she’d fallen back off the wagon.”
“But she hadn’t.” Shadow’s vision blurred behind a well of unshed tears.
Her kindred heart broke for the boy who’d lost his mother at such a young age. Especially after all they’d been through to find their way back to one another.
“No.” Digger’s voice grew thick as his childhood story drew to a tragic end. “Some teenager coked out of his mind robbed the convenience store where she was working. The officers told me my mother did everything exactly right. She gave him the money from the cash register without arguing. She never tried to fight him off or threaten him in any way. And the kid…he just shot her at point-blank range as if she were nothing. When the cops asked him later why he’d done it, he said he’d killed her just because?—”
“He could,” she finished softly. Because yeah, she’d read the police report on his mother’s death. But no matter how many times her eyes crossed over the printed words, they’d never made her feel the empathy or pain in her chest at his loss as she did in that very moment. “I’m so sorry, Slade.” His nickname didn’t seem fitting, given the story he’d just shared. “I know our stories aren’t exactly the same, but I do understand how you feel. To a certain extent, at least.”
She’d been lucky enough to have a loving and nurturing mother from even before she was born. But he’d only been given that for two very short years before a bullet ripped his mother away.”
“I’m sorry.”
His muttered apology took her by surprise.
“For what?”
“Making the conversation all about me.”
“You didn’t.” Shadow shook her head. “Iaskedyou to talk about your past. And I know it isn’t an easy thing to dredge up. Trust me, there are days I wish my past was all some sort of terrifying dream, but…” Her words trailed off with a shake of her head before she looked deep into his eyes and said, “It really means a lot that you were willing to share all of that with me.”
“Not sure why I did, to be honest.”
For some reason, this made her smile. “Perhaps because you aren’t strong enough to resist my charming ways.”
“Or maybe you put some sort of truth serum in the pico without my knowledge or consent.”
Shadow blinked, and it took her a full two seconds to realize…
“Did you just make a joke?”
His deadpan expression told her everything she needed to know.
“Holy shit, you did. You, the infamous smiling-is-for-pussies Digger just made an actual joke. I mean, on a scale of one to hilariously funny, it maybe rates at like…a six. But still, you put yourself right out there, and I for one am so proud to know that?—”
“Shadow?”
“Yes?”
“Shut up and finish your food.”
The man’s words may have been gruff and a tad bit rude, but the small smirk she saw sent her lips curving into a full-blown grin. For the remainder of their time at the table, they took turns sharing more about themselves and their lives prior to working for Tac-Ops.
Digger volunteered even more about himself, and the years following his mother’s death. He gave his thoughts about growing up in the system, his struggles at school, and how glad he was that he’d joined the Navy right after graduation.
Shadow shared more about what her life was like prior to her mother’s murder. Memories of her mom, and some funny ones involving her dad.
Long after the food had vanished from their plates, the two were still sitting at the table swapping stories as if they were each trying to one-up the other in a competition of the funniest story.
A rush of warmth quickly spread throughout her entire system as she listened to him tell of antics pulled by him and the rest of the team. The longer they talked, the more they shared. And when one particularly hysterical story involving her teenage self nearly getting caught hacking into her high school’s online grading system, the most wonderful, magical, surprising thing happened…
Slade “Digger” Garrison threw his head back and laughed.
All sense of time and space around her slowly began to dissolve. For the second time in her life—the first being when her mother was shot and killed—Shadow felt as though her entire world had just tilted on its axis.
Beautiful.
It wasn’t nearly an adequate enough word to describe the sight before her, but she couldn’t seem to think of another that fit the bill. Digger’s chin was up, his eyes squeezed tight, and the opened mouth smile he wore spread clear across his handsome face.
