Janie laughed. “Didn’t exactly use kid gloves with you guys, huh?”
“More like ones made from iron.” He sighed. “But it was just what that cocky kid from across the river needed.”
“Cocky? You?”
His dark stare grew narrow. “I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or you’re genuinely surprised.”
“Oh, I’m surprised.” Janie crossed her arms loosely at her front. “You seem too stoic to be cocky.”
“Yeah well, it was a long time ago.”
“So you’ve grown up since then?”
“Something like that.”
Speaking of growing up . . .
“You mentioned the other day that you were raised around here?”
“A small town not far from Joint Base Andrews.” He thumbed in that direction.
“Are your parents still there?”
Emmett blinked as a haunted look came over him. “My mom passed away twenty years ago from breast cancer.”
Twenty years.
“I’m so sorry.” She frowned. “What about your dad?”
His scoff oozed with sarcasm. “He’s the whole reason I went to basic in the first place.”
“I take it the two of you didn’t get a long?”
“When I was younger, sure. But after Mom . . .” His audible swallow pulled at her heartstrings. “My dad was never the same after she died. He decided to drown his own grief with the bottle rather than remember he had a son who still needed him.”
Janie reached for him then, her fingers wrapping as far around his taut forearm as they could. “That must have been hard.”
“It was.”
Still is.
The admission was as soft as the look in his beautiful stare.
It was also the first time the larger-than-life man had shown even a glimmer of vulnerability since she’d met him. But a moment later, Emmett blinked, and just like that, the walls surrounding him were back.
“What about you?” He slowly stepped out of her reach, returning to his desk. “Tell me about your family.”
Janie followed him with her own set of slow, casual steps. “I don’t have any family. My parents were killed in a car wreck when I was a baby. I was an only child, just a few months old, so I have no memory of them or the wreck.” She stopped in front of his desk and lifted some hair from her forehead. “See that tiny little scar right there? That’s all I came away with.” She let her hair fall. “One teeny, tiny scratch. My parents, however, weren’t quite as lucky. But something tells me you already knew all that.”
“Blake gave me the basics,” Emmett admitted. “But as I’m sure you know, there’s only so much you can learn about a person by reading a background check.”
“Even when its your guy at the keyboard?”
Lips she was still tempted by curved upward. “Even with Blake at the keyboard.” He gave one of his broad shoulders a shrug. “And to be perfectly honest, I like hearing about you from you.”
Her heart gave a forceful kick. “I liked hearing about you from you, too.”
Despite their juvenile-esque confessions, the moment felt genuine and sweet.
