“Why’d you get a tat of Louise?” Sadie heard herself ask. Crap, she wasn’t really going to go there. She didn’t need to know any more about Roman than she already did. Yet, here she was, asking away.
He glanced at the ink peeking from under his sleeve. “Felt like the right thing to do after all we’d been through.”
“Makes sense,” Sadie said. For the record, it did not make sense.
Roman stopped talking long enough for the silence to stretch before he spoke again. “We were grabbing snaps of a routine mission when things went to shit. Louise caught the glint of the metal when I was clicking.” He slid his gaze to Sadie. “Machine gun. Not our guys.”
Holy crap. She knew he’d been in bad situations, but she’d never thought too much on what those might be.
“We didnotsee them coming, but she did. That non-complex mission got complex quick.” He patted the tattoo, took a breath, and soldiered on. “Didn’t think we’d make it out. We had to change our plans.”
His jaw ticked and Sadie wished she could reach over and touch the image of Louise.
“Bunch of soldiers took bullets.” He squinted behind his sunglasses. “Everyone survived though, thanks to Louise. I commemorated the experience with ink.”
“So the vines…?” she asked.
“We were in the jungle.” His shoulder lift indicated it was no big deal, but the visible pounding of the pulse in his throat told the truth for him.
“I’m so glad you’re okay,” she said, and she meant it.
He slowed his pace after she spoke.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about you today,” he said. The angles of his jawline drew her attention away from the imprint of Louise. She’d forgotten how his jaw worked when he was deep in thought.
“Yeah?”
He lifted a shoulder. “Yeah.”
Sadie had been thinking a lot about him, too.
Roman nudged her arm with his elbow. “Maybe we should babysit again together. This time without the kid.”
“That would be a date,” Sadie pointed out.
“And?” he asked
And apparently, he was asking her out.
“Rome, I was serious when I told you that my career is my life. Especially right now.”
That got his attention. He slowed further, seemingly trying to stretch their walk to take more time. “Why now?”
She couldn’t tell him about her silly superstition. As Marlee had said recently, it wasn’t one case to decide them all. Still, though, once Sadie got through this one, she could move forward with the confidence she knew she deserved.
“It’s ridiculous,” Sadie said.
“I’m sure it’s not.” Roman didn’t push further though.
“I’m also spending a lot of time with Luke.” She held up her fingers as she counted. “And I moved into my apartment. Still getting settled there.” Those were two additional things. “And I’m trying to adjust to being back in Denver.” Four full things to divert her attention from him.
“You like to do shit on your own, don’t you?” It wasn’t a question. He also didn’t look at her as he spoke. His focus stayed straight ahead.
And yes, generally, she did prefer to get things done by herself.
At least then she’d know they were done correctly.
His loose-limbed gait was easy. Some might even call it cocky. He glanced at her then, but she couldn’t see his eyes, couldn’t get a read on them, since they were covered with sunglasses.
