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Interesting.

Buck turned his head to look at Mari, switching the carrier from the hand between them to the hand outside.

“I can carry it.”

Mari reached out to take the carrier in hand, but he wasn’t about to do that.

“I just didn’t want to bump you with it.”

She looked down between them and took a step away to put a bit more space between them. “Okay.” She started to walk a little faster, gesturing to the right side of the portico. “My car’s in the side lot.”

He wanted to shrug at her words.

He’d never parked at the rehab center.

When he’d been assigned to a care specialist there, he just hadn’t gone.

One call to his new commander, Pallas, had been all it took for the team, what was left of it, to volunteer to drag his ass to his appointments.

But instead of asking what or where she was talking about, he followed her, keeping himself within a half a step of her own.

She wasn’t a tall woman, not really. Her shoulders were just shy of his, but she was tall enough that he could turn his head and look at her without ducking his chin to see her face.

“When do you bring Ebi to the center?”

Again, she balked silently.

He didn’t know if it was the question or the possible answer that made her uncomfortable. Still, he hated that she had to think about it before she answered.

“I come about three or four times a week.”

She let the answer drift off there as if she didn’t want to offer up any more details than she already had.

“Mornings? Afternoons?”

He wondered if that was vague enough to get answers from her.

“Mid-morning,” she offered. “I get stuff done at home and then…”

She stopped talking and he turned his head to look.

Mari’s teeth were pushed into her bottom lip, the skin visible along the edges, a slightly darker brown that said she wasn’t wearing any lip color.

He liked that.

“I’m coming back on Thursday,” he offered and it might have been the truth, it was just a day that he threw out to test the waters. “Will you be here with Ebi?”

She shook her head. “Friday.”

She cast a look in his direction as if she was gauging his reaction. “Today,” she explained, “I was running a little late.”

Ah.

That explained why he hadn’t seen her before.

He was normally in the afternoon, but today, he’d been called in to take an earlier time because his therapist was out sick and someone else was covering his time.

“Okay.”