Free Safeword: Rainbow by Candace Blevins

wireless connection, then stood and started gathering ingredients for lunch.
    "I'm remembering that you don't eat fish. Is that because of your research into them? Mac said you'd gone back for a zoology degree, something to do with fish."
    "Sounds like David. My original degrees had more to do with conservation and fighting pollution, but then I wanted specifically to study various species of fish and use those with my other studies as I research how they are being affected by the things we are doing to the planet, so I went back for the Zoology degree. And yes, after studying fish as in-depth as I have, it's hard to eat them. I'm surprised you remembered that about me."
    "I knew from the beginning that our time was limited, so I soaked in every detail. You didn't know that. It wasn't fair, and I'm sorry about that."
    "I know what you used to do for a living, and I can come up with a lot of guesses as to why our time had to be short. Plus, I was never angry with you, it just seemed that the way you said goodbye, was, I don't know. You didn't have to do that, and I appreciated that you did. If you had just left without telling me anything I'd have gone back to the club looking for you and you would not have been there and my heart would have been a different kind of broken. I'd have felt used, I think. Or I would have doubted what I'd felt. So, telling me that you were leaving, and that I hadn't imagined what we'd had together, was a pretty nice thing to do. Not something most men would do, I don't think."
    "I felt chickenshit for doing it when you couldn't ask questions or say anything back."
    "Yeah, I guess it was chickenshit, but… I was still never really angry. My marks did fade completely in about two weeks, a full week before my next research trip. But I was sad to see them go, they were some sort of connection to you. I guess. What are you cooking?"
    He kissed her forehead. "I prefer to have the big meal in the middle of the day and then eat light later on. So, for our lunch today, late as it is, we have chicken Parmigiana, green beans, and a mixed veggie dish that will make your mouth water."
    "If you can get my dad to eat his vegetables that will be a miracle. Why will it make my mouth water?"
    "It's just zucchini and squash and onions, but I cook it with beef bouillon powder and brown sugar and a touch of steak sauce and it just brings the flavors alive."
    She watched his hands flying around cutting up the vegetables and her eyes got wide. "David wasn't kidding, you really can cook. Well, I guess I knew that; the dinner you cooked for me three years ago was incredible. Where did you learn this?"
    "One of my foster dads was a professional chef and he spent a lot of time teaching me things."
    "Foster dad? You haven't mentioned family before. I... I guess I don't know what questions to ask. Do you want to talk about it?"
    Tyler started to shut down, and realized that he couldn't do that. Not with Viv. It wasn't a huge deal anyway; just something he'd prefer not to talk about. But, if he were going to try to make a relationship work with her, he had to share this kind of thing.
    "How about I give you the short version now and maybe we go into the longer version later?"
    "Sure, if that's what you're comfortable with."
    "My mother was a spy when she got pregnant with me. They were actually called spies back then, too. Not the politically correct titles we use nowadays. Anyway, apparently my biological father had been a spy as well, but he's not listed on my birth certificate and I don't know who he was. I just know what little my mom told an eleven year old kid. Once she started showing that she was pregnant my mother got an office job with the agency, something that didn't require travel, and she kept those kinds of jobs after I was born. It was just her and me, she never spoke of her parents and I never asked why I didn't have grandparents. I've looked for some grandparents as an adult, but she must have changed her