Free Most Eligible Spy by Dana Marton

hand grasping the back of her chair. “What would you know about that? I’m sure you grew up in a perfect family. I’m sure your father never drank, your mother never ran off with a stranger, you never had to—” She bit her lower lip.
    A long moment of silence stretched between them.
    “You think I have the perfect life?” He laughed out loud at that.
    But she wouldn’t give up. “You’re strong. Whatever happens, you can defend yourself. You have all kinds of power, working for whoever you’re working for. You’re not at the mercy of anyone or anything. You have everything together.”
    He watched her. “And you?”
    She let go of her chair and wrapped her arms around herself. “I have nothing together. I just lost my brother. People think he was a criminal. My son is getting into fights defending him. I can barely pay my bills. And strangers are coming to the ranch in the middle of the night for God knows what reason.”
    She sank back into her seat. “I’m a single mother. Half the time, I’m petrified of doing something wrong, not being able to protect my son, people being mean to him because of my mistakes.” She shook her head. “I have nothing together. I’m just pretending that I do for Logan’s sake.”
    They sat in the quiet of the night for a while after the confession ended, her gaze on the table. She was probably embarrassed that she’d told him all that.
    He wished he knew what to say.
    In combat, he was a well-trained fighting machine and pretty damned effective. With women, he was a bumbling idiot through and through. But she was in distress, and he hated the thought of that, wanted to say something to make it better if he could. He went with the stark truth, something he rarely, if ever, shared.
    He stretched his legs out in front of him. “When I was born, my parents put me into a gym bag and dropped me into the Mississippi River from a bridge.”
    Her head snapped up. She stared at him. “I’m so sorry.”
    “Nothing to be sorry about. A Good Samaritan saw and fished me out. I went to foster care. Eventually ended up with the best family anyone could have wished for. Marine sergeant father, four older brothers, a mom who was kind and loving. They made me what I am today.”
    She sat silently for a long time. “What happened to your birth parents? It’s just... It’s unimaginable.”
    “It’s unimaginable to you because you’re a good mother. They were never identified.”
    “Are you still close to your foster family?”
    “My mother and my father are gone. I keep in touch with my brothers.” He didn’t like the pity that sat on her face. “You might know one of them, actually. He’s Calvin in ‘Calvin Cat Counting.’”
    “What?” Her eyes went wide. “Logan plays that game. Your brother is Calvin Mann? The guy who built an empire in educational software?”
    “It’s not that big of a deal. It’s just a company.”
    Her eyes went wide. “Oh, my God. You’re Mo.”
    He grinned. “I hope so. Otherwise, I’ll have to have all new business cards printed.”
    “I mean, you’re Mo the teddy bear, Calvin’s best friend in the game.”
    He shook his head. “He did that without consulting me.”
    “Wait till Logan finds out.” She laughed.
    He couldn’t help staring. She was pretty even under the worst circumstances, but when she laughed, she was dazzling. She should always be like that, happy and carefree.
    But even as he thought that, she grew serious again. “Your name, Moses. Is it because...”
    “Because I was pulled from water. The social worker who named me was a churchgoing woman.” He finished his drink.
    Molly watched him quietly, folding her hands together on the table in front of her. She opened her mouth, then closed it again. Then she finally said, “I want to tell you something, but I don’t want you to make a big deal out of it.”
    His instincts prickled. She had his full attention. “Okay.”
    “Dylan took out a mortgage on the