Free No Reservations (Special Ops: Tribute Book 1) by Kate Aster Page B

She paused. “So,
what else have you done with your time out there?”
    “Plenty. I’ve got some good options for us. I’m meeting with
the leasing agents tomorrow and I’ll take pictures of the interiors for you
guys.”
    “That’s not what I’m asking you, Maddox.”
    “Okay, so what are you asking me?” He hated the way women
spoke cryptically sometimes. “I’m a guy, so use small words and talk slowly.”
    “Have you visited him yet?”
    Her question surprised him. He knew she’d ask one
day—maybe even nag him about it a few months down the road. But he didn’t
think she’d mention it so quickly.
    He sat up a bit straighter, bristling, unconsciously on the
defense.
    “No. I just got here, Becca. And it’s kind of low on my
priority list right now.”
    “Well, move it up a bit. You need to do this, Maddox. I know
you—and you need to do it. You need some closure.”
    “Oh, hell there’s no such thing as closure. You of all people know that.” He didn’t regret the words, but did regret the snap in his
tone when he said them. “I’m sorry. That was way out of line.”
    “I know. And you’re right, maybe.” Her tone was sad, empty
in a way that he’d often heard from Becca. “Maybe I just want for you what I’ve
never gotten for myself,” she finished.
    Maddox frowned. He’d never even told his own mother about
the demons that plagued him these past years. Why had he slipped and told
Becca?
    Because she knows those same demons on a
first-name basis.
    “I’ll get around to it,” he finally said.

Chapter Six
     
     
    Lowering herself into the soft leather chair, Bridget dropped
her face to her hands, then raked her fingers through her scalp.
    “Arrgh…” The moan she emitted was sheer agony.
    Leia touched Bridget’s back sympathetically as she handed
her a cup of coffee, and glanced at her other customers. “Don’t worry,” she
told them. “That was a moan of unrequited lust. She didn’t eat a bad scone.”
    They laughed in response, and Bridget glared at her friend
when Leia sat across from her.
    “What?” Leia asked innocently. “I had to tell them
something. You look like you’re about to die in my coffee house.”
    “I feel like I might,” Bridget confessed. “Do you have any
idea what kind of hell I’m living in right now?”
    Leia cocked her head. “Hon, you’ve got a gorgeous hunk of
man-flesh doing your plumbing for free. You’ve got a strange idea of what hell
is.”
    “But he’s so—” Her face contorted, pained.
    “Blazing hot? Yes, I’ll agree with you there. You could get burned
just standing next to him.”
    Bridget’s lashes lowered as she sipped her much-needed coffee,
her mind skipping back to the image of Maddox—Maddox, shirtless after a
run… Maddox, in one of those tight t-shirts he always seemed to wear when he came
down for breakfast… Maddox in the crisp polo he wore when he was meeting with
some leasing agents today. And always Maddox with that wide, brilliant grin
that made her panties melt.
    She frowned. “For the record, Leia, I can handle hot. I live
in a town filled with men in uniform, for God’s sake.”
    “Then what’s so hellacious that you’re crying in your
latte?”
    “I’m not crying. I’m moping,” Bridget corrected. “It’s just
that he’s so nice, Leia. I mean, I really just enjoy spending time with him. And
it’s depressing the hell out of me.”
    “Why?”
    “Because he’s taken .”
    “So you said in your texts yesterday, and the day before, about
twenty times, I might add. So were you repeating yourself to remind me or yourself ?”
    “Myself. Definitely myself. I’m not about to go sniffing
around someone else’s man.”
    “Of course you aren’t. But are you really sure he’s taken? I
mean, why isn’t she here with him?”
    “She’s in Sedona. She’s moving out here to be with him. He even
found an apartment for them.”
    Leia frowned. “Okay, so opening a business together and
shacking