Page 53 of Tempt
“Why not?”
“How old is your dad?”
“Fifty-six.”
Fuck. Her dad was less than ten years older than I was. And she was closer tomy son’sage than mine. “There you go.”
“Listen, my stepmom is ten years younger than my dad, so he would not have room to judge us.”
“There’s more than just our age difference to judge,” I pointed out.
She sighed, her smile disappearing. “True.”
I tipped up her chin. “I didn’t mean to make you feel bad.”
“I think if I didn’t feel bad, something would be wrong with me. Don’tyoufeel bad?”
“Let’s talk about something else,” I said.
“Okay.” She focused her attention on my tattoos. “Can I ask about them now?”
“Sure.”
“Which one did you get first?”
“The one on my chest with the skull.”
Her hand moved over it, like she was smoothing its rough edges.
“And which one is your most recent?”
“The bone frog.”
She traced the bones inked on my shoulder with one fingertip. “What does it mean?”
“It’s a way to honor a SEAL lost in the line of duty.”
“Oh,” she said softly. “A friend?”
“Yes. Someone on my team. A mission didn’t go as planned.”
“I’m sorry.” Her eyes met mine. “Was it hard? The things you did?”
“I guess so. But we were trained well.”
“Did you like it?”
“Yeah.”
She ran her fingertips down my arm, following them with her eyes. “What made you leave?”
“I was wounded on that same mission. Took some machine gun fire to my right arm.” I rotated my shoulder so she could see the scar, although it was camouflaged pretty well by tattoos.
She gasped and hugged my right forearm to her chest, as if it had just happened.
“It’s fine. I had a few surgeries and it healed better than expected. I lost some range of motion, that’s all. It could have been a lot worse.”
She kissed my knuckles. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
