Page 14 of Mile High Ex's Dad
“You’re coming,” I say, fastening the first button. “Right?”
He gives me a long look. “As if I’d miss the spectacle.”
That gets the faintest curve from my mouth. “Good.”
“I’ll be there,” he says. “Though I reserve the right to leave the second someone starts crying over floral arrangements.”
“That narrows the evening to the first ten minutes.”
He snorts softly.
I button the shirt the rest of the way, fingers steady despite the ache pulling along my ribs. The wound burns, hot and mean, but manageable. Irritating more than disabling.
He steps closer, straightening the collar for me with brisk annoyance, like he resents the fact that he knows exactly how I prefer it to sit.
“You should go home,” he mutters. “Lie down. Take the painkillers I know you won’t take.”
“And yet here we are.”
“And yet here we are,” he repeats darkly.
He smooths the front of the shirt once, then steps back and studies me.
“Color’s better,” he says.
“I’m touched by your concern.”
“Don’t be. It’s medically inconvenient when you bleed out before I finish yelling at you.”
I almost answer, but my mind slips for half a second.
Rain. A pale face lifted over me through the storm. Dark eyes, soft mouth.
That impossible, almost-sad smile.
For one treacherous second, I can feel it again. The strange calm that cut through the gunfire when I looked up and saw her. Seven months gone, and still my body recognized her before my mind did. As if it had been waiting all this time.
My angel. The woman from the plane. The one I searched for longer than I care to admit.
The one who vanished before I could keep her.
And tonight, in the rain, I saw her again.
“Viktor.”
I blink and drag my attention back. My friend is watching me too closely.
“There it is,” he says quietly. “That look.”
“What look?”
“The one that means you’re about to become everyone’s problem.”
I take my jacket from Yuri and slide it on carefully over the fresh bandage. “You give me far too much credit.”
“No,” he says. “I give you exactly the right amount.”
He’s still watching me when I settle the jacket on my shoulders and button it.
