Page 23 of Rough Night

Mia thought about it for a while, wriggling her nose as she thought.

"Maybe one day. And what about you, what do you want?" she asked.

“I think I wouldn't mind a clean slate in some areas of my life. There are so many things I wish I could forget but never will,” he replied as he thought back to his experience in Afghanistan. He wished he could forget it all.

"You mean from the army?" Mia asked. He knew she would pick up on the hint, she was a smart woman.

"Yeah, I mean it was an experience that I'm half grateful for, but it's been tough since then," he replied. He knew he wouldn't go into too much detail, but he was finding it easy to talk to her about it. They were bonding over life, and it was making them that much closer.

"I'm sure that kind of thing wouldn't be easy for anyone, but you know sometimes it's good to talk about it, and if you wanted to I could listen," she replied. Sage appreciated her offer, but he knew it would be a while before he opened up completely about what had happened while in the army.

"Thank you, Mia. It means a lot to me," he said.

They sat in silence for a while.

"What do you paint?" he asked. He wouldn't push her to show him her work if she wasn't ready to share it, but he was still interested to know what she spent so much time on.

"It's mostly in the moment, it's usually how I'm feeling and what I'm thinking at that time so it could be anything. Sometimes it's nothing at all but just a lot of different colors meshed together," she replied. Sage watched her as she spoke, her hands lifted from the sides of her body as she used them to stroke the sky, making out the motions she used when she painted. He watched and pictured a paintbrush in her hands. She seemed so gentle but sure of her movements as her hands moved. It was captivating.

Sage took Mia's hand in his as it started to get colder. Her hand was soft and cold against his. They made no effort to leave the beach.

"You know, I've never held a guy's hand before," Mia said as she looked down at their hands intertwined. It wasn't that surprising to Sage as he had already learned about her dating history. He found it sad that no one had truly loved her before. It was almost impossible for him not to love her, so how could anyone else ignore the amazing person she was.

He wondered what she thought about herself if she didn't value herself that much. Sometimes when Sage would watch her, he could tell she was unsure about herself and he wanted her to see how amazing she truly was. His past had changed the way he saw people around him, but her past had changed the way she saw herself, and he really wanted her to know that she was a lot more than what she viewed herself to be.

She had shown him countless times just how strong she was, and the way she presented herself was always in a respectful manner, but when she walked into a room, everyone would stop and watch her. She demanded attention without even knowing it. It was just because of the way she was. She never asked for anyone to look at her, nor did she try too hard, but she had a way about her that people just couldn't ignore. The Screaming Demons respected her which was why she had been made one and all the girls in the Hell Kats looked up to her. She was powerful and for some reason, Sage knew she didn't actually know that.

She deserved so much more than what she had gotten most of her life, from the men she had allowed in, and if anything, Sage wanted to show her what she could have and so much more.