Page 22 of Spark

“I’m sorry. That sucks,” she said, but she didn’t try and console him. He didn’t want her pity, like she didn’t want his.

His rough-skinned fingers curled tighter around his beer bottle, and he dipped his chin.

“So you’re a Marine?” she said, changing the subject away from his family since she could see it wasn’t something he liked to discuss. But she also wanted to know everything she could about this man, despite knowing she should keep her distance.

“Yeah.”

“How long were you on active duty?”

“Ten years.”

“What made you decide to stop?”

He shrugged his big shoulders. “Got injured bad enough I had to walk away.” His jaw tightened.

“Do you miss it?”

“Sometimes.”

While he was answering her questions, she was going to keep asking them. She was hungry for any tidbit about the big, silent man sitting beside her. “Why did you come here? Lucy said you guys barely knew each other before you accepted the job with Hugh.”

“Family shit,” he said, that jaw getting tight again.

She was being nosy, pushing, but she couldn’t stop herself, a trait her parents had tried very hard to squash. “Is that why you listed Hugh as your contact with the Navy, not your brother?”

Dex looked taken aback for a moment, then obviously figured Lucy had filled her in. “I listed Hugh because I didn’t have anyone else at the time.”

That made no sense. Hattie frowned, and he didn’t miss her confusion.

“My brother moved in with me and my girlfriend, and while I was deployed, she decided she liked him more. They put my shit in storage and changed the locks. So the next time I was shipped off, I listed Hugh instead.”

He said it calmly, but there was no missing the pain in his eyes. Hattie’s chest ached for him. That kind of betrayal was not something you could easily get past. She rested her hand over Dex’s, most definitely surprised and totally ignoring how much she hated the idea of him with another woman, because thoughts like that were completely insane. “You still love her.”

Dex jolted a little. “No. And I don’t hate her either. But whatever we had, it wasn’t that—love—not if it was so easy to toss aside. She never really knew me, and I sure as hell never really knew her.”

Relief washed through her, and she chose to ignore that as well.

She nodded, because she kind of understood. She knew all about betrayal. She had parents who turned on her as soon as she did something they didn’t like. “You let them both in and they betrayed you. That’s what hurt most.”

“Yeah. I mean, we sat down after I was injured, after my last deployment, tried to build some bridges, but it’s hard, you know?”

“I get that. You wouldn’t believe the underhand tactics my parents pulled to bend me to their will. I understand betrayal.”

His gaze grew even more intense. “I’m sorry, Hattie.”

She swallowed, her throat suddenly dry. She quickly changed the subject back to Dex. “So you were injured overseas? Is that how you got your scars?”

His throat worked before he spoke. “Yeah…there was a bomb. We lost a couple of guys.” Pain moved through his eyes, and she wished she’d never brought it up. Seeing him in pain, God, it actually hurt her as well.

Suddenly, she didn’t want to talk anymore. She didn’t want to think about any of that, about her family, about what could have happened to Dex or how lucky he was to be there, sitting beside her.

No. Right then, all she wanted was Dex’s lips on hers.

“Being out on your own can’t be easy after what you went through with your folks. I’m here if you need anything. You just gotta ask,” he said, his heated gaze moving over her, and there was no missing the hunger in his eyes.

God, what was this thing between them? She hadn’t felt quite right since she walked out of his apartment. She’d missed him. How was that possible? She barely knew Dex, but for some reason, she felt the opposite.

Like, for instance, he’d just told her to ask for what she wanted. He meant that. Dex didn’t jabber on about nothing. He only said what needed to be said. He frowned often. He sometimes found people confusing, their emotions hard to figure out. He preferred the people in his life to say what was on their mind, not play games, not drop hints, just flat-out say what they wanted.