You made me tacos.” He meant it. The meat smelled great and he couldn’t wait to dig in.
She handed him a plate with four tacos on it. “My apologies again. Didn’t mean to unload on you. It’s been a day. You were there for part of it, but before that came the plumbing news.”
She took the top off a large tray that had several small bowls. “I wasn’t sure what you liked, so there is cheese, tomatoes, jalapeños and some caramelized onions. Oh, and I made guacamole. I left it in the fridge. I’ll get it.”
He loaded up his tacos and waited for her to return.
“This smells delicious. It’s been a long time since someone made me an actual meal.” Mostly he ate at a couple of local restaurants or the chow hall on base. The last six months he’d had to remind himself to eat. Food wasn’t that important to him. The second he let his guard down, the guilt overtook him.
The muscles in his gut tightened.
No. He had to force the visions from his head. His men were gone. They’d never share another meal.
And this wasn’t the time.
Focus. He had a beautiful woman sitting in front of him and she was sweet. He could try not being a hard-ass for an hour. And he was still more than a little curious about her proposition.
“Cooking is one of the things I do to relax,” she said. “I miss it. I haven’t had a kitchen for two months, well, one that had more than a hot plate in it. But enough about that. How did you end up here? What do you do?”
“I’m a helicopter pilot. I fly Vipers and Venoms, and when necessary, Stallions. I’m teaching Boots studying navigation at the base.”
“Boots?”
“New Marines.” His CO’s order that he develop better camaraderie with the new squad flashed through his head. Brody didn’t understand why he had to make friends. His job was to teach these guys how to best do their jobs so they didn’t die. Maybe if he’d prepared his other squad more, they would have survived.
His gut tightened again, the wave of sadness culminating in the pain and tension behind his right eye. Why did it always seem that when you cared about people they ended up dead?
“Brody? Is something wrong with the taco?”
Blinking, he refocused. After taking a bite, the spices a perfect blend with the meat and toppings, he shook his head.
He pointed the taco at her. “You didn’t lie. It’s really good.”
“Told you.” She paused. “You don’t sound like a Texan, in fact you don’t have much of an accent at all.”
“My dad is an entrepreneur and we moved a lot. Sometimes two or three times a year. More after my mom died.”
“Wow.” Mari frowned. “That must have been hard on you as a kid. And I’m so sorry about your mom.”
“It was and I do miss her. But it was a long time ago,” Brody said. He still smiled when he thought of her. His mom had been the one to make all the moving seem like an adventure. “And to be honest, it taught me to travel light.”
“Still, adjusting to new schools and stuff. And always making friends. I can’t even imagine how difficult that must have been.”
It was part of the reason he was such a loner. It was just easier that way. “So, Mari, can I ask why you decided to take on this house? Seems like a lot for one person.”
She grimaced and put her food back on her plate. He’d upset her, but he didn’t know how.
“True. It’s a lot. But I didn’t have a choice really. This started out as a project my ex and I had agreed on together. I bought the house and he would pay for the renovations, which were actually more than the house was worth. By the time we’d be finished though, the house would be worth four times as much. The plan was to flip it and move on to the next place. Except...the day after I closed on the house he broke up with me.”
“Low blow,” Brody said through gritted teeth.
“Not going to argue with you. And I can think of some nastier things to say. Anyway, I was stuck. I can’t sell the house as is, I won’t get back the money I put into it. So my only option is to fix it up as best I can and sell. But without his money, I’m having to do it all on a shoestring.”
Her ex deserved a load of bad karma for doing this to Mari. Brody hadn’t known her long, but she was sweet, and didn’t deserve to be treated like that.
Thinking of the situation at the grocery store only made him angrier. After all the jerk put her through, then he rubbed her nose in the fact he was marrying another woman.
“Do you need me to kill him?”
She smiled. “You know, earlier today when I found out how much it was going to take to bring the plumbing up to code, I might have taken you up on that. No, my proposition, well, it’s a little out there.”
“Just ask. Honestly, my curiosity is starting to get the better of me.”
She sipped, more like chugged, the sangria. Then she set down her glass.
“I watched you fixing the roof on your house a couple of weeks ago. And then you repaired the mailbox and put in a new post. I promise I’m not stalking you, but I’ve also seen you tinkering with your motorcycle. A lot. And your truck. I just wondered if maybe you might be able to help me out around here. Maybe there’s something I could do for you in return. Wait. That came out really wrong. I meant cook or something.” She laughed nervously.
It took him a minute to figure out what she was proposing. “You’d like me to do handyman stuff?”
“Yes. Over the years I’ve learned a lot. I’ve even helped out on jobs. I have to bring in tradesmen for the electrical and plumbing, and those guys aren’t cheap. So most of the other work is going to fall to me. This time, as I explained, I can’t afford to hire the guys I normally would.”
He pressed his lips together. It wasn’t a matter of him not being able to do the work. He could. But hanging around Mari all the time probably wasn’t a good idea.
She was the sexiest woman he’d met in, well...forever. And he didn’t need complications like that. And he sure as hell didn’t want to care about her or her rickety house.
He glanced up to see her chewing on her lip again.
“It was a dumb idea. Forget I asked. Really.”
“No. It’s that I’m pretty busy at the base. Lots of new recruits and...”
Liar. He could do the job in his sleep. And he was out of there every weekday at five because he didn’t like being reminded of the past, which left him hours at home with nothing to do.
“Of course. Like I said, forget I asked. I don’t know why I even thought it—I probably sound totally desperate. Can we just drop it? Please?” She cleared her throat and averted her eyes.
Shoot. He’d disappointed her. Her ex had left her in a bad
