knelt to pick it up.
Seeing his ex-wife smiling in what used to be his favorite photo of her and now was merely something he’d neglected to remove and destroy, Braden snatched it from her.
“Your wife?” she asked.
Did they really have to go down this path? “Ex. The divorce was just final a few months ago.”
“Oh.” She looked at his still-open wallet and saw more pictures. “You have kids?”
He crumbled the picture of Serena and tossed it to a trash can near a thick concrete column. He made the hole. “A son. Aiden. He’s six.” That was a topic he could discuss all night.
Arizona glanced from the trash can to him. What he could only call a grimace crossed her expression.
“I don’t want any pictures of my ex in my wallet,” he explained.
The hint of a smile began to push up her mouth. “I’m the youngest of eight. Everyone but me got to hold babies growing up.”
So, it wasn’t throwing out the picture of Aiden’s mother that bothered her. “Never been exposed to children, huh?”
“They’re little aliens who poop and scream and don’t stop wiggling.”
“Most women love kids.” They moved up in the line toward the jet bridge. Wasn’t it a natural instinct for women to nurture? In the office he often saw groups of them hovering around newborns, cooing and coddling.
“I’m not most women.”
“You don’t want kids of your own some day?”
Arizona’s eyes popped in appall. “Oh, God. No.” She shuddered, her bare shoulders shaking a little.
Well, wasn’t this an interesting highlight. Arizona Ivy couldn’t stand kids. It reflected badly on her, and he welcomed the barrier. “What’s wrong with them?”
“They’re on another planet?”
Although her sarcasm was obvious, he took the message literally. He had a son. She didn’t like kids. It would never work out for them. Good to know right from the start.
“They’re just kids,” he said. “Innocent. A clean palatte ready to absorb information and grow up to be an adult...just like you.”
“Great. Introduce me when they’re adults.”
He chuckled. “What happens when you encounter them?” He’d love to see that some day.
“I find an excuse to leave the room.”
“Don’t you mean planet?” She could be a science project. What made some women gush over babies and others turn cold?
She sighed, no longer joking. “I guess I don’t relate to them.”
“They’re kids.” Nobody was supposed to relate. Not on the same level.
“They’re loud and obnoxious.”
“Kid. Not adult.”
“Right.”
Braden shook his head. She really didn’t get it. “You’re missing out on a big part of life.”
“Yeah? What’s that? Exhaustion that leads to unhappiness and lack of sex?”
“No. The moments you remember for a lifetime. The words they say and how they say them. The questions they ask. The first time they tell you they love you.”
Feeling her watch him, he realized he was smiling fondly, thinking of Aiden.
“I can live without all that.”
“Right, because you have a serious career to go after.” And sex.
He wished that thought hadn’t entered his head.
“Which is precisely why I prefer other women to do the childbearing.” She walked forward, hauling her carry-on.
Braden felt better and better about her going along. Whatever had transpired when she’d bumped into him at Lincoln’s house, it was brief and over now. He could concentrate on finding his sister and not worry about Arizona attracting him into bed. Best to avoid any chance of getting her pregnant and forcing her to become one of those childbearing women.
* * *
Sitting next to Braden in first class, Arizona was thankful for the spacious seating. His lean body was far enough away to prevent contact. Contact was dangerous with him. He may inflame her physically, but he’d failed the intellectual test. Flawed, to be sure. Son. Recently divorced. That was plenty to convince her he wasn’t her type. Especially the kid part. A shudder wracked her shoulders. And it wasn’t all from revulsion. She couldn’t stop thinking about the look on his face when he talked about Aiden.
Beside her, Braden noticed, his perceptive eyes cynical.
Opening her People magazine, she tried to pay attention to that. Braden’s presence was too strong.
She watched him remove his laptop and survey the cabin of the plane at the same time, as though expecting the driver of the BMW to pop out of nowhere. He was as vigilant as Lincoln. As fearless, too. The combination of nerd and superhero was a curious mix.
“What do you do, anyway?” Lincoln had never told her.
“I’m an engineer for Hamilton Corporation.” As though on cue, he pulled out a pair of reading glasses and opened his laptop. Arizona watched him for a bit, disconcerted over the unbelievable comparison to her fiancé. Tall, handsome and an engineer for a high-tech corporation.
She kept that to herself. “What kind of engineer?”
He turned from his laptop screen, green eyes behind the anti-reflective lenses of his glasses. Still handsome.
“Advanced technology for the military. Countermeasure equipment. That sort of thing.”
Vague reply. “Oh.” She nodded through her discomfort. “Design and development?”
“Most of it’s classified.”
Her fiancé had worked in research. Top secret clearance, just as she was sure Braden had. She struggled to minimize the coincidence.
Then something dawned on her. “Do you think it’s possible there’s a link between what you do and your sister’s disappearance?”
He turned with a lifted brow. Clearly, he doubted that.
“You do weapons designs for the military,” she explained further. “Your sister was a freight forwarder accused of shipping weapons to a prohibited country.”
“Where’s the link? She didn’t get the weapons from my company.”
“Are you sure?”
“Very.
