I smiled.
“He’s a great dad—really patient. He fucking loves those kids of his. But we still take the boards out and catch some waves when I’m there.”
“Uh-huh, and how many meals have you made him late for, just catching ‘one more wave’?”
Yeah, she knew me well.
“Too many for Amy’s taste!” I admitted. “But he goes out when Mitch visits, too, so she can’t blame me for that.”
“Oh, I don’t know—it sounds as if she’d think of a way. I’d like her: a woman immune to the Hunter charm.”
I had to laugh at that.
“She’s immune alright. But yeah, she’d like you. I’ll introduce you when we’re stateside.”
Wow, I really said that. I was already thinking of a future when we were still together. Caro looked as surprised as I felt.
“In case you’d forgotten,” she reminded me, oozing sarcasm, “I live about 3,000 miles and ten states from San Diego.”
“Yeah, well, in case you’d forgotten, they’ve invented airplanes.”
“Touché.”
I raised my glass of water in a toast.
“What happened to that friend of Mitch’s—Bill—the one who was at the wretched military ‘fun’ day that Donna dragged me to?”
That fucker—always sniffing around Caro.
“Why are you asking about him?” I growled out.
“Just wondering. He was in your surfing crowd, wasn’t he?”
“Oh, right. He got married again a few years back, I think. He was sent to Quantico. Mitch keeps up with him—Christmas cards—something like that.” Who fucking cares?
I turned the conversation back to us—my new favorite topic. Besides, I wanted to suggest my Italian plan to her.
“It felt good having you on the bike with me today, Caro.”
“Hmm,” she said, the sound filled with skepticism.
“Well, I’ve had an idea about that…”
“Oh, another of your ideas?” she said, a smile hiding behind the snippy words. “That sounds dangerous.”
I grinned at her.
“You know how we always talked about traveling through Italy? I just thought, while we’re both here, why don’t we?”
She frowned as if she didn’t understand what I was suggesting.
“Why don’t we what?”
“See Italy. We could take the motorcycle and go see all those places we talked about: Milano, Verona, Capezzano Inferiore—see if your dad’s relatives still live there.”
That was the ace in my hand: I knew Caro’s dad was from southern Italy and we’d talked about going there one day. From the look of longing on her face, I could tell she still wanted to.
“Don’t you have work to do?” she answered evasively. “How come you’ve got all this time off?”
“I’m on leave,” I said. “I’ll be shipping back out to Afghanistan—in about three weeks.”
“Oh,” she said, her voice soft. “I didn’t realize … I thought you were stationed in Geneva.”
“I was, but they need interpreters and they’re getting antsy about using locals. Too many green-on-blue attacks. So, what do you think about Italy?”
She shook her head.
“I can’t, you know I can’t. My papers could come through any moment and I’ll be on my way out there myself.” Oh, I don’t think so. “Besides, three weeks with you—that’s definitely a dangerous mission.”
I suppressed a smile at her choice of words.
“Don’t you trust me?” I asked, pretending to be hurt.
“No, not particularly.”
I grinned at her. Yep, she had my number. “Oh, don’t say that. I’ll be good. Scout’s honor.”
“You were never a boy scout.”
“True,” I agreed, more serious now. “What if I promise I’ll behave myself: separate bedrooms and everything?”
“No way, Hunter. I’ve heard about your reputation, remember? Besides, I don’t know how soon I’ll get a flight to Leatherneck. I don’t want to risk losing my slot.”
“It won’t happen for at least two weeks.”
She narrowed her eyes, and I knew I’d said too much. Shit.
“You sound very sure of that. What did you do, Hunter?”
I had two choices: lie my ass off, or tell the truth. Neither particularly appealed, but I decided to go with truth.
“Let’s just say I know people in the right places,” I admitted.
Her voice started rising, and I could tell she was genuinely pissed.
“Are you telling me you’ve blocked my application?”
“It’s not blocked, Caro, not entirely. I … just threw a few well-aimed monkey wrenches in the works. It’ll take at least a week to sort out—probably two.”
Oh shit, this was not going well. The fury on her face was clear and her small hands clenched into fists.
“This is my work, Sebastian,” she hissed. “This is how I get paid. How dare you interfere like this! You’re unbelievable. You can’t butt into my life like this!”
By now she was yelling, and people were turning to stare.
“I’m not the insipid little woman I was ten years ago!”
I blinked in surprise. What the fuck was she talking about?
“You were never that,” I insisted.
The air started heating between us, and I knew she felt it as well, even if she was too stubborn to admit it.
“You’d better damn well get that monkey wrench out, Hunter! I mean it.”
Time to admit the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
“I can’t, Caro, it’s out of my hands now. But I promise it’s temporary. I just … after all this time … I wanted us to be able to spend more than a few hours together. I don’t know when I’ll see you again,” I said quietly. “I’ve already waited ten years.”
She was silent, and when I looked up, the anger had vanished from her eyes, leaving them tinged with sadness.
“Will you at least think about Italy?” I begged.
She nodded jerkily, but looked away from me.
We finished our meal in silence and then spent the afternoon wandering through the town, stopping to look in shops and patisserie windows.
“I wouldn’t mind coming back here in the winter,” I said, gazing up at the stormy face of Mont Blanc, “try out the snowboarding.”
“That’s something else I’ve never done,” Caro murmured, staring up at the mountain apprehensively.
“I’ll teach you,” I offered.
“Oh, something you can teach me, Hunter?” she shot back, showing that her irritation with me hadn’t entirely dissipated. Then she glanced at her watch. “I think we should be heading back now. I can’t get a signal on my phone here. My editor might have been trying to contact me.”
I knew that was extremely unlikely, but I didn’t want to get into another argument with her. Instead, we headed to the bike and mounted up. Even if she was still pissed with me, she had no choice but to wrap her body around mine again. Definitely a bonus.
I took the AutoRoute back to Geneva, arriving in slightly under an hour. I felt the loss instantly when she climbed off the bike and handed the spare helmet and jacket to me. I stowed it in one of the empty saddlebags, giving myself time, trying to think of something to say. But it was Caro who found the words.
“I really enjoyed today, Sebastian. Most of it, anyway. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, Caro.”
We stood gazing at each other. Without knowing why, I felt awkward, the tension stretching tightly between us.
“Okay, well, thanks again,” she murmured, turning to go.
“Can I see you tomorrow, Caro?” I asked, my voice desperate even to my own ears. “Will you think about the Italy idea?”
She hesitated and licked her lips. Automatically, my eyes dropped to her mouth, and I let myself admit how I was feeling—something I hadn’t done for a long time. Too long.