Page 62 of Some Like It Hot
“I saw Stevie—that US marshal—outside. She asked me again about Thorne.” He picked up a rib. “She said that her father told him that he thought Thorne had been shot when she and Tucker staged some kind of rescue attempt and tried to take down March.”
“What did you tell her?”
“That I didn’t know where he was, which, frankly, is true, by now.”
She nodded. “Think he’ll make it home?”
He said nothing. Raucous shouts rose from his guys at a nearby table—Romeo and Seth, Hanes and Eric, along with a handful of the Midnight Sun jumpers. And Redbone was back on the jukebox—clearly a well-worn choice.
Come and get your love…
The place smelled of beer, barbeque, smoke, and camaraderie, and as he finished off a rib, the music twined through him.
But the whole thing had him thinking.
Riley wiped his fingers, washed the rib down with a salty ale, and took a breath. “I know you’ve been talking to Jed about coming to Montana—and I love that idea, but…”
She set down her food. Reached for a wipe, her smile dimming.
“How do you feel about San Diego?”
She raised an eyebrow as she washed off her fingers. “As in Coronado? SEAL training?”
“Obviously, that’s a long way down the road, but maybe it’s time—”
“Yes.” A slow smile curved up her face. “Absolutely. Where you go, I go.”
Oh. Wow. And the confidence of her answer rocked him back, as if…
“What did I do to deserve you?” he said, the words simply spilling out, unchecked. “I don’t… This is—”
“Green meadows.” She touched the well of his neck, light fingers that then pressed to his chest, right over his heart. “I keep thinking about that tiny green patch of grass in the middle of all that black and…that’s what you are to me, Riley. Green meadows in the middle of the fire.”
Crazy, but his eyes heated, and he looked away.
Her hand touched his cheek and moved his face back to hers. “Besides, I have a feeling you’ll need your own personal medic.”
And how. He grinned and stepped closer to her, cradled between her legs, and caught her face in his hands. The song had switched, Otis Redding singing “Stand By Me.”So, darling, darling…
He bent close, his voice turning dark and smoky. “The truth is, I don’t deserve you.” His lips brushed the delicious skin at her neck. “But I get a lot of things I don’t deserve.”
Then he kissed her, and the music, the smells, the crowd all faded into that amazing, sweet truth.
Green meadows.
* * *
“Cmon,Skye. I don’t belong here, and you know it.”
Skye stood outside the Midnight Sun Saloon, the tangy smell of the barbecue awakening the beast inside, but she ignored it and followed Rio as he paced around the corner of the Midnight Sun.
They’d been fighting since Tucker declared the fire out, had ended their callout. Which, apparently, meant to Rio that it was time to walk out of her life.
He’d barely looked at her since she’d showered, shown up at the lodge in a fresh T-shirt and jeans, her hair back in a ponytail. In fact, he’d taken one look at her and turned downright pale.
He too had showered, and Barry had given him some clothing, pilfered from his absent sons’ closets. Now he wore a cocoa brownTake to the Sky Kingranch T-shirt that only turned his eyes devastating and did dangerous things to his physique. It also illuminated the tattoos that inked his arm.
Her gaze had fallen on the tribal tats, like the sleeve that wound up his right arm, into his neck, and down around his chest. It added a dangerous appeal, one that must have shone in her eyes because he’d turned weirdly cool and announced he was leaving for Anchorage.