Page 48 of One Last Stand

“I only jump from them.”

His eyes widened.

“Just the once. With Tom Cruise.Mission: Impossible III.”

A beat.

She smiled.

“You’re very cute,” he said.

“I’m glad you think so.”

“Okay, so after you left me brokenhearted in Montana at the age of fifteen?—”

“I did not leave you brokenhearted. We were just friends.”

“That’s what you thought. You were this exotic, cool girl who lived around the world?—”

“And you were this hot guy who lived in a motorhome, was an amazing skier and climber, and could swim better than me.”

“Iwasa better swimmer.” He winked. Andwow,he was still devastatingly hot.

“Yeah, your sister could beat you, though. I liked Jacey. You never talk about her.”

Weirdly, he seemed to jerk, almost stiffen at her words. Then he drew in a breath and nodded.

Huh. So, not a topic he wanted to talk about.

“Okay, so after camp, I know you traveled with your cousin Gage, skiing. And then joined the military—another thing you don’t talk about much.”

“Not much to say.” He leaned his head back. “Food was bad, I made a few friends, and I was really cold most of the time.”

“That’s what happens when you join a mountain unit.”

He smiled, although it seemed tight, and for a moment, secrets hid in his eyes.

Maybe she didn’t know Shep as well as she thought, either. “Why did you leave the military?”

He considered her for a moment. Then, “I broke a couple ribs in the avalanche?—”

“I remember.”

“Right, well, my contract expired, and I just . . . I decided I didn’t want to live that life. Always moving. Never landing. I spent my childhood doing that. I didn’t want to live the rest of my life hauling a rucksack.”

“I thought you had such an exotic childhood, your parents ski bums.”

“They both worked as patrollers most of the time. My dad was also a street preacher and an evangelist. He went where God called him. I guess that was the point of the motorhome.”

Outside, the clouds had parted. Below, the spires of the Swiss Alps rose, white and brutal, into the blue sky.

“I do feel like I should clear up something.” He stopped massaging her feet. “You once said to me that you knew I had skills. . . .” He sighed. “I was a medic in the Tenth. And then attached to Colt’s Ranger team for my last year. I don’t have . . . well, I’ve never killed someone and would like to keep it that way. I’m not a man of violence and don’t want to be.”

“I don’t think going to my bank will require any hand-to-hand combat. Unless they get stingy with the Dum Dums.”

“Dum Dums?”

“You know, those suckers they hand out to kids?”