Chapter 4 #3
Brain couldn’t help it, he chuckled again. “Right. How about you sit while I dish you up some soup.”
Aspen lifted her head and took a deep breath. “It smells amazing.”
Brain shrugged. “It’s nothing fancy. Green chili stew.
I still grilled the steaks I bought then cut them up for the soup.
Threw in some canned tomatoes and green chilies.
Some beef broth, water, and some carrots rounding it out.
It’s simple but filling. And it’ll clear out your sinuses,” he warned.
“I figured after you ate that hot salsa when we went out the other night that you could handle it.”
“I can handle it,” Aspen echoed, looking him in the eye.
Brain wanted to kiss her right then and there, but he forced himself to let go and take a step back. “I’ll get you more water too,” he told her, holding up the cup he still had in his hand. “Getting overheated and exhausted isn’t anything to mess with.”
“I know. And thank you,” she told him as she sat, pulling the quilt closer around her as she did so.
Brain dished up their meal and returned to her side within minutes. They ate without talking, watching the game on TV and enjoying the simple fare. After she finished, Brain asked if she wanted more.
“No, I’m good,” Aspen said. “Thank you. It was delicious.”
“Any time,” Brain responded, reaching for her bowl. Before heading into the kitchen to put their dishes in the sink, he picked up her cup of water and handed it to her without a word.
Aspen chuckled and dutifully took a sip. “Bossy,” she muttered under her breath.
Brain smiled. It wasn’t that he was bossy, he just wanted to take care of her. He wasn’t sure she’d had much pampering recently, and he was happy to oblige.
He returned to his small living area and sat next to Aspen.
She immediately turned and leaned into him.
Brain lifted his arm and put it around her shoulders as she snuggled into his side.
He was happy to sit there all night without saying a word.
He was that comfortable around Aspen. He wasn’t going to force her to talk about what had happened that day to make her show up looking completely exhausted and out of sorts.
If she wanted to share, he’d listen. Otherwise, he’d just be there for her.
Aspen felt a hundred times better than she had when she’d shown up on Kane’s doorstep, which was telling, since she still felt like shit.
She’d known she was dehydrated and on the verge of collapse, and the two-hour nap she’d taken in Kane’s bed, surrounded by the smell of clean cotton sheets—and Kane himself—had been the best sleep she’d gotten in a week.
Ever since they’d begun their training for whatever hell awaited them in Afghanistan, her sergeant and Derek, who was in charge of the other platoon, had pushed them almost beyond their limits.
It was more than obvious they’d be heading across the world soon, but of course they didn’t have any real details about what they’d be doing yet. So they were training for the worst.
But in her professional opinion, the platoon sergeants were being idiots. They weren’t taking care of the men under their command and were instead driving them into the ground. And while she couldn’t prove it, Aspen suspected Derek was the real driving force behind the over-the-top training.
Sergeant Vandine, her platoon sergeant, was normally pretty laid-back.
But with Derek egging him on, he’d become a hard-ass.
She’d dealt with his attitude plenty over the last week, but so had all the other Rangers.
When she’d tried to talk to him today, he’d pulled rank and told her if she couldn’t handle what it took to be their combat medic, he’d ask for her to be replaced.
That had hurt. A lot. Especially since she’d just been looking after the physical well-being of the men in her platoon.
She hadn’t known what to expect from Kane when she’d shown up at his house.
She’d pretty much been planning on telling him she was too tired to do anything, but the sight of him without a shirt on, his body shining with sweat, had literally left her speechless.
He’d realized right away that she was dehydrated and had immediately done his best to fix it…
which was more than the men who were supposed to be her teammates.
She’d drank the water and eaten some of the fruit, feeling better, and had watched him mow his elderly neighbor’s lawn.
He’d already worked all day—she knew he was putting in some long hours—and yet he’d still gone out of his way to do something nice for his neighbor.
Then he’d tucked her into his bed and left her there to sleep.
Not for one second had she been worried he’d take advantage of her while she was asleep and vulnerable. She may not have known him long, but she felt safer with him than with her team. Which was depressing as hell, since she’d known them for over two years.
She’d always admired the camaraderie of the special forces teams, and had been thrilled when she’d made the cut to be a combat medic attached to the Rangers.
But the reality had been very different from what she’d thought it would be.
Then, as now, she was an outsider, simply because of her gender.
It made her more sad than anything else.
She’d woken up groggy, confused, and hungry. The smell of something delicious permeated the air and she’d moved without thought, following it down the stairs.
Aspen had never dated a man as selfless as Kane.
Now that she thought about it, she’d talked more about herself during their phone calls than he did.
He was always asking how she was doing and wanting to know how her day was and about her childhood.
He was comforting to talk to, and she never felt as if they talked for as long as they did.
One night they’d talked for three and a half hours, and it still felt as if it had been only fifteen minutes or so.
Now she sat tucked against his side, her belly full, no longer dehydrated, not quite as exhausted as she’d been when she arrived, and she couldn’t think of anywhere she’d rather be.
She glanced up at Kane, and saw he looked completely relaxed as he watched the game on TV. Looking over at the glass of wine he’d been drinking when she came downstairs, she couldn’t stop the question from escaping her lips. “Wine?”
He looked down at her and shrugged. “My parents are wine connoisseurs, and I started drinking it with them around age fourteen. I can drink beer, but prefer wine now, actually. What about you?”
Aspen wrinkled her nose. “I’m a mixed-drink kind of girl. Give me a nice Sex on the Beach or a Malibu Sunset and I’m good to go.”
“I’ll remember that,” Kane said.
And Aspen knew he would.
She was silent for a bit longer, then blurted, “Are you close with your team?”
As if he understood that she wasn’t just making idle conversation, Kane clicked the mute button on the TV and turned toward her a little, giving her his complete attention. “Yes.”
“No, I mean, are you close?” Aspen asked.
“I would gladly give my life for any of my teammates if it came to it,” Kane said solemnly.
“And more than that, I’d do the same for Gillian or Kinley, simply because I know how much Trigger and Lefty love them.
My team is the family I never had growing up.
They don’t always understand me, but I know with one hundred percent certainty that they have my back.
Whether that’s on the battlefield, or in a Walmart parking lot at Christmas as we fight for the last shopping cart. ”
Aspen smiled a bit at that last part, but didn’t respond.
“What happened today?” Kane asked softly.
“I think I told you before…I decided to join the Army and be a combat medic because of the camaraderie of the teams.”
Kane nodded.
“I knew that it wouldn’t be easy, me being a woman, but I truly thought I could overcome any prejudice. That my team would see how good I was at my job and would have my back like you have your team’s, and vice versa.”
She fell silent, trying to decide how to continue. One thing she liked about Kane was that he didn’t ever interrupt her when she was thinking. Or try to fill an awkward silence.
“Today started out like the rest of the days this past week. We spent some time inside going over the latest intel from overseas and what our role might be if we’re deployed.
Except I think we all know it’s not a matter of if, but when.
We headed out to the trucks at about ten and drove to the little town that’s erected north of the main post. We went through scenario after scenario for hours.
It was hot, and we hadn’t had a break for lunch.
Derek and Sergeant Vandine kept pushing us, and of course the teams just went along with whatever they said.
“It was around three-thirty, and two of the guys on my team had run out of water and they didn’t look good at all.
Hell, none of us were faring very well, lying in the dirt in the sun, and I said something about it to Sergeant Vandine.
I suggested that we needed a break, that we were on the verge of heat exhaustion.
I thought for a second he was going to agree with me, but then he saw Derek was listening and so he lambasted me in front of everyone.
“He told me that he wasn’t surprised I’d wussed out.
Said that I was a weak link on the team who was going to get everyone killed when we went to Afghanistan.
I waited for Sergeant Vandine to stick up for me, to tell him to back off…
but he didn’t.” Aspen looked down at her hands and picked at a hangnail.
Kane covered her hands with his own and said, “What did the guys on your team do?”
Aspen looked up at him. His voice sounded calm, but there was an undercurrent that she couldn’t read. “Nothing.”
“What do you mean, nothing?” Kane asked, no longer calm.