Chapter 10 Lizzie
LIZZIE
“Did you know that light pollution is one of the top ways that our lightning bug population is dying? It’s why I love the fact that our compound is out in the middle of nowhere on the outskirts of Redd Valley.
No light pollution means that our compound serves as a pseudo-safe breeding ground for them during mating season.
And when they start mating? If you pay attention long enough, you can see that each bug has their own blinking patterns with their tails.
Almost like morse-code mating calls. It’s fascinating, really. ”
Listening to him prattle on felt like heaven.
The bugs twinkled all around us as he took his time escorting me down the concrete pathway toward the swimming pool.
It was still, save for a few ripples as the wind kicked up and rustled the trees all around us.
The reflection of the half moon danced on top of the water and saw the steam wafting into my vision.
Only to look over and realize that he had a hot tub combined in with his swimming pool.
“Did you also know,” he said as he pulled out my chair for me at the dinner table, “that despite the fact that we call them lightning bugs or fireflies, that they’re neither a bug—here, let me help.”
I smiled when he held out his hand just as I was about to sit. I took it in kind. “Thank you.”
“Of course, Miss Elizabeth,” he said as he tucked me back toward the table. “Where was I? Oh, yes. They’re neither flies nor bugs. They’re technically beetles.”
That took me by surprise. “Wait, really?”
“Yes, really,” he said as he walked around to the other side of the table and sat, beaming a smile I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen on his face before.
“We do that with a lot of things in this world, actually. Tomatoes are technically fruits, though we lump them in with vegetables because they are savory.”
“I don’t know,” I said as I reached for my drink. “Cherry tomatoes are pretty sweet.”
He pushed a couple pieces of garlic bread toward me.
“It’s actually more common for tomatoes to be sweet than savory.
Our genetic engineering of our foods has also restructured many of their tastes as well.
For instance, bananas. All of our bananas that we consume are genetically engineered, and because of some of the things we’ve done to them, they’re actually sweeter than they should be. ”
I furrowed my brow. “Wait, all bananas?”
He nodded as he picked up his spoon. “All of them. It’s why I try not to chuckle around people who come into Ghost’s bar or Wrecker’s ice cream joint talking about healthy foods and eating clean and adding more of these things or those things to their diets.
Because at the end of the day, science is the reason why we can feed the kind of population that we have.
Genetically engineered food is how this country isn’t dying off, one by one. ”
As I continued listening to him, I couldn’t help but notice the moonlight reflected in his gray eyes.
He actually had a bit of yellow swirling around in there, of all things, and the moonlight accented those little specks perfectly.
His eyes shimmered while he spoke, and I dipped my spoon into the soup with what looked like tortellini in it.
And to think I was worried that I was overdressed.
Though he didn’t really compliment me on my—
“Here,” Doc said.
“Whoo,” I said softly as I found him fussing over me instead of sitting in his chair.
How long did I space out?
“You dribbled some soup into your lap, Miss Elizabeth,” he said as he picked up my napkin and fluffed it into my lap.
“Uh, um… thanks,” I said as I looked down at the napkin in my lap before I looked back up at him. “To be honest, I didn’t even notice.”
He stood there, towering over me with the moonlight backdropping his slender, royal features. How could a man be so beautiful? It was unfair, to be honest. He could’ve enrolled into a goddamn beauty pageant and wiped the floor with the other women.
“You look lovely tonight, Miss Elizabeth.”
I should’ve been angry at the formality. At the fact that he still insisted on addressing me differently than he addressed everyone else. But as he gazed down at me with those twinkling eyes and that beautiful little smile that still sat on his lips, I couldn’t help but smile back up at him.
“Thanks. I wasn’t sure what kind of dinner this was, so I figured if I had a chance to get cleaned up a bit, I figured I should take it.”
His eyes roamed over my body, and he didn’t even attempt to hide it.
My cheeks warmed.
“Your outfit suits you,” he said as his gaze came back to mine. “It looks equal parts comfortable and easy to remove.”
What did he say now?
“What—I, um…”
He walked back over to his chair and sat back down. “Take a few more bites, Miss Elizabeth. The tortellini soup is one of Brutus’s specialties.”
I just blinked at him. “Did you really just say that?”
He held a spoon filled with soup halfway to his lips. “What?”
I wasn’t sure if he was pulling my leg or if he was just dense. “Nothing.”
He gave me a nod before he sipped at his soup, and the way his eyes fluttered closed showed off just how long his eyelashes were.
No fucking fair. I had to wear falsies if I even wanted to look like I had eyelashes in the first place.
Mascara? You can fucking forget it. I’d get it on my eyelid before I’d get it on any semblance of an eyelash.
Out here looking like a goddamn raccoon first thing in the morning.
“Miss Elizabeth.”
His voice jolted me from my trance. “Hmm? Sorry, Doc. What was that?”
“You should eat.”
“Right, right.”
I took a sip of the soup and I had to pause.
Holy fucking hell, it was good. It had this lemony sort of undertone, but it was a bit on the creamy side.
The vegetables were fresh and still had a crunch, but the tortellini was filled with this mixture of cheese and meat that was warm and soothing and reminded me of the mashed potatoes my mother used to make growing up.
I missed that woman more than I could stand.
“Take it to a room!” Doc exclaimed.
I jolted at his voice and my spoon fell from my hand.
It dropped into my soup, disappearing into the bowl as my head whipped about.
My heart leapt into my throat. Was someone here?
Were we found? Were we under attack? I reached for a gun on my hip that wasn’t there before I felt a hand on top of mine. Warm and insistent.
“Miss Elizabeth.”
I heard giggling and my head whipped again, only for me to find the source of what was really happening.
I saw Cap scoop Ariel into his arms as they stepped out of the shadows of the corner of the house and into the light.
Long enough for them to suck face before they slinked back through the sliding glass door of Doc’s massive estate home.
Oh.
We weren’t under attack.
“Miss Elizabeth,” Doc said softly.
I cleared my throat and dropped my eyes to where he crouched beside me. “Sorry, I just—”
He just shook his head as he removed my hand from my side and cupped it in between his.
I looked down at our connection, and I swear to god, his hands weren’t fair.
They were big, with slender fingers and veins that ricocheted from the tops of his hands all the way up his forearms. He bled with a different kind of strength.
One that tightened a space in the pit of my gut that I didn’t entertain since I deployed eight months ago.
Longer than that, really.
“Are you all right?”
He sounded so sincere. I nodded softly, even though my swallow was hard. “Sorry, I just…”
I gazed off into the distance toward a line of trees along the edge of the cleared out portion of his property.
“Take your time, Miss Elizabeth,” Doc said as he stayed crouched there.
His hands, cupping my own.
Like they were precious.
Like I was precious.
“Just thought someone was attacking,” I whispered.
I felt a soft pressure against my chin before my head was turned, and I found Doc staring at me with those breathtaking eyes of his.
“It’s okay,” he said with a soft head nod. “It’s a fair reaction, given all you’ve been through. A deployment, and then straight into where Ranger and Ghost found you. But you are safe here. Even if we are attacked, there are contingencies to keep all of you safe.”
I swallowed hard. “Promise?”
He brought the back of my hand up to his lips and… kissed.
He pressed those luscious fucking lips to my skin… and actually kissed.
“You have my word as a man, Miss Elizabeth,” he said as he stood and dropped my hand.
I watched him walk back to the other side of the table before he took a seat, and then I looked down and realized… he fished my spoon out of my bowl. It sat there on the edge of it, shining and clean.
I wasn’t even sure when the hell he did that.
Or maybe there was another spoon.
God, I used to be so observant.
“I’ve noticed that you’re concerned with getting a message to your superior officer, but not to your family,” Doc said, pulling my attention back to him. “Is there a reason why?”
Well, I suppose that was one way to change the topic. “I was adopted.”
“Oh?”
I nodded. “I didn’t get along with my adoptive parents.
Em was basically the only person in school that kept me sane.
And then when I turned eighteen, I enlisted and never looked back.
It was the quickest way out of this place, and at that time, Redd Valley didn’t feel like home in a very long time. ”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Miss Elizabeth.”
I shrugged and took another bite of the soup. “But Em stayed here, so I came back a lot to visit her. Especially after deployments. It’s sort of our routine that I come here instead of heading back to my barracks on base.”
“Which is how you knew something was wrong with her.”