Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
It was the night before Fletch and Emily’s naming party, and Truck had decided that Mary’s time was up.
The first two days after he’d gotten out of the hospital, he’d done a lot of sleeping.
Then his days had been filled with shooting the shit with his friends.
He knew Mary had arranged the visits and he loved her even more for it.
She and Rayne had gone grocery shopping one day and had bought enough food to feed an army.
And that’s pretty much who had been at his apartment in the last week.
An army of their friends. Little Annie spent the night and they’d watched Cinderella, twice.
Another night, Mary had invited Trigger over and the three of them talked until midnight before the other Delta had finally excused himself to go home.
Even Macie had come over for dinner. Truck hadn’t really gotten a good explanation of what had happened all those years ago, and why she’d never contacted him, but she had definitely changed over the years.
Of course, it had been two decades since he’d last seen her, when they were both basically still kids, but she used to be outgoing and smiled nonstop.
Now she seemed nervous and uneasy, even around him, which he hated.
He found himself doing everything he could to keep conversation light and easy, not to bring up anything that might distress her.
He wanted to know everything about his sister.
About her job designing websites—primarily for authors, but really for anyone who contacted her.
He wanted to know why she wasn’t married.
He wanted to know everything about her high school years, and her college ones too.
He really wanted to know about their parents.
If she was still in touch with them, if they’d had anything to do with her not talking to him after he’d left home, as he suspected.
Basically, Truck wanted to know every little detail about her life, but he could tell that asking anything too personal would make her clam up.
So he kept things simple, talked mostly about himself and his teammates.
He even talked about his commander and the other Delta Force team he was in charge of, as Macie seemed especially interested when he brought up Colonel Robinson.
There would come a time when he’d need to have a heart-to-heart with Macie, and they’d need to clear the air once and for all. They’d have to discuss what happened all those years ago. But for now, he was content having her back in his life.
There hadn’t ever been so many people in and out of their apartment, and Truck suspected Mary was doing her best to avoid being alone with him, especially at bedtime.
She’d told him one evening that she was trying out a new recipe, and she’d be in bed soon.
Of course he’d been fast asleep by the time she’d finished.
Another night, she’d called Rayne just as he got off the couch to head to bed, and then she’d had the nerve to spend the night on the couch.
He was done.
Truck knew Mary was freaking out about sleeping with him, but she was done avoiding him. She needed to face this hurdle head on, like she did just about everything else in her life, including her job.
She hadn’t needed to resign from the bank, as the regional manager put everyone on paid leave until they could rebuild the vault and reassess their security measures.
They’d reassured all the employees that if they wanted to “pursue other options,” the bank would do whatever they could to help them.
Mary had been brainstorming what she wanted to do with Rayne and the others, but she hadn’t made a decision. She was moving on with her work life, now it was time to move on with her personal life too.
Mary was currently sitting on the other side of the couch from him, her attention stubbornly fixed on the television. She was flicking channels, but Truck could tell she wasn’t really paying attention.
He stood, and hated that Mary flinched slightly, but he ignored her discomfort, walked right up to her, and leaned over and picked her up.
“Truck!” she exclaimed, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Your head! Put me down!”
“No,” he said calmly. “It’s time for bed.”
“I have things I need to do first,” she said somewhat desperately.
“No, you don’t.”
“Yes, I do.”
“Nope.”
“Trucker,” she warned, tensing.
Truck continued to ignore her and walked into their bedroom and put her down in front of the bathroom. “You’ve got five minutes to do what you need to do in there.”
“And if I need more time?” she asked belligerently, hands on her hips.
Truck leaned over and ran a finger down her nose. “Then I’m comin’ in to get you.”
She huffed out a breath and entered the bathroom, slamming the door behind her.
Truck merely smiled. He loved when Mary got riled up. It was a much more honest reaction than the careful concern she’d been showing him for the last week.
He felt much better. His headache was almost all the way gone.
The staples itched, rather than hurt, and he felt much stronger.
There was no way he wanted to take three months off, but if he could break through the barrier Mary had put up between them, it would be fun having her all to himself without having to worry about being sent out of the country on a mission.
Truck hurried to the guest bathroom and did his thing before climbing into the bed. He’d taken off his shirt and sweats, but kept on his boxers. They’d be going too, but he needed to tame his skittish wife first.
Mary opened the bathroom door with twenty seconds to spare and stood there uncertainly.
Truck sucked in a breath at what she was wearing. He’d put the nightie on the bathroom counter earlier that night, but it looked a hundred times sexier on her than on the hanger.
Her short brown hair was in disarray on her head, the pink streak calling to him like a siren’s song. Her hair had grown in much thicker after the second round of chemo. He loved how it felt tickling his palm when he held her to him.
She had on a black chemise with spaghetti straps.
She was still too slender, at least in his opinion.
He could see her collarbones clearly. Truck made a mental note to make sure she ate three good meals a day…
and had plenty of snacks. The black garment hit her at mid-thigh and he could see the red polish on her toes.
She never wore it on her fingernails, but she loved painting her toenails.
“Take a picture, it lasts longer,” she quipped.
Truck knew she was nervous, and he smiled. “Come here,” he said, holding out a hand.
She hesitated, but Truck didn’t rush her. She’d come to him in her own time. That was one of the things he loved most about her.
Finally, she took a deep breath and padded across the room until she could touch him. She placed her hand in his and Truck felt his heart lurch in his chest. Everything this woman did slayed him. She was nervous and uneasy, but she still showed him how much she cared by trusting him.
Truck brought her hand up to his mouth and kissed it. Then he scooted over in the bed, pulling her up onto the mattress after him.
Mary lay back and yawned huge. “Boy, I’m tired. I can’t wait for tomorrow. I wonder what Em and Fletch named their son. Don’t you? I mean—”
Her words stopped abruptly when Truck placed his hand on her belly.
She immediately grabbed his wrist with both hands and bit her lip as she looked up at him.
“I love you,” Truck said gently. “I’ve seen you naked, Mare.
I smoothed that lotion all over your chest when you were going through radiation.
I slept with my head on your belly when you were in so much pain you didn’t want me anywhere near your chest, yet still wouldn’t let me move away from you.
We’ve cried and laughed together. We faced cancer head on, and beat it, together.
When I lost my memory, you didn’t give up on us.
In fact, you went toe-to-toe with that paramedic bitch.
Nothing means more to me than knowing you were willing to stick by me when I didn’t remember who you were.
Don’t be afraid of me after everything we’ve been through.
I love you and would never hurt you. Physically or emotionally. ”
“It’s different now,” she whispered, not removing her hands from his wrist and staring at him with her big brown eyes.
“Because you’re not sick? Because you want me as much as I want you?” Truck asked.
Mary blinked in surprise but then nodded.
“Would you feel better with the lights out?”
She immediately shook her head. “No. It makes no sense, and it’s totally fucked, but I want to see you.
I’ve dreamed about you making love to me for so long, there’s no way I want to miss one second of the experience.
But, I’m scared that you’re going to take one look at me and not be able to get it up.
Between the weight I lost and my flat-as-a-pancake chest… I’m not pretty.”
“The hell you aren’t,” Truck said in a huff. “Let go.”
Surprisingly, Mary loosened her grip on his wrist. He immediately got up on his knees and straddled her. He slowly pulled her nightie up over her hips. Mary didn’t move to help but he didn’t need her to. When the material was bunched at her belly, he kept pushing it up and over her chest.
Truck didn’t take his gaze from hers. She lifted her arms and allowed him to remove the garment altogether.
The second it cleared her head, Truck leaned over her.
He saw her struggle to keep from covering herself.
She grabbed onto his biceps instead. Her fingers didn’t come close to touching around his large muscles, but she clung to him as if he was the only thing between her and certain death.