Chapter 10 #3
“Well, if you ask the guys I work with about it they’d say it isn’t a curse, they love their wives, girlfriends madly, but they were single until they met on an assignment.”
“And how would you feel about this happening?” she asked before she thought.
“I’d say it could be a good thing. A very good thing.”
She nodded, suddenly feeling uncomfortable with the topic of discussion and tried to come up with a way to change the subject without it being obvious, but she couldn’t.
“And you said you are a JAG officer.”
“That’s right.
“What branch of the military?” she asked.
“Army. It paid for my law school,” he explained.
“Then when I went into the JAG core, I was on assignment overseas to defend a client when there was an explosion. I was injured to the point I couldn’t pass the physical qualifications and had to be medically discharged.
That’s when I went to work for the Lone Wolf Agency.
Kenneally recruited me while I was recuperating at Walter Reed. ”
She laid her hand on top of his and gave it a squeeze. “That must have been tough for you to have to change careers.”
“I was lucky. Even though I was discharged, my JAG record was favorable enough that my superiors wanted me to continue on working with them as a consultant. I don’t travel overseas anymore, but I eventually got transferred from Leesburg, Virginia down to Miami to work with the military base here on JAG cases while still assisting Kenneally.
His Lone Wolf Agency reaches far and wide like Hank Pattersons Brotherhood Protectors do. ”
“Care to walk with me out back?” she asked, standing up.
“Sure.”
“Which do you like doing more. The JAG cases or the assignments Kenneally sends your way?” she asked as they stepped out on the patio.
He sucked in a breath. “That is a good question. I’ve never really thought about it because as I see it I have the best of both worlds being able to continue working in JAG and protecting those presented to me by Lone Wolf.”
“Fair enough,” she said.
“What about you?” Nick said before she could ask him another question. “If you had not gotten a job as a nanny and weren’t able to secure a teaching job, what do you think you might have been doing instead?”
“Waiting tables in a restaurant,” she said. “Working as an administrative assistant in a school office. I don’t know.”
“You never had a fallback career goal in mind when you went to college?” Nick asked.
She shook her head as they followed the path down to the guest house. “I was so focused on being a schoolteacher and determined that I was going to get into the program I didn’t think about alternative career goals back then.”
“Yet, you didn’t get in,” Nick said.
“No. And luckily the day I got my letter, Mr. McGinty was on campus posting the position in the Education building looking for a nanny,” she said.
“I was there as well to see my advisor about what I should do next, and I saw him post the notice on the board. I spoke to him and asked about the position. We had a face-to-face conversation about it, and he hired me on the spot. It was fate.”
“It sounds like it,” Nick agreed.
She took a step, her booted foot slipped on the paver, and she lost her balance. Nick caught her sending an electrical jolt soaring through her body. Their eyes locked, as they stared into each other for a few moments and her breath stuck in her throat.
“Are you okay?” he asked, righting her.
“I think so,” she said. “Thank you for preventing me from landing on my backside. I don’t know why I slipped. I’m glad I asked you to walk me down now.”
“So am I,” he said and reached for her hand.
Again, she felt the electrical jolt at his touch, and she wondered if he too felt it. There was something going on between them. She couldn’t deny it. She only wondered if Nick was aware of it too, especially after what he said moments ago.
Reaching her door, she punched in the code before opening it a small crack and turning back around to face him. “Thanks for seeing me to my room,” she said.
“It was my pleasure. It gave us a chance to finish our conversation,” Nick said. “We haven’t had a real conversation about ourselves since I came here. It’s always been about Travis or your hit and run.”
“True,” she said. “Like my favorite color is blue. What’s yours?”
“Green.”
She laughed. “Then why didn’t you go into the marines?”
“You are mistaken on colors. Marines’ colors are gold and scarlet,” he said. “Army is all about the color green, like the grass.”
“I stand corrected,” she said. “I have much to learn.”
He took a step towards her and brushed a strand of her hair out of her eyes. “I’ll be more than happy to show you the errors of your ways, Ms. Grant.”
And without warning, he lowered his head, brushing his lips gently against hers. Then he raised two fingers to his forehead and saluted her before he did an about face and strolled back toward the main house.
Oh yes, he’d felt something earlier just like she had. And the time before when she’d noticed, she was sure of it.