Chapter 3
Spike did his best not to stare at Reese.
She was even prettier than the picture Tex had provided.
Maybe it was that she was older and seemed to have more confidence in herself.
Maybe it was the way she’d blushed so adorably while trying to sidestep around what she’d been doing for the last two days.
Whatever it was, Spike had to keep reminding himself that he was here to find Woody… not seduce the man’s sister.
Besides, Reese lived in Missouri, and he was in New Mexico. Even if they hit it off, there weren’t too many engineering jobs he was aware of near The Refuge.
Although…Los Alamos National Laboratory was just down the road.
It was one of the largest science and technology institutions in the world.
The employees conducted research on national security, space exploration, nuclear fusion, renewable energy, medicine, nanotechnology, and probably a lot more things he had no clue about.
Spike knew from talking to Woody that Reese was one of the top engineers in her field.
He suspected a place like Los Alamos would jump at the chance to recruit her.
Mentally shaking his head, he concentrated on the here and now.
They had to find Woody and get home before he could even start to think about anything else…
namely, seeing if the intense spark he and Reese seemed to have could go anywhere.
He didn’t miss the way she’d stared at him when she opened the door to her room.
The way her shoulders relaxed when he took her hand.
Nor the goose bumps that rose on her arms when he brushed his finger along her wrist, trying to reassure her.
They’d ordered lunch, and Spike couldn’t help but remember another time and place when he’d shared his steak and fries with her. Today she played it smart, considering the state of her stomach, and ordered soup and rolls.
“Right, so, Woody came down to visit with Isabella. What do we know about her?” Tiny asked.
Glad for his friend’s question—Spike was having a hard time taking his attention away from Reese—he took out his phone and pulled up the information Tex had sent. “She’s twenty-eight and has worked for the Colombian government for about a decade,” he said.
“She was young when she started,” Tiny observed.
Spike nodded in agreement. “I thought so too. But when we met her, she was extremely professional and competent, even though she was still pretty young at the time. She was raising her brother on her own, and her job allowed her to make fairly decent money in order to do so.”
“Woody said Angelo, her brother, was struggling. It was one of the reasons he said he was coming down here,” Reese added.
“Struggling how?” Tiny asked.
Reese shrugged. “I don’t know. Woody didn’t tell me much.
Just that he was finally going to get off his ass and do what he should’ve done years ago.
I think he always felt as if he was too old for her…
not that eight years is much of an age difference at all.
But she also loved her job as a translator.
Woody didn’t want to take her away from that.
And even though his interest in her has only grown, and they talked and emailed constantly, I think he wanted to let her grow up a bit more too… be sure of what she wanted.”
Spike sighed. “Something had to have happened though. She had to have told him something big to make him suddenly come down here on a whim.”
“I don’t think it was a whim,” Reese said solemnly.
“I have a feeling he’d been thinking about it for a long time.
Whatever she told him probably just gave him the final nudge he needed.
Personally, I’m glad he finally did something about his attraction to her.
He hasn’t dated at all since getting out of the Army, and it was more than obvious it was because of Isabella. ”
“But?” Tiny asked.
Reese looked at him with her brows furrowed. “But what?”
“I can hear a note of reticence in your tone.”
She sighed. “It’s not that I didn’t want him to be with Isabella.
But she’s here, and he’s in Missouri. And there’s no way she’s going to leave her brother if he doesn’t want to come to the States.
Not after practically raising him single-handedly.
I know it’s terribly selfish, but I really don’t want Woody to move here. I…I’d miss him too much.”
Once again, Spike was in awe of Reese’s relationship with her brother. He might not understand it, but he respected it. And it was a two-way street. Woody always said the most important person in his life was his sister. That if she ever needed anything, he’d bend over backward to provide it.
Then there was the promise he’d extracted from Spike…
His mind went back to that particularly harrowing mission.
They were pinned down by enemy forces, bullets flying all around them…
and Woody had turned to Spike and made him swear that if anything happened to him, Spike would take care of Reese.
Make sure she was all right. Of course, Spike had promised without question.
Before Woody had turned his attention back to surviving the firefight, Spike could’ve sworn he’d heard his friend mutter something under his breath about how much easier it would be to look after Reese if Spike married her.
He didn’t get a chance to ask Woody to repeat himself, and neither had brought it up after they’d arrived safely back in the States.
Being next to Reese now, and seeing firsthand her love for Woody, her stubbornness, her bravery in coming to Colombia when she wasn’t even sure where to start looking…
Spike suddenly thought that if he fulfilled such a huge request for anyone, it would probably be for this woman, who knew more about sacrifice than most.
He’d loved others in the past. At least, he thought he had.
But now he wasn’t so sure. Not after seeing the lengths Reese was willing to go to find her brother.
He wasn’t close to his own sister. Sure, he’d try to find her if she was missing…
but he silently admitted that might have more to do with familial obligation, rather than a deep sibling bond.
He was a little jealous of Woody and Reese’s relationship, if he was being honest.
Spike made a mental vow right then and there to do whatever it took to make sure brother and sister were reunited.
“I get that,” Tiny was saying. “I felt that way about my brother.”
Spike looked at his friend in surprise. He’d never heard him mention a sibling before.
“He died,” Tiny said flatly, addressing Spike’s obvious curiosity.
“He was a Marine. I was on a mission at the time, and didn’t find out until I got home.
By then, it was too late for me to say my goodbyes.
To this day, I can’t help but wonder if he knew I wasn’t there.
And the real shitter is, he was completely alone.
Our dad’s in prison, and our mom died a few years before he did.
I would’ve done anything for him…but when it really mattered, I let him down. ”
Reese leaned over and grabbed his hand across the table. “You didn’t let him down,” she said almost fiercely.
Spike was startled by the vehemence in her tone, and it was obvious Tiny felt the same way, because he stared at her with wide eyes.
“If he was aware at all, I’m certain your brother knew you would’ve been there if you could.
He was in the military. That means he understood that you were on a mission and couldn’t come running back home whenever you wished.
I wasn’t in the service, and I still knew that if I’d been hurt while Woody was away, his priorities had to remain with his team and his mission.
I would’ve known deep down in my heart that he was off saving the world, and that’s a far more important and useful task than sitting in a hospital, holding my hand and feeling helpless.
And…I’m going to go a step further and say your brother was probably glad you weren’t there. ”
“Glad?” Tiny choked out.
“Not because he didn’t love you, or because he was mad at you or anything. But because he would’ve wanted you to remember him at his strongest. Not languishing in a hospital bed,” Reese said gently.
While Tiny digested her words, Spike couldn’t help but place his hand on Reese’s thigh under the table. He wanted her to know he appreciated what she was doing. Needed to be connected to her in that moment.
She glanced at him briefly, then turned her attention back to Tiny.
“Yeah,” he said on a sigh, after a long pause. Then he squeezed her hand before pushing his chair back. “I’m gonna use the restroom. I’ll be right back.”
Spike watched his friend walk away, knowing he needed some privacy while he regained his composure. “Thank you,” he told Reese softly.
She turned to him and put her hand on top of his, still resting on her leg.
“For as long as I can remember, I’ve looked up to Woody.
He’s always been larger than life to me.
I was scared every minute he was on a mission…
and I know he went on more than I even knew about. But I was always proud of him.”
“He’s proud of you too. I can’t tell you how many times he told us all about your academic prowess.”
Reese rolled her eyes. “Just what a girl wants to be known for.”
Spike tightened his grip on her thigh. “Gotta say, I’d much rather be with a smart woman, than with someone who’s pretty but has nothing between her ears.”
When she just rolled her eyes harder, it was obvious she thought he was blowing smoke up her ass, and Spike wanted to make sure she knew he was dead serious.
“When I was in college, a friend dated a woman who complained that the Pittsburgh Steelers was a derogatory name for a football team…because people who stole things couldn’t help themselves. ”
Reese’s lips twitched.
“Another one of his dates wanted to know why non-alcoholic drinks were called virgin.”
She grinned slightly.