“I went to Colorado and worked for Colorado Parks and Wildlife for three years. Came back and worked for Nebraska Game and Parks out west for a couple of years. Then came back here.” I shift in my chair. “This is where I wanted to live and work. But I knew your dad would never hire me. So I did what I could to make sure I was excellent at my job and would have fantastic references so I wouldn’t need his and so anything he might say to anyone hiring me wouldn’t matter. He could talk about me being a problem kid but the people who know me now and who have worked with me in this job would have opinions that mattered more than his.”
“So you gave up on the cop thing though?” she asks.
“I could still be a cop if I wanted to be,” I tell her. “But I do love Game and Parks. Turns out that being outside, working independently, working with the animals, all of that really suits me. So it worked out.”
“And you did it all in spite of my dad.”
“Yeah.”
“And you resent him for what he said. For keeping you from what you really wanted.”
“Yeah.”
“And for not giving a shit about you as a kid?”
This time she poses it as a question.
I take a breath and blow it out. “Yeah. I mean, I know that I wasn’t his only job or even his top priority. And my family stepped up, as they should have. But, I guess, I’ve been disappointed in him all this time. Even back then before I really knew why, but certainly now as an adult and as someone who is in a position to be a role model and to influence kids like I was. I just…can’t respect him.”
She’s quiet for a very long time.
And something in my chest is aching.
Which is stupid.
This is perfect. No way could Mia ever be interested in someone who doesn’t respect her father. Her hero. The guy who saved her.
This will end any talk of a friendship between us.
Which will end any further chance of tempting me to make it more.
“I understand,” she finally says.
Just then the lights flicker back on. The various fans and appliances kick on and start whirring.
And I blink at the beautiful, surprising, interesting woman who I happen to have a hell of a lot in common with.
She gives me a soft smile.
“I’m really glad you came to my rescue tonight, David.”
And, oh…I am so very fucked.
Because I’m really glad I came to her rescue tonight, too.
CHAPTER 4
DAVID
What am I doing?
Last night I managed to get Tim and Donna’s house put back together, a note written telling them I owed them a pizza, a bag of tater tots, and a pot of my chili for letting me shelter at their house, even though they hadn’t known it.
Then I’d managed to get Mia back to her house and safely inside without anyone seeing us, and without saying anything else I would regret. Like, tonight was surprisingly awesome. Or I’m really sorry we can’t be friends. Or fuck it, I really want to be more than your friend no matter what.
I’d even managed to fall asleep and sleep through the night. Sure, it had taken me an hour despite how exhausted I was. Yes, I had replayed our conversation over in my head, three times. Fuck, I hadn’t known anything about her childhood or how Scott and Peyton had come into her life. And I kind of wish I didn’t know now.
It makes me like her even more. Worse, it makes me kind of like Scott Hansen, a little.
