Until Kaydee.
She was special. Special enough to get him to cut his hair without even asking. It’d been his decision. He had no need for the armor anymore. He wasn’t the man he used to be. It’d been time to cut loose from the past. What better time to do it than to support Kaydee, the woman who saw him as a solid man? The kind he should’ve been. The kind he used to be before shit hit the fan overseas. The kind he wanted to be again.
A man she could admire.
A man deserving of her.
He was working on it. A modicum of confidence and self-respect expanded his chest. He was making progress, too. Was it enough?
He hoped so. Once he confessed his feelings to her, and if they were reciprocated, there was no way he could keep his past from her.
His last thought before exhaustion claimed him was that he didn’t want her to leave and hoped he was enough to satisfy her restlessness.
…
After work on Tuesday, Kaydee and Fiona went to check out yet another storefront. She’d lost count of how many that made. Too many. All of them a waste of time. Including, unfortunately, tonight’s fiasco.
“Rats?” Fiona shivered. “Can you believe he showed us a place with rats? Hell to the no!”
“I was done before we entered,” Kaydee said as she drove them back through town toward Yellow Rose, where Fiona had left her car. “The bars on the windows—”
“Windows?” Fi cut her off. “There wasn’t any glass. Not unless you count plywood as glass.”
She snickered. “Nope.”
“Me, either.” Her friend sighed. “I’m beginning to think there aren’t any places out there for us.”
“Us?” Kaydee frowned.
“Yes,us.” Fi held up a hand. “I know you don’t want to be a partner and make a commitment to staying, but I thought perhaps you’d at least consider workingforme. You can just as easily pick up and leave my shop when your dad retires as you can Rose’s.”
True. She blinked. Once Fi actually opened her shop and left Yellow Rose, Kaydee would miss her friend. Unless Kaydee left, too.
“Does your silence mean you’re considering it?” Fiona smiled expectantly at her.
She slowly grinned. “Yeah. I’ll consider it.” Working for Fi was actually a pretty good idea.
“Super!” Fiona clasped her hands together. “Now, if I could just get fate to climb on board, that’d be great, too.”
Kaydee silently agreed. It was as if fate conspired against Fi. Didn’t want her friend to strike out on her own. How the hell hard could it be to find something the woman could afford that wasn’t a danger to anyone’s well-being?
Apparently, really hard.
“Maybe I should consider going to Joyful,” Fiona said. “I mean, I do like the town. It’s cute. And your boyfriend’s buddies own commercial property.”
Her boyfriend…
Just hearing that term in relation to Leo sent those darn butterflies in motion again. They made her a little queasy.
“Joyful is only an hour from here,” Fi continued. “I mean, it’s not horrible. It’s mostly highway driving.”
“It would mean a longer commute for you, though.”
Fiona shrugged. “Maybe for me, but I’m sure you could stay with Mr. Winter Soldier.”
She laughed. “Don’t let him hear you call him that. I think he’s heard it too much.”
“Sucks to be him.” Grinning, Fiona waved her hand. “Looking like a handsome movie star. Yeah. That’s a tough cross to bear.”
