She’d been on the website and everything, and it all looked good on the surface. Something Kira should be invested in. But she still wasn’t entirely convinced.
Kira headed for the soda now so that she could have it close by later when she needed the hit of caffeine. She tugged a couple of dollar bills from her pocket and fed them into the machine.
“You should go down to the cafeteria and at least get a smoothie.”
She glanced over her shoulder and saw Mack swagger over. The kid was far too young for her, but she could tell he was the kind of guy who had been a heartbreaker most of his life. Probably since middle school. He just had that loose-hipped Western style going on, even in his EMT uniform and boots.
Who would have thought she’d ever develop a thing for cowboys?
No, that wasn’t who had captured her attention.
Her soda tumbled to the bottom, and she crouched to retrieve it. “How is your family?”
Since they’d met, every time he stopped by, he’d told her a little bit more about his half brother Hammer. Sorry, Rowan. As well as Rowan’s wife and their kids. The whole story about how he’d never known he had a son and now they were expecting a second child. Everything was all about happily ever after for the Wallace family.
Trying to marry that with the man she had met in a refugee camp in Syria had proven difficult until she’d seen his picture in the paper, holding on to his now wife with their son tucked between them. Now she knew this was the real guy. The real Rowan. The man Kira had met overseas was Hammer, the soldier.
“They’re all fine.” Mack shrugged, making his drink selection.
What the kid didn’t know was that Kira knew exactly who he was the first day he rolled in here wearing that same uniform. Because when she’d looked up the team who’d invaded her life for an hour and forever changed who she was, she’d discovered that Hammer had a half brother. The same way she’d found out that Luca Saxon’s older brother, Amir, was currently serving time in Texas for unlawful weapon sales.
“Just fine?”
He shrugged, bending for his orange soda. He’d told her all about the past two years, where he’d been fighting wildfires. About the “Trouble Boys” and how they’d saved Maria’s father from terrorists led by the teammate who had betrayed them.
She’d guessed which of the four that’d been, and the newspaper articles she’d read had confirmed it.
“Lexi still hasn’t texted me back.”
“Oh no.” Kira touched his forearm. “I’m sorry.”
He’d told her a few weeks back about the girl he’d met a couple of summers ago in Montana. The daughter of one of the other wildland firefighters. They’d hit it off and stayed in touch. For a while, at least.
“I guess it’s over.” Mack shrugged. “Not that I was all that excited about the long-distance thing, but I thought we were making it work. Building something. We were talking about meeting up for a weekend somewhere in Wyoming. Hanging out.”
“I’d love to give you advice about moving on and keeping yourself open to finding love, but I have no idea how to do that.” She made a face.
After all, she’d been pining for some guy for years now. Even though she knew he wasn’t dead anymore, that didn’t mean she was going to do anything crazy like look him up. He thought she’d betrayed him, probably. Had likely been glad to see the back of her—until she got herself hurt moments later. What followed was weeks of pain and physical therapy. Headaches. She’d clawed her way back to health and eventually back to work.
She said, “Seriously, no clue. My love life is pathetic.”
Mack’s lips curled up into a smile. “Are you serious? I’m probably not supposed to say this, because it’s like, against regulations or whatever. But you’re gorgeous, and you should probably know that if you don’t already.”
Kira chuckled. “Thank you.” She nodded her head slightly, but that only drew attention to the sick, ugly scar above her left eyebrow. “It’s nice of you to say.”
“It’s the truth. Even with the scar. Because to be honest, it actually kind of makes you look mysterious and maybe a little vulnerable. It makes me wonder how somebody can go through that and be as strong as you are.”
She didn’t like the traitorous tears that gathered in her eyes, burning and blurring her vision. Given everything she had been and what she had gone through, there should be no reason for her to react like this. Or maybe it was simply this man in front of her and the connection she had to that team of heroes. The kind of people she wanted to be like. She just hadn’t figured out how to do that.
She knew how to be a doctor, but the rest of it was more like who they were as people, rather than the things they did.
If God had any advice for her on the subject, He’d been surprisingly quiet about it. No matter how many times she’d asked.
Kira touched Mack’s shoulder and spoke a word in her native language because she needed to remember who she was.
“What does that mean?” His head tipped to the side.
“It means ‘thank you.’”