“Sure thing.” Belcourt’s gaze took in the bandage on Jesse’s forehead and the ski boots on his feet. “You look good for a man who got blown up.”
Jesse filled Belcourt in on what had happened as they walked out to the parking lot and climbed into Belcourt’s beat-up, piece-of-shit Ford.
They were about ten minutes up the road when Jesse just had to ask. “Do you understand women?”
Belcourt looked surprised by the question. “Do I understand women? That’s like asking me if I understand the wind. Why? You having problems?”
“No. Kind of. Okay, yes.”
Belcourt waited for him to go on.
“There’s a woman I’m kind of seeing.”
“The woman with the twins who came to Knockers?”
“Yeah.” Jesse had forgotten that most of the Team had already seen him with Ellie. “She’s a nurse. She was working in the ER when I was brought in. Rather than being happy I’m not dead or injured, she seems angry. She told me she hates my job.”
Belcourt nodded, a thoughtful frown on his face. It took him a full two minutes to say anything. “I got into a car accident late one night when I was sixteen. When I got home, my granny hugged me and then started yelling. I think she was just scared at the thought of me getting hurt. People show love in strange ways.”
And damned if adrenaline didn’t shoot through Jesse’s bloodstream. “Wait, wait, wait. Nah, man, it’s not like that. We’ve only just connected. I’ve known her for only two weeks. We probably haven’t even spent twenty-four hours together.”
He waited for Belcourt to say something. Instead, Belcourt glanced over at him with that “I have spoken, and it is so” look on his face.
“I shouldn’t have asked you.”
That made Belcourt grin. “Ellie Meeks—she’s a widow, right?”
“Yeah. Her husband was a Black Hawk pilot. He was killed in Iraq.”
Belcourt nodded but said nothing.
And then it clicked.
Ellie had lost her husband, and the first man she’d hooked up with since then, the first man she’d trusted, had almost been killed on the job today.
Moretti, you idiot.
* * *
Ellie stoppedat the grocery store on her way home. It had been an exhausting and irritating day. If it had been up to her, she would spend the rest of the night soaking in a hot tub and sipping wine in front of Netflix, trying to forget the world—and the fact that Jesse had almost been killed today.
He acted like it was no big deal, but it was.
Why did some men find it necessary to take risks? Dan had already been an army helicopter pilot by the time she’d gotten together with him, but why had he fought so hard to make it into the 160th? There were other important jobs he might have done. When she’d asked him, pleading with him to do something less dangerous, he’d told her that someone needed to do this job, and it might as well be him.
She had appreciated his sense of duty, but it had cost him his life. She’d lost her husband, and Daniel and Daisy had lost their father.
To hell with that.
Not wanting to cook, she grabbed a roast chicken and some mashed potatoes from the deli, then picked a few other things she needed—diapers, wipes, toothpaste, milk. She was about to head to the checkout lane when she decided she needed something else.
Condoms.
She made her way to the aisle near the pharmacy and stared at the selection. It had been a decade since she’d bought condoms—maybe longer—and the selection had definitely changed. She had no idea what Jesse would prefer—ribbed, extra lubricated, deep grooved, flavored, spiral pleasures. What the hell did that even mean?
“Good grief.” She grabbed a variety pack and tossed it into her cart.
A voice came from behind her. “Ellie.”