Page 97

“You plan on sticking around Eden Valley for a while?” Isn’t that the question of the hour. The very one I’ve been pondering.
I sip off of the beer that I got at the open bar. “Not sure. It’s kind of slow for me, honestly. Not the job, it’s great when we’re traveling, but the pace around here is a little quiet.”
He chuckles softly. “Not a good place for single nightlife, you mean?”
I swallow the beer and let it slide slowly down behind the rock I have inside of my chest where most people have a heart. “Wouldn’t know.”
“Awe, come on, man. I’m sure you’ve had the urge to go out and make the acquaintance of some lovely little Utah women.”
I shake my head. “Honestly, no. This wedding is the closest I’ve been to a group of single women in a long, long time.”
“Speaking of, Simona’s sisters are quite the sight for sore eyes.”
“They’re pretty. That’s hard to miss.”
His face is full of disbelief, as waves his beer around. “That’s it? Pretty? How about smoking hot? And those accents. Wow. I mean, I’m just gonna say, I can imagine getting naked with one of them real easy.”
I finish my beer. Silence expands between us as the hawk soars across the sky again. Faint sounds of laughter and music catch the wind and float to us from the reception. “Maybe you should see if you can make that happen.”
A devious grin lights his face. “Simona would shoot me.”
How true that statement is. “Yep. There’s a good chance of that.” I find myself scrubbing my hand over my face for the tenth time in the last hour. My mood must be obvious because his voice tone changes. “What’s up with you?”
I glance back at the wedding party. “You ever just have those moments where everything hits home. The reality of how fucked up your life is lands right in your lap and there’s no more denying it?”
His tone is serious, “Oh, sure. All the time. But the only way to change that is to fix what’s busted up and move on.”
Placing the empty bottle on the ground next to the bench, I mutter, “It would be nice if it were that simple.” Looking out over the valley at the place where Simona and Scotch are going to have their new home makes me admit ugly shit to myself.
Some things are never going away no matter how much I wish they would. And that makes a mess out of everything.
“You want to get married?”
I dig my finger and thumb into the bridge of my nose. Mako’s staring at me, I can feel it. “Why do you ask that?”
“People who want to be married get this weird energy around weddings.”
I cut him a side eye.
He goes on anyway. “You and Marshall, man. Both of you look like you’re about to bury someone. Of course, he did get stood up at the altar, so there’s that.”
I shake my head. He does have a point. I’m not exactly the life of the party at the moment. “Well, I guess I have something to be grateful for. I’ve never been to the alter, and honestly, I’m pretty sure that’s never going to happen.”
Laughing, he says, “Whatever. Big ripped guy like you, all dark and dangerous. Women dig that. I’m sure you’ll catch a pretty little bride one day.”
When I turn to look at him his expression drops. The humor evaporates.
“Women don’t love men like me. My baggage is a deal killer. Plus, I can’t do the mushy shit women like, I’m not cut from that cloth.”
He sips his beer. “I don’t buy that anything is a deal breaker. Well, unless you’re a serial killer or something.”
Or something…
The hawk soars silent along on the current.
Songbirds and wind fill the air as ugly, devastating memories of my last deployment fill my head.
Mako taps his fingers against his bottle to some rhythm in his head. After a few minutes, he says, “Are you heading out of town since the Agile Team is taking some downtime?”