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Rosie got up from her stool, wrapped her arms around Lori, and hugged her so tight that it almost constricted her breathing.

“I’ve missed you. I’ve missed this so much.”

“I’ve missed you too, babe.”

Rosie let her go and hopped back up on her chair to finish her coffee. “Okay, now that we’re back on track, I think you were just about to describe Shay-Shanae in detail.”

Lori laughed and shook her head. “It’s just Shay. She didn’t tell me her last name, and I don’t think her Army moniker is any help in that department.”

“Which is what?”

“Lightning. She said that was a story for another time, and she touched her shoulder, but I don’t know if that was significant or she just had an itch.”

“Mm. Could be that lightning only strikes once, meaning she only has one-night stands.”

Lori frowned. “That’s what you get from that nickname? Not that she might be a fast runner, or that she was super-fast at fixing tanks in the field?”

“You know me: the first place my mind goes is sex,” Rosie said. “So maybe you’re not introducing me to the love of my life but to the best sex of my life. Either way, I’m still taking you to have that manicure when we’re done, okay?”

“Okay.” Lori got up and gathered her purse. “I need a few minutes in the ladies’ room to make sure I’m camera-ready, and then we can go.”

Rosie grinned. “Of course. All for the camera.”

Lori didn’t respond to Rosie’s implication, even though she was exactly right, and headed to the restroom bouncing with a kind of newly found freedom in her step. Unlike Rosie, she’d released all expectations of a new relationship and was starting with a blank page…

A page she couldn’t wait to fill with her discovery of everything Gabe.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“Seems to me that sex just complicates things unnecessarily.” Gabe searched the pile of tools Lori had donated and selected a shiny half-inch, open-end wrench for the bolts connecting the right side of the hood to the chassis. “Me and Shay have?—”

“Whoa, hold up.” RB patted the wing of the Brewster. “What’s with Shay? Are you embracing the civilian life so much that you’ve discarded our hard-earned nicknames?”

“It’s my preference.” Shay waved Gabe away and sprayed WD-40 onto the rusted hinge bolts that weren’t budging without chemical assistance. “I don’t want to have to keep explaining my Army name to everyone I meet; it’s like I have to come out as a scarred woman as well as a gay woman. I met a couple of people at the Sanctuary who used my given name, and it made me remember that I really like it.”

Solo grumbled then repeated Shay’s words in an annoying mimicky way. “You can all forget it if you think I’m okay with losing my Army name. Only my wife uses my real name, and she mostly shortens it to Han?—”

“Unless you’re in trouble,” Gabe said, remembering Janie curbing Solo’s nonsense with a curt use of her full name.

Solo rolled her eyes. “Yeah, but only then. Just because you’ve both made friends with a load of civilians doesn’t mean I have to suffer.”

Gabe frowned at Solo’s reaction, and Shay raised her eyebrows as if she’d expected the outburst. Maybe Shay had been right about Solo feeling left out when Gabe had taken Shay to pick up the Brewster. If this was her way of expressing her feelings, she had a lot of growing up to do to raise her triplets.

“Anyway, I was saying that me and Shay have a great friendship, and that’s due to not complicating it with sex, right?” Gabe directed her question at Shay, who nodded. “I can do the same with Lori: build a great friendship and not have sex. I can get all the sex I need from the women I meet in bars.”

RB jutted her chin and grinned. “Just like last night.”

Gabe shrugged and returned the grin. She wasn’t about to admit that her one-night stand had been less than mind-blowing. She would’ve described it as functional, at best. The woman had been more than satisfied if her very vocal encouragements and blasphemy were anything to go by, but it hadn’t had its usual effect on Gabe. There’d been no Zen moment of relaxation and peace after the woman had fallen asleep, exhausted in her arms, and she couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

“Ah, Cracker Jack, you have no idea what you’re talking about. I’m sorry to contradict you but there’s nothing better than having sex with your best friend, with the person who knows everything about you. That level of honesty and connection… It’s sublime. I mean, not everyone is as lucky as me. Plenty of people don’t class their partner, or their wife, or whatever as their best friend. And they like spending time apart. It works for them. But the strongest, happiest relationships are the ones like me and Janie, where you get to share every part of you. I had no idea what I was missing until I met Janie, and she made me the luckiest woman alive when she agreed to marry me.”

Woodchuck shook her head. “What the hell happened to you, Solo? Gabe was the one in the bomb attack, not you. You’re like a whole ’nother person now. Like someone cracked you upside the head, disturbed all your neurons and whatnot, and turned you into someone else.”

Solo shrugged. “That’s what love is. A wake-up call. I’m not someone else; love just made me the person I was always supposed to be.”

Gabe couldn’t help but be slightly impressed at Solo’s sudden show of emotional maturity in contrast to her earlier behavior, but Shay gagged loudly.

“That’s great for you, Solo, but Gabe and I’ll never have sex. Ever.”