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He shook his head. “When I was still hospitalized, sometimes I’d lose track of where I was. Then, I could be a little bit dangerous. After that, it’s just... I get angry. Quicker than I used to. Everything seemed like a joke to me back before. And now sometimes things don’t when they should. I don’t like struggling with anything I...”

“Nobody does.”

“I’m not used to it,” he said.

“Sorry. It must be terrible to know how the rest of us feel all the time.”

She wasn’t making fun of him. If she had always felt competent and popular and easy in a group, she would hate to lose that.

Lost.

He was lost.

He’d been one thing all his life, and he didn’t have it anymore, and the understanding in that moment was so deep and real and harsh, she nearly wept with it.

“All right,” he said. “Let’s go in.”

They got out of the truck, and her heart was pounding hard. She looked at him and tried to see if he felt the same. He had that same look she’d seen on his face in the woods. The look of a predator. The look of a soldier.

He was beautiful even then.

And it felt like a secret, to see him like that. Because she knew that no one else had seen that, not here.

“We’re going into a bar. Not war.”

“Snowy plover?” he asked.

“Snowy plover-ish.”

“I’ll relax.”

He did his best. And without thinking, she linked her arm through his, and they walked into the bar.

As soon as the door swung open, she had some regrets.

Because every eye in the place turned toward them. Stared at them.

There were a couple stares of open malice.

She also realized that people thought they were together. Her touching him didn’t help.

She hadn’t initially considered that because she had thought it was laughable that anyone would think they were together. But now that she could float above them and see them in context, her in that mini dress and high heels, clinging to him, she realized how it would seem.

She slowly released her hold on him because she was supposed to be helping him pick up other women. Her touching him wouldn’t help with that.

There were women aplenty in there. All dolled up in dresses that were tighter and shorter than hers.

Maybe she had failed in this assignment, even trying her best.

No. Everybody has different tastes. It’s okay.

She remembered what Fia had said. That people saw her the way she saw herself. That part of her problem was she held herself in such low esteem.

Maybe it was true.

She lifted her chin. She didn’t think so.

Or, at least she wouldn’t from now on.