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And there was something about the vulnerability in her. The way she shared it with him.

It allowed him to share different things with her.

Not everything. There were some things he didn’t want to share with anybody.

But he just felt more rested around her than he did around most other people.

She didn’t act like she expected him to perform. Like she expected him to behave a certain way.

She just seemed to be okay with him.

There was a weight he could put down when he was around her, that otherwise he only ever let down when he was alone.

It seemed natural. But he knew the secret was in the way she shared herself.

“I have a few short-term memory issues, but not as many as I used to. That’s improved. I also have difficulty concentrating when things are too chaotic. Like if it gets too loud around me, and I’m trying to look at something, everything gets blurry. That’s why I like things quieter now. I like to give myself a lot of time. Going to get all this stuff for the obstacle course is a good example. I have to give myself time. To choose things, to think about things. I wouldn’t want to be climbing this tree right now if there was an entire crowd of people here, as an example.”

“I’m fine?”

“Yeah,” he said.

He continued on up the tree and got to the part where there were some big sturdy branches for him to begin to use as stepping stones. Roy let out a strangled sound, and when he looked down again, she was covering her eyes.

“Rory, I spent a collective six years in war zones. I only got blown up the one time. If the pine tree takes me out, then I had it coming.”

“I don’t want it to take you out while I’m right here.”

“You can catch me, right?”

“You want me to be your flirting coach, you want me to catch you... Some gentleman you are.”

“I never said that I was a gentleman.”

Even though he was up in the tree, he decided to flash her what he was fairly certain was a wolfish grin.

She made an exaggerated hand gesture from down below, and that made him grin even more.

“So you’re going to manage an apartment building in Boston,” he said, looping the rope up over a branch and beginning to attach the hardware.

“Yes,” she said. “It lets me live in a way nicer place than I would be able to otherwise. And it’s what I have job experience with. And it’s really amazing that I got hired at this building because I don’t have any experience with apartments. But the woman who managed it before me just really liked me, and she thought I had the right countenance to deal with the residents. So... I got the job.”

“Have you ever been to Boston?”

“No.”

The rope looked secure, and he grabbed hold of it and let go of the tree branch, swinging himself out away from the tree.

Rory shrieked. And then he slowly climbed down the rope.

Things like this made him feel alive. Because he was still great at this.

This physical stuff.

His brain didn’t fail him here. And his body hadn’t let him down at all.

He thought about the kid that had lost both legs and his arm in the explosion.

Nineteen years old.