Page 118 of Protecting What's Mine

“I’m the chief. What’s the point of being the boss if I can’t chauffeur my girlfriend around in a million-dollar vehicle?”

“Cute. But no. I’m helping with inventory back at the base for a couple of hours.”

“You okay?” he asked.

She nodded and took a breath. “Yeah. Kids just stir up all kinds of things.”

“That’s not vague or anything,” he said pointedly.

She stopped and faced him. “Speaking of kids. You’re a fraud, Hotshot.”

She was deflecting. But he’d allow it…for now. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re not the flirty party boy whittling his bedposts down to dust that you pretend to be.”

“How many of those shitty Hawaiian punches did you have, doc?”

“Four. And don’t change the subject. I saw you in there. I saw you with all those kids. You’re a dad in training. You’ve got family man written all over you.”

“Do not.” He shoved up the sleeve of his shirt and showed her a tattoo. “I have BFD written all over me.”

She shook her head. “I see you, Lincoln Reed. You might play at being a player. But Iseeyou.”

They stood there, looking at each other for a long moment. He wanted to make a joke, say something flirtatious. But just like the first time he’d laid eyes on her, he was tongue-tied and uncertain.

She didn’t want what he wanted, he reminded himself. He was only opening himself up to a good ass-kicking when she moved on. And it was going to hurt more because she was the only one who saw him, really saw him.

“You’re going to be a great dad someday,” Mack said softly.

He still didn’t have any words when she rose on tiptoe and pressed a kiss to his cheek. “Thanks for the rescue in there,” she said. And with that, she turned and hobbled toward the helicopter.

TY WAS WAITINGfor him in the parking lot, leaning against the hood of the command vehicle.

“Any more trouble with the Kershes,” his friend asked.

“Huh? Oh. No.” Linc scrubbed a hand over his jaw.

“Other trouble?”

“Are women anything but?” Linc asked.

“She got pretty rattled up there,” Ty agreed.

“She told my niece she decided to be a doctor when she was six and jumped out of a two-story window. Broke her ankle.”

“Jumped,” Ty repeated.

Linc nodded.

“She’s into adrenaline, sure. But…”

“There’s no way Mackenzie O’Neil would jump out of a window for fun,” Ty finished for him.

“Exactly.”

“That how she got the scar?”

Linc felt his mouth quirk. “Not according to Mantha’s interrogation. Mack wouldn’t say how she got it, only that it wasn’t related to the fall.”