Taylor: I miss you and you’ve only been gone a day. Ugh!
Taylor: My visit to the dementia care center was good, but why do I seem to attract creepy people? Nothing happened, but man, why can’t I meet someone like Chris Hemsworth one day? lol
Taylor: I got my car back from Stan’s, and I have to say, I missed my Kia!
Taylor: Why is it that I can think of all sorts of witty things to say when you aren’t here to appreciate them?
Taylor: I went over to Silverstone Towing today, and I hate to be the one to tell you this . . . but I beat your high score. :)
Taylor: It’s two in the morning, and I woke up because I had a nightmare that you were shot and lying on the ground, dying. You’d better be alive, Eagle, because I’ll be pissed if you aren’t.
Blinking, Eagle checked the date of that last text. He sighed in relief that she didn’t seem to have some sort of psychic ability when he saw that she’d sent it two days before he’d actually been shot. He kept reading.
Taylor: I’ve been keeping to myself a lot since you left, because I realized that you make me feel safe. And now that you’re not here, I see the boogeyman around every corner. I feel as if that makes me really weak, and I hate it.
Taylor: Shawn made the most amazing chicken Crock-Pot dish tonight. I decided I’m going to steal him from Silverstone and keep him in my apartment to cook for me every night.
Taylor: Why did the can crusher quit his job?
Taylor: Because it was soda pressing.
Taylor: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Taylor: If you don’t get home soon, I’m going to go out of my mind. I didn’t realize quite how much I loved talking to you until you weren’t here.
Taylor: I miss you, Eagle. I hope you’re okay wherever you are.
Taylor: Thank you for making the world a safer place.
Eagle was amused by her random texts. But he also really loved that she obviously liked talking to him every day as much as he liked talking to her. They’d clicked so thoroughly that it felt wrong not to be able to talk to each other. He’d never felt that way with anyone else.
He needed to see Taylor . . . and he needed to see her now.
He shot off a quick text.
Eagle: I’m home, Flower. I’m on my way to you. I know it’s late, but I need to see you.
He hoped she wasn’t asleep, and he was thrilled when he saw three blinking dots in the text program, indicating she was typing.
Taylor: OMG!! YAY!!! It’s never too late for you! I’ll be up!
He chuckled at all the exclamation points she’d used. But couldn’t deny the thrill of knowing she was as excited to see him as he was her. After promising to call the others tomorrow to check in and let them know how his arm was doing, Eagle rode the shuttle bus to the parking lot where his car was located.
He drove way too fast to Taylor’s apartment and took the stairs two at a time and was in front of her door before he knew it. Two point two seconds after he’d knocked, he heard Taylor asking who was there.
“It’s me, Flower. Eagle.”
She wrenched open the door—and he’d never seen her looking more beautiful. Her hair was out of control on her head, curls sticking up everywhere. She had on a pair of loose pink-and-yellow pants and a tank top. He knew she slept in the tank and her undies, because she said anything wrapped around her legs made her feel trapped while she was sleeping. Her feet were bare, and Eagle noted that sometime in the last week she’d painted her nails light pink.
“Get in here!” she exclaimed, reaching out and grabbing the front of his shirt.
Eagle smiled and let her pull him into the apartment. She slammed her door, then threw the dead bolt and the chain before turning back to him.
“Are you all right? How was the mission? Did you find the guy you were after . . . or was it a woman? Either way, I’m assuming you guys were successful, which is awesome—one less asshole to worry about. How was your trip? Did you fly somewhere or drive? Are you jet lagged? Do you want a cup of coffee? Or maybe you just want to sleep. Have you stopped by Silverstone Towing? Are you hungry?”
Eagle chuckled. “Breathe, Taylor. I can’t answer your questions if you don’t take a breath and give me a second between each one.”
She blushed. “Sorry, I’m just so relieved you’re home. I know you told me not to worry, that you and the others know what you’re doing, but I couldn’t help it. And I missed you. I swear I had no idea how much I’d gotten used to you being around for me to babble to.”
“I missed you too,” Eagle told her.
Surprising him, she threw herself against his chest and wrapped her arms around him.
Eagle couldn’t help the pained grunt that left his mouth at her impulsive action.
Of course she heard him. Pulling back in alarm, she looked up at him. “What’s wrong? I hurt you?”
“I’m okay,” he said gently.
Taylor’s eyes wandered over his face, down his chest—and stopped at his left arm. He was holding it gingerly to try to avoid its being bumped again.
She reached for his jacket. Slowly and carefully, she pushed it off his shoulders, ignoring the way it landed on the floor with a thump. He had on a short-sleeve shirt, and the bandage was clearly visible under the left sleeve.
Without a word, she grabbed his right hand and dragged him through her apartment, down the hall, and into her bedroom. Eagle hadn’t been inside her personal space before, and he inhaled deeply, loving how everything smelled like vanilla.
She didn’t give him time to examine her room before pulling him into the bathroom. It wasn’t anything special, just a bath/shower combo and one sink, with a surprising amount of counter space to the left of it. The toilet sat to the right of the sink.
She turned him so his back was to the mirror and pressed a hand to his chest. “Stay,” she ordered.
Eagle smirked at her bossiness.
She crouched to look in the cabinet under the sink, and Eagle did his best to ignore the way she was kneeling at his feet and how, if she came up on her knees, she’d be at the perfect height to remove his pants and . . .
Shaking his head, he repeated, “I’m okay, Taylor. I promise.”
“Whatever,” she mumbled. “You were probably in the wilds of some random country with more germs than people. And I’m sure you didn’t stop to get proper medical care.” She stood up with a commercial first aid kit in her hand. “I want to see it,” she said, eyeing him sternly.
“It’s not necessary,” he said. “Gramps is worse than a mother hen. And Smoke is more capable than most doctors I’ve met. They cleaned me up and made me swallow a million antibiotics.”
“Good. I still want to see it.”
“It’s ugly,” Eagle warned, touched that she was so worried about him. Her concern felt different than that of his team.
“What happened?”
“Bullet grazed me,” Eagle said bluntly.
All the color instantly leached out of Taylor’s face.
Eagle swore and moved quickly before she passed out on him. He grabbed her by the waist, turned, and lifted her so she was sitting on the counter, ignoring the pain in his arm as he did so. He pushed between her legs and speared his hands into the hair on either side of her head. “Breathe, Flower. Grazed. It went right on by. Didn’t hit any bones or anything important.”