“Tell me more about you and Tate, and Braxton. Tate’s talked about him but I’ve never met him.”
“Where do I even start?” Mason said with a fond smile.
“At the beginning. We’ve got over six hours to kill.”
“Okay, then.” He told her about how bored he’d been in the regular army until he’d finally served long enough to try out for JTF2. He’d met Braxton at Dwyer Hill in Ontario during selection. “Eventually we made the unit together. Brax is a sniper.”
“Was selection as awful as I imagine?” she asked.
“Yep, and worse. But I loved it. The challenge of it. Guys started dropping out right away. We lost over twenty-percent in the first three days.”
“Did you ever think about quitting?”
He’d be lying if he said no. “Once. It was the middle of January on the prairies and we’d just finished a winter training exercise. I was beat up, hungry, freezing and miserable. But so was everyone else, and when I looked around, it hit me again that there weren’t many of us left. I decided I’d come too far and gone through too much to give up then. So I sucked it up and stopped thinking about how shitty everything seemed or felt. I did one task. Just one, then another. Then the next. And the next, until I’d made it through.”
“That’s pretty amazing. Tate’s told me things about his time in the Marines that sounded damn awful. I admire all of you a lot for your service.”
Her praise touched a hidden place deep inside him that he never let anyone see, even as it made him a little uncomfortable too. “We were all just doing our jobs.” Brax was still doing his. And Mason would have given anything to be there with him. “What made you decide to be a cop?”
“I didn’t, until I was thirty-two. I had a psych degree and didn’t know what to do with it. I worked in a few different jobs but nothing felt right. I knew I wanted to help people and make a difference, and the thought of taking down bad guys was a major bonus. My family was horrified,” she added with a chuckle.
“Really?”
“My mom almost had a heart attack. Was convinced I was going to die on every patrol I went on while I was a beat cop. I used to have to text her after each shift to prove I was still alive,” she finished with a wry smile, then looked over at him. “Your mom must have worried about you a lot.”
“I think she did, but she hid it well. She’s a tough lady. Sent the best care packages ever, full of homemade stuff. The guys would always fight over whatever she sent.”
“She sounds like an incredible mom.”
“She is. She’s been there for me through everything, just like all the other kids she’s fostered over the years.”
Avery stared at him. “You were a foster kid?”
“Yeah. But she’s my mom. Without her and the military, I wouldn’t be here.”
“You still miss it?”
He nodded, jaw tightening. “Every day.” How weird was it that he missed something that had almost killed him several times? But he did. Missed the brotherhood and the sense of belonging, knowing he was part of something elite that most people could never do.
The hard, was what made it great. Having all that taken away so suddenly was still unbearable some days.
“Anyway, after I was discharged from the Canadian Forces, I was laid up for a while.” Having surgeries on his knees and back from the injuries sustained in the crash that still haunted him, and he didn’t want to talk about any of it. His mom and Brax were the only two people he’d ever told what really happened that day. “Once I was healed up, I decided to give contracting a shot, and that’s when I met Tate. You know the rest.”
“It’s so strange how everyone’s connected,” she mused.
He changed the subject by asking her more about her work as a detective. They talked about various things, then lapsed into a comfortable silence for the rest of the first half of the trip.
After stopping for lunch at a barbecue place just off the highway, they carried on to Billings. Avery dozed for a bit until they were twenty miles outside of town.
Once they reached the city limit, she got really quiet again, and he could all but feel the tension building inside her. The guest ranch was located eleven miles outside the city.
Mason turned into the main parking lot and let out a low whistle. “Looks even more expensive in person.” The pictures on the website hadn’t done it justice. “So this is a low-end wedding, is it?”
One side of her mouth lifted. “Ha, no. My family doesn’t do weddings half-assed.” She got out and headed for the trunk.
Mason lifted her suitcase out, then grabbed his duffel and garment bag. Slinging them both over one shoulder, he shut the trunk, locked the Jeep and curled an arm around Avery’s waist. She froze, looking up at him with startled, golden eyes.
He held her gaze and kept his hand firmly on her waist. “If you’re going to tense up on me like that every time I touch you, we’re never gonna pull this off,” he murmured.
She searched his eyes a moment, and he felt that electrical current again, buzzing between them and all across his skin. Then she lowered her gaze and nodded. “Okay. Let’s do this.”
Yeah, let’s.
The main building of the lodge was a huge, three-story craftsman-style log building with the lobby and reception rooms in the center, and large guest wings extending from either side. Private cabins and other buildings were scattered around the rear of the resort.
A dozen or so people were milling around the lobby when they entered, while the sunset glowed through the bank of massive windows that covered the back wall. A rock fireplace rose right up to the beams spanning the ceiling, a large wood fire ablaze in the grate.
Avery tensed a little and looked around. Mason squeezed her waist gently and walked her over to the front desk to check in. Several people rushed over to embrace her. Avery introduced him to an aunt, two cousins and a nephew, who all watched him with open curiosity.
“See you guys later tonight,” Avery said when they were done, and turned to face the front desk.
“Avery Dahl,” she said, handing over her ID to the clerk. “Checking out Sunday.”
“Welcome, Ms. Dahl, we’re glad to have you.” The clerk typed something into his computer. “Okay, we’ve got you in the Ponderosa cabin. It’s got an incredible view of the lake from the loft bedroom.”
Avery frowned. “Cabin? No, I’m in the main lodge with the rest of my family. We’re here for the wedding—”
“I upgraded us to a luxury cabin,” Mason said, aware of her relatives watching and listening nearby.
Avery snapped her head around to gape at him. “What? Why would you—”
He settled his hands on her hips and tugged her close, aware of the eyes on them. “Nothing but the best for my lady,” he said, loud enough for the others to hear him, then dropped a kiss on her lips, which were still parted in surprise.
She tensed and sucked in a breath but he was already lifting his head and curling an arm around her to pull her into his side. It was no hardship for him to play this role, and it felt eerily natural to claim her publicly. He liked it. Maybe too much.
“How many beds does it have?” she said to the clerk.