“All right. Gimme two minutes.” She stepped around him and headed inside, reappearing shortly after wearing jeans, a dark green sweater and a light jacket. “Ready.”
He put her in the front of the Jeep and made Ric get in the back. Ric immediately stuck his head between the front seats to rest his chin on Avery’s left shoulder. She grinned and reached up to scratch his ears. “You’re such a lovebug.”
Mason smiled. “He’s a suck.”
“And you love it.”
“Yeah.”
“So where do you usually go hiking?” she asked as he pulled onto the street. They waved at Bev and Pat across the street, out working in their front garden.
“Up near the property we’re closing on. There are some great trails, and I want to know the lay of the land there better.”
“All right.”
They didn’t talk much on the drive up. He parked at the side of the dirt road near one of the trail entrances. When he opened the back, Ric bounded out and darted into the trees, then stopped to watch them, waiting.
“He’s so well trained,” Avery said.
“He’s smart. Sometimes I think his IQ is higher than mine.”
One side of her mouth curled upward. “Nah, I think your IQ is pretty high.”
Mason reached for her hand. She glanced at him questioningly but didn’t argue or pull away. He considered that progress.
They fell into a comfortable pace together, her long legs meaning he didn’t have to shorten his stride. Ric trotted up the trail a ways, scouting things out, then stopped and circled back.
Mason patted him and Ric was off again. “He does awesome recon patrols.”
Avery chuckled. “I love how much you adore him. Big, tough guy with a squishy spot for animals.”
He didn’t deny it, because it was true. Ric was family. “Yeah? You like that?”
The smile she gave him hit him straight in the heart, open and sincere. “I do.”
He kinda did too.
The sun was just about to set, the last, deep, golden-orange rays filtering through the base of the tree trunks ahead. They slanted across the forest floor, casting a pattern of light mixed with long, purple shadows from the trees. The air smelled of pine and cool, crisp autumn air, faint birdsong echoing around them.
“It’s so peaceful here,” she murmured, tipping her head back and closing her eyes.
It was. A big reason he liked to get outside and away from everyone for a few hours at a time, to center himself and recharge. Being surrounded with this kind of beauty was good for the soul, and God knew his still had a lot of healing left to do.
“I’m curious about what you told me about your mom,” Avery said, her gaze on Ric as he loped ahead. “Why did you end up in foster care?”
He didn’t like to talk about it, but he was glad she’d been thinking about him, and if he wanted more than her body then it was only fair that he open up a little about his past. “My birth mom was a single parent. She had a hard life, and repeated the cycle by becoming a raging alcoholic and drug addict.” Surprisingly he didn’t feel awkward or ashamed telling her, maybe because she was a cop and would have seen plenty of shitty situations involving kids.
She turned to him. “Oh, I’m sorry. How old were you when you were taken from her?”
“Six. Probably two or three years too late, to be honest.”
She nodded, watching him. “Was your mom the first foster home you were placed in?”
“No. I bounced around to a few places through elementary school, and they even moved me to different towns. I wasn’t an easy kid. Had a lot of anger and trust issues. I was defiant and closed up, and had a temper. I got into fights a lot.”
“You were hurting and probably didn’t feel like anyone really loved you. Of course you were going to act out.” She squeezed his hand, and made his heart clench in turn. She was totally right. That’s exactly how he’d felt, on top of being lost and alone.
“They finally sent me to Nancy, who took on high-risk kids. Best thing that ever happened to me. She was the only one who saw through the attitude and acting out. She stuck it out, stuck with me, refused to let me keep repeating my old patterns, and made me into a better person.”
“I think I love her. A loving foster parent is worth their weight in gold, and then some.”
“They totally are. I never knew what a real home was until her. Then, after high school I joined the military, and that became my family too.”
She glanced at him. “It must have been hard for you to have to leave it.”
“Real hard.”
She nodded, switching her focus to Ric as he trotted back toward them, his tongue lolling in a grin of doggy bliss. “Tate never told me what happened to you.”
His insides automatically tightened. “I was in a helo crash.”
“You don’t have to talk about it if it’s too hard,” she said gently.
It would always be hard. But he wanted her to know. Because he wanted her to understand him and why he was the way he was. “We were coming back from an op. Three of us, and some U.S. Green Berets in the back of a Chinook. Tango on the ground got off a lucky shot with an RPG and brought us down.”
He pulled in a deep breath and ordered his muscles to relax. He was safe with Avery out here in the woods, not back in that hellscape no matter how much his mind tried to insist he was. “The crash was…bad. Both pilots were killed. All of us were hurt. Some of the guys in the back were trapped. Then the fuel ignited.” He’d never forget that terrifying whoosh and the blistering wave of heat.
“Oh, God.” She was staring at him now, her fingers tight around his.
“I was hurt pretty bad, but I wasn’t trapped, and I knew we only had seconds to get out. I managed to drag one guy out, went back for another, and as soon as we got clear, the enemy ambushed us.”
“Mason,” she whispered, her face full of anguish.
He either got this out now, or never at all. “We were pinned down. The three of us had to defend the aircraft with only the weapons and ammo we had on us. The helo was engulfed in flames. We could hear the guys trapped inside screaming, but couldn’t get to them, it was just too hot and the firefight was too intense.”
Avery stopped. She turned to face him, sorrow filling her eyes. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked you about it.”
“No, it’s okay. I want you to know.”
She searched his eyes a long moment, then reached up to wind her arms around his neck and press her body to his in a hug that almost made his heart implode.
He wrapped his arms around her back and rested his nose in her hair as he exhaled, soaking up the comfort she offered even as his pulse increased. This was the real Avery. The soft, kind soul beneath the sarcastic edge and shields. And man, he had no defense against her whatsoever.
“How long were you out there?” she murmured into his neck.
“Thirty-seven hours. The enemy kept coming back with little pockets of reinforcements. I got hold of a functional radio I found in the debris field and finally got us some air support. Warthogs came in and strafed the enemy positions, then circled us until the medevac finally arrived. But not before the enemy got one of us.”
She made a sympathetic sound and rubbed his back in a soothing motion. “How bad were you hurt?”