“Safe. Still pains in the ass, though. They’re in the waiting room and refuse to leave until they hear you’re okay.” He bit back a rueful smile as he recalled the ongoing battle between the boisterous fishermen and the nurses threatening to toss them out. If not for his military credentials, and his persistence, he might not have been allowed back here, either.
“They’re assholes. But they’re my assholes,” she said affectionately. She rolled her eyes at him, and in an instant their old connection slammed into him. He pictured the gritty young woman he’d worked alongside on his Uncle Bill’s crab-fishing boat. They’d gone from friendly rivals to friends, and then much more.
What were they now?
He wouldn’t stick around long enough to find out.
Her amused expression faded slightly, and she seemed to give herself a small shake. “Thank you for saving them.”
He rested his hip on the narrow bed and fiddled with the green plastic hospital tag around her wrist, turning it over and over, unable to resist skimming his thumb along the satin flesh there. Her pulse jumped against his fingertip. “Not you?”
“I told you to leave me be.” Her words escaped her in a breathy rush.
He caught and held her eye. “Not easy to do, Nolee.”
Her nostrils flared, and the small diamond stud he’d given her when they’d graduated high school glinted. “That wasn’t the case nine years ago.”
“You think that was easy?” He strode out of the way of a food service worker bearing a dinner tray and breathed in the aroma of fresh-brewed coffee and chicken broth. Braced himself.
Get it together, man.
If you weren’t in Kodiak, you wouldn’t give her another thought.
Liar. If that were true, how the hell did he explain his nonstop thoughts of her over the years? The memories that refused to let him go, no matter how many miles he put between them. How hard he worked. The risks he took.
The squeak of the staff member’s sneakers grew muffled and then disappeared. Dylan crossed his arms over his chest, willing himself to follow the cafeteria worker out and away from the tempting woman who messed with his hard-won peace of mind.
“Why are you here, Dylan?”
“Transfer.” He turned to face her again. Knocked the emotion out of his voice. The hunger. Kept his tone crisp. “But it’s temporary. I’m shipping stateside as soon as my out-of-rotation-year assignment request is approved.”
“Of course you are.” A bitter note entered her voice. She raised her chin and pinned him with a look. “How long have you been in Kodiak? Have you seen your parents? Bill?”
“Three months and no.” He rocked back on his heels at her accusing expression. It wasn’t like he was to blame for his decade-long family estrangement.
She dipped a spoon into her soup, eyes still on his, and lifted a steaming mouthful to her lips. When her sexy mouth pursed, he felt himself harden. “So they have no clue you’re here.”
He cleared his throat. Dragged his wild thoughts back under control. “Wouldn’t make any difference if they did.”
“For who? Your parents love you.”
“They had a funny way of showing it.”
“You know they couldn’t help that. The business...”
“Was more important. Got it,” he said, thinking of the wilderness expedition touring company they ran that’d overtaken their lives and overshadowed his childhood.
His older brother, Robbie, had taken to exploring rugged terrain like a mountain goat, his father had proudly proclaimed, praising their golden child at every opportunity. As for Dylan, after an unforgettable viewing of The Guardian, he’d known on the spot he wanted to be a rescue swimmer and travel the world helping those in need. He and his old man butted heads nonstop about his reluctance to toe the line in the family business, about his attitude, about the way he tied his shoes, the way he breathed...about anything it’d seemed.
After one blowout fight too many, they’d palmed him off on his uncle, who’d given him a place to stay during school and a job on his crab-fishing boat. Since they hadn’t made one of his swim meets, missed his graduation, hell, just about everything, he’d decided to stop wasting his time missing parents he’d never really had and left Kodiak without another word when he’d gotten the call from the Coast Guard.
“That’s not true,” Nolee insisted. Her large extended family had always been a big part of her life. She’d never accepted his estrangement, a point of contention they’d had in their otherwise perfect relationship, along with her daredevil antics and unwillingness to leave Kodiak.
And her need to lock lips with his former best friend Craig.
He cleared his throat and his voice, when it emerged, sounded gruff. “Can I get you anything before I go?”
“A boat?”
One corner of her mouth lifted slightly, a grin-through-pain expression he’d glimpsed many times before. Nolee was the type to smile through a setback, laugh at an injury. It’d been the only way he’d known when she was really hurting. Despite everything, it bugged him that after growing up sleeping on family members’ couches and in shelters with her health-challenged single mother, she’d finally gotten what she’d always wanted—a place to call her own—and he’d played a part in her losing it.
Then again, if she hadn’t gambled on outrunning an unpredictable storm to take advantage of what he supposed had been an approved preseason run, she’d still have her boat.
Odds.
Nolee sure liked to play them. When she won, she won big, but when she lost...
He shoved the image of her sinking boat away. She was here now. Saved from her own worst instincts.
But who would be around to catch her the next time?
“Would you settle for Jell-O?” He pulled the clear wrap off the green, wiggling square on her tray. “And captain, huh? What you always wanted.”
Her eyes searched his. “Why are you really here?” She gestured with a sweep of her hand to the room around them, frowning.
Because I needed to see your eyes open.
He squashed that thought, along with the temptation to climb into that bed and warm her up in a way that would be much more enjoyable for both of them.
“Professional courtesy.”
She snorted. “My ass. Try again.”
“Want me to call Craig? Maybe you’d rather have him?” he asked instead, then nearly bit his tongue off.
Her mouth dropped open. She stared at him for a moment in charged silence. “Get out.”
He stepped forward, knowing he’d sounded like an ass, like the jilted boyfriend she’d turned him into, not the man who’d moved on with his life.
“Look, I’m...”
“You’re what, Dylan? You saved me and my men. Thank you, but your mission is done and I don’t need you anymore.”
He hung his head for a moment, then lifted his eyes to search hers. “No. You never did.”
Her gaze narrowed. Whatever she’d been about to say, however, was interrupted by a knock on the open door. A nurse bustled in and smiled at Nolee. “Ah. Good. Now I can tell your crew to hightail it out of here.”
“Goodbye, Nolee.” Dylan tipped his head to the nurse, cast a last look at Nolee and strode out the door.
Job done. Survivor’s health ensured. Now he could get on with his day. His life. And