Rising (Anderson Special Ops #2) - Melody Anne Page 0,26

a chuckle as his thumb brushed over her palm. He hadn’t released her hand yet from their shake. She realized she didn’t mind the least little bit.

“I can honestly say I’ve never been to Utah. So nope, I don’t have multiple wives, not even one . . . yet,” he said with a wink. “And I pray to the heavens daily that there are no miniature Steve’s running around out there looking for me on Facebook.”

With that, Erin felt her armor fall away as she laughed. “I have to admit I like the stories of kids coming out of the woodwork, finding parents after living a full life, having no idea they had family out there. I have a regular in here who has three siblings. A few years ago a forty-year-old woman contacted their dad and said I think you’re my dad. They took all of the tests, and sure enough, he was her dad. Her mother had gotten pregnant in high school, told him the baby was gone, he’d moved away, eventually met his wife, and had a family with her. But now with all of this social media and genealogy testing, people are finding family they never knew existed before. It’s insane.”

“Now, you’re just trying to terrify me,” Steve said. She tested his name out inside her head and decided she liked it. “You look much more like a Steve than a Ben,” she told him.

“My mother would definitely agree,” he said.

“How are you feeling?” she asked. Of course she was referring to the fight from only a few days earlier.

His grin never faltered. “I have to admit I might be a bit sore. My old bones don’t recover quite as quickly as they used to. That fight was more of a workout than I’ve had in a while.” He stopped, reached up, and brushed her hair away from her forehead. “How are you feeling is the more important question.”

Erin’s smile grew. She knew, as well as he did, that her wound was about as superficial as a cut could get. The fact that he was asking, and that he seemed to truly care, showed her why she was attracted to the man. It had been a very long time since a man had been so kind to her — especially a man she was so damn attracted to.

“I don’t know. I could get a staph infection, or a new wrinkle from the horrific mark. But only time will tell,” she said as she sighed. They both laughed together.

“You surprise me,” Steve said. “Not a lot of people are able to do that. I can usually make a quick assessment of someone and they don’t change my opinion. Most women who witnessed what you saw would be seriously freaked out; they wouldn’t be cracking jokes.”

“I’ve found that if you don’t laugh at what you can’t control, then you’re going to be pretty dang miserable the majority of the time. I’d rather brush off the things I can’t do anything about, and focus on the things I can change,” she told him.

“If the rest of the world had that much conviction, we’d all be in a much better place,” he said.

“I agree.” Then she held up a hand before moving over to her coffee pot and grabbing it, filling a cup in front of him. She took out a piece of cherry pie, scooped a healthy dose of ice cream on it, and placed that down. He grinned.

“It looks like you’ve read my mind,” he said as he dug in.

“I’m just loosening you up. I want some answers,” she told him. He didn’t even blink as he waited for her to continue while he sipped on his coffee and ate his pie.

“First things first, where in the world did you learn how to fight the way you were fighting? Secondly, how in the world weren’t you seriously freaked out as five men came for you? And most importantly why did you ask your friends to step back? Was it a macho man thing? Do you have an ego problem? Or do you like to flirt with death? And—”

“Whoa, there,” he said, interrupting her. “That’s a lot of questions, and if you want any of them answered, you have to pause for a second.”

Erin met his sparkling eyes and found herself smiling back. She did tend to rant when she was curious about something. Maybe that’s why she wasn’t close to many people, maybe she never gave them a