Chapter 12

Harry understood why Rory left, but that didn’t make him feel better about it. He wanted more from their relationship but knew it was dicey. If they made the wrong move and pissed off the wrong person, it could end both of their careers.

He hung out with his team on Sunday. Rory not being there made him miss her more. The guys didn’t make a big deal about Rory not being there, but he felt their questioning gazes. When he headed out, Wild followed him to his car.

“Hey, everything okay?” Wild asked.

“Yeah. Everything is great.”

“So Rory…”

“We decided not to push it. I don’t want to do something that will mess us both up.”

“Good idea. I do like her,” Wild said.

“Same. I like her a lot. If she wasn’t in the military, I might have asked her to move in, which I know is too early. ”

Wild laughed. “Don’t tell Ava that. You know she was living with me when we got together.”

“Yeah, but she wasn’t with you. She slept in the extra room.”

Wild glanced over his shoulder, his lips thinned by the time he turned back. “I would have moved her in if the situation had been different. She had nowhere to go. I didn’t want her homeless.”

Harry nodded. “There’s something…” He trailed off, not sure what to say.

“What kind of something?”

“Sometimes, when she doesn’t know I’m looking, there’s this look that crosses her face. Like she’s dealing with something big. I’m fairly sure it has nothing to do with me. It’s just that I feel this tension coming off her, and I want to ask what it’s about, but I don’t know.”

“So you’re sure it’s not about you?”

“Yeah. It’s not about me.”

“Okay, so what do you think it’s about?”

He shook his head. “That’s the thing. I don’t know.” He hoped it wasn’t terrible. He wanted Rory to be able to talk to him, but they didn’t know each other well. Maybe in a few weeks, she would feel comfortable telling him what was up.

“I’m here if you need to talk.”

Harry bumped fists with Wild, then took off. His buddies were great, and he was glad he’d been placed with such an excellent team. On Monday, they learned they were headed to Alaska for training. With things heating up in Russia, they needed some winter weather training. It was four days of cold, windy, blizzard-like conditions. Moving through the ice and snow was a bitch, but they proved they could work efficiently in the terrible conditions .

When they arrived home on Saturday morning, he couldn’t wait and texted Rory.

Just got back from Alaska. Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow.

Hopefully, she’d had a good week and made a decision about work. He didn’t want to be the reason she left the military. Putting himself in that situation would eventually end up with one of them feeling cheated. The last thing he wanted was for her to feel bad about how they’d gotten together.