Chapter 2

Mike barely refrained from rolling his eyes. The two recruits he was testing at the gym today were going to wash out. There was no doubt in his mind. For one thing, they weren't anywhere near peak, physical form. But more to the point, they weren't taking their sparring sessions seriously.

Mike sighed. It was time to show them how things were done, and why. If they wanted to join any SWAT team in the future, they'd have to make some major attitude adjustments. He stepped onto the mat. The gym was busier than usual, it being Saturday, and people began gathering around to see if there would be something entertaining to watch. Mike wasn't above putting on a show, but he feared the crowd would be disappointed with this one.

Mike beckoned to the first draftee. "Okay. It's time to give me everything you've got," he barked.

This shouldn't take long, even if the guy could come up with a few moves. Then, once Mike was finished with the pair, his schedule would be cleared, and he could meet up for lunch with Doug, Kyle, and Cisco—his new "posse" as the kids would say—improbable as it would have seemed a few months ago that these three had become his best buds.

The rookie-pair in front of him arrogantly high-fived before one walked off the mat and took a stance on the sidelines while the other readied himself. Mike didn't waste another moment talking. He'd already instructed the duo for over an hour, although it felt like three because they clearly weren't taking his directives to heart. Mike got into his ready position, circled his opponent once, and…

Game over. The pencil-thin, unmotivated recruit went down under a simple, frontal attack; Mike's much larger bulk felling him like a sapling with no roots. Mike followed him to the mat, and when the guy squawked at being pinned, Mike leapt to his feet and gazed down at failed candidate number one, shaking his head. "You should have been ready for me."

"You didn't let me know you were about to attack," the guy whined.

"Oh. You mean like an asshole on the street would?" Mike scoffed. He was so tired of these two crybabies, he couldn't scrape them off soon enough. "There are no queen's rules in hand-to-hand when you're fighting for survival. You'll live longer if you remember that."

Failure number one didn't acknowledge Mike's advice, but heaved himself off the floor and walked away with a sour look on his face.

Mike turned away from that pathetic guy and gestured to his friend. "Okay. You're up."

This guy was bulkier than his buddy, and clearly wary now that he'd seen what Mike had done to his partner-in-apathy. Good. Maybe he'd get some fight out of this idiot. They circled each other for two turns and…

Wrong.

It took eight seconds this time for Mike to fake the man out with a pulled neck strike, before he initiated a swift ankle sweep, dropping the guy and throwing his body down on top of his cherry-assed adversary.

Mike grumbled, then got up, disgusted. "Okay. Hit the showers. You'll receive an email notification letting you know how you've done."

Fail.

They bitched loudly as they walked away, so they had to know they hadn't made the cut. How the hell the pair had made it onto the small-town police force south of Bangor where they worked, was a puzzle. They must have relatives in high places. But that didn't make a difference to Mike. A rookie was either good or not, despite their connections. Hell, Mike's friend Kyle was their SWAT Chief's brother, and Doug was the nephew of Frank Ildavorg who was the chief of the Orono Police Department. But both of them had made the cut for the team, having worked hard to sharpen and hone their prowess.

These two? Duds.

Mike picked up a towel and…hell. He sent a hand over the back of his neck. He didn't even have any sweat to mop up. The pair had been so lame-ass, Mike hadn't expended a bit of energy. Shaking his head, he dropped the towel onto his bag, and for the first time, looked around at the audience that was slowly disbursing. He saw a lot of familiar faces; people who—with knowing smiles on their faces—threw him some thumbs up and some chin lifts, responding to how quickly Mike had dispatched the two tenderfeet.

But there were a few strangers in the crowd, too. One in particular who caught his eye. And why not? She stood out; tall, blonde, and stunning. Before he could decide whether to approach her or not, she hot-footed it away from the crowd and sped out the door.

Damn.It figured. The first female to catch his eye after a year of disappointment and drought, and she'd taken off. Maybe someone here would know who she was. He saw the familiar face of one of the gym owners milling about.

"Hey, Andy," Mike called out, urging the guy over with a wave of his hand.

The guy smirked as he walked in Mike's direction. "Don't tell me. You want a real challenge this morning. One you didn't get with that pair. Give me a couple minutes to take care of an employee dispute, then I'll give your ass a beat-down."

Mike grinned. "Thanks anyway, Andy, but I don't have time today. I did, however…" His smile faltered. How did he say this without sounding creepy? Nobody here knew he was single; that his wife had left him a year ago. He'd kept it deep under wraps because… Dammit. He'd considered it a personal failure when Mellie had walked out on him with a "dude" a decade younger than him.

Mike cleared his throat, attempting to sound casual.

"I, uh, don't suppose you happen to know who the blonde is who just walked out? I…think I've seen her before at some conference or another." Shit, that sounded lame, even to his own ears, but Andy didn't call him on it.

"Nope. Never seen her before. She's a knock-out though, huh?" Had Andy winked?

"I guess." Mike tried to appear disinterested. "I just wonder if she has any close-quarters combat training. You know me. I'm always looking for a new opponent to shake things up."

Yup.In the last year he'd taken on most everybody in the gym and on the team.

"Fresh meat, huh? I guess that makes me yesterday's rump roast?"

He and Andy were pretty evenly matched, actually, so they both laughed, and Mike decided to drop his inquiries. At least for now. Maybe the mystery woman would show up again.

Cisco walked up and joined them, having just come into the gym. "Hi, Andy." Andy gave a salute and walked away. "Bye, Andy," Cisco laughed, then turned to Mike. "Gotta ask. How did the new wannabes perform?"

"Phht," Mike snorted. "They sucked ass. No way they're going to make the team."

"Good. Because I'm hungry. And if you'd been on the fence about one or the other of them, you'd still be knocking them around the room and it might have cut into our lunch hour."

Cisco was always thinking with his stomach. The man was a bottomless pit.

"Like you didn't eat two Big Man's Breakfasts at the diner this morning," Mike guessed.

"Two plus an additional side of bacon, if you must know. But that was four hours ago. I'm empty again."

Mike chuckled. "You have a place in mind?" He really didn't even need to ask. The man's go-to spot this summer was a taco truck that set up on Main Street, because his current female fixation was the woman behind the grill.

"Tacos?" Cisco posited.

"You're so predictable," Mike chuckled. "But, yeah. We can do that. I need to text Doug and Kyle."

"Already done, my man."

"Great. Which means you've also put in an advance order for your dozen tacos, and will have half of them gone before ours are even up."

"Jealous that the owner has a thing for me?" Cisco smirked.

"Right. You wish. And no." Maybe. A little. The proprietress was a hot redhead and he'd have to be dead not to notice.

"That's a lie. But there's no need to covet my territory," Cisco retaliated. "All you assholes I hang with are happily married now, so I'm the only one of us with a pretty face who's on the market."

Mike managed to hold back a wince. If Cisco only knew. Mike was single, and the need for female companionship was starting to eat at him. But there was a problem. Mike had no idea how to attract women. Hell, he'd married right out of high school, and hadn't ever looked at any female besides Mellie during their eighteen-year marriage. He was clueless how to break into the dating scene, and even if he wasn't, in order to get on the market, he needed to come clean with his friends, and tell them he was no longer married.

But he couldn't.

He felt like he'd been…cuckolded, and it didn't sit well. Mike didn't like to lose at anything, and the end of his marriage seemed like an epic failure. He wasn't eager to broadcast that to the world.

Mike bent and picked up his gym bag, hiding his pained expression. It only took a few seconds to don his game-face again.

"Let's roll," he told Cisco with a crooked grin.

"You don't have to ask me twice. You want to walk?"

It was only a five-minute stroll to Main Street, and the humidity had finally eased up, so Mike readily agreed. "Sure."

They pushed out into the sunshine, and Mike looked around, hoping to catch a glimpse of?—

"Hey. Did you happen to get a look at the blonde who walked out of the gym right before I came in?" Cisco asked.

Ouch.How did Mike respond to that? Of course he'd seen her. But if Cisco already had his eye on the woman—and she came back—Mike wouldn't stand a chance. But he couldn't lay claim because…

Screw it.

"Yeah. She watched me decimate those two recruits," he responded with a little more swag in his voice than he normally allowed.

Cisco gave him a raised brow, but quickly dismissed whatever had come into his mind, and grinned. "I wouldn't mind getting to know her, but I think she's just visiting the area. She got into a car with rental plates, so…" Cisco shrugged.

"So, you'll have to make do with Ms. Taco-truck," Mike returned, trying to keep his tone light this time. But, damn. It was disappointing as hell to find out the mystery woman was a tourist. The only plus side? It looked like he'd be able to keep his single-status secret a while longer.

The walk was pleasant, the conversation revolving around the clueless pair at the gym who'd thought to join SWAT. And when they reached the taco truck, as predicted, Cisco's order was already hot and waiting at the pick-up window. "Suckas," he taunted as Doug and Kyle joined them. "The line's long today. Good luck." He sauntered off to grab a picnic table, and Mike jeered.

"Why do we keep him around?"

"Because he's great cannon-fodder," Kyle quipped, not meaning it. "Keeps the rest of our asses safe when we send him into a shooter situation first."

"And he attracts women," Doug stated pragmatically. "Not that any of us are on the market, but it's always a pleasure to look."

Mike wanted more than looking these days, but he was his own worst enemy, not confessing his single status.

They moved into line, and contrary to what Cisco had teased, the queue proceeded swiftly and they all had their food in hand before their stomachs started complaining. The trio walked over and sat with Cisco, who's pile of empty wrappers was growing bigger by the second.

"You're a landfill hazard," Kyle took a large bite of a taco and pointed.

"Nope," Cisco dismissed. "I recycle." He shook the shredded lettuce off the pile of paper and smoothed it out to prove his point, then gave a chin lift while he wolfed another bite. "Did Mike tell you about the spectacular blonde who came into the gym this morning?" he asked around his mouthful. "She was one hot prospect. When I go on duty this afternoon, I'm going to cruise around town and look for her car." Cisco headed B Squad for their SWAT team, but was also a motorcycle cop with the OPD, and currently worked the three to eleven shift, with weekends being part of his schedule.

Mike found himself uncustomarily agitated with Cisco. Why did the man think he needed all the single females? Oh, yeah. Because his track record was world class, and he could generally have his pick. With his swarthy Latin looks and his smooth lines, Cisco had most of the female population of Orono eating out of his hand. And it didn't matter how old a woman was. She could be ninety, and Cisco still considered it a win if he could wink and get a blush out of the senior.

"Aren't you kind of dating that library chick from Augusta?" Kyle probed.

"Nah. That went belly-up as soon as she invited me to meet her parents. You know I'm not into that kind of thing." He gave a mock shiver.

"One of these days," Doug taunted, "you're going to meet someone you really like who's going to ghost you. And won't that just burn your balls."

"My balls will remain intact, thank you," Cisco replied. "I'm not falling for anyone. Ever."

That gave Mike some comfort. If the blonde did, for some reason, stick around town, and Cisco did his normal thing, he would leave her available after a couple of quick… Nope. Mike's ire rose again. He didn't want to imagine Cisco banging the lovely stranger.

"Someday," Kyle said, "all the women you've scorned are going to get together and come after you. We'll see how your balls fare then. I'm thinking slow roasted over a pit of ‘fuck-you' coals."

"Hah, hah." Cisco didn't look the least bit worried.

The conversation moved smoothly on to work, and the discussion centered on the much-anticipated, weekend-long drill south of Bangor at Mt. Waldo Quarry that the SWAT team would be holding the following Saturday and Sunday. The site for their training was a popular swimming hole for locals, but was extremely dangerous if one wasn't familiar with the terrain. The team would be practicing water rescues, cliffside extractions, and mock man-hunts. They were all excited about the exercises they'd be running, and the overnight camping.

Mike leaned back after polishing off his three tacos, knowing his companions would soon be leaving, heading off in various directions. Kyle and Doug would be meeting their new wives to do weekend things, and Cisco—pumped for the following weekend's exercises because it would get him off his patrol bike—would head off to his shift, since his work-week currently ran Wednesday to Sunday.

Mike, of course, would head home to his empty house.

Yeah.To say he was looking forward to the weekend away was an understatement. He needed things to do. Badly. There were currently too many hours in the day for him to fill up, even with his solitary antiquing forays and his kids' sporting events.

He'd already arranged for his mom and dad to take care of his son and daughter during his drills. Even though the pair complained loudly that they were old enough to be left alone, Mike still worried about them as if they were little. When Mellie had walked out on them, they had reverted a bit, clinging to him for a few months, but they'd rebounded far faster than Mike. Where was his peace of mind, and when would it kick in?

Dammit.Being single had its perks, but mostly it sucked.