They focused on their food for a few minutes, while Mavis went over what Wilson had said about himself in her mind. It didn’t quite seem to fit the idea of a flashy, high-powered Washington military man that she’d had in her mind.
In fact, it seemed as though Wilson thought his life was...dull? Confined? At least some parts of it.
“What would you do if you weren’t working at your job?” she said impulsively. “Do you have any plans for after you retire?”
“Come here and eat this steak for dinner every night,” Wilson said immediately, and when she chuckled, “I suppose that’s not the most realistic ambition. I’ve thought about it, but I admit I’m not quite sure. That’s probably what’s kept me in the job so long.”
“How do you mean?”
“A military pension is very, very good,” he told her. “Particularly once you’re fairly high-ranking, and you’ve been in the Service for twenty years or more. Which I certainly have.”
“How much more?” she asked, eyebrows raised.
“Now, now, never ask a gentleman his age,” he said, and she laughed again.
She liked his sense of humor. It wasn’t crude or insulting like a lot of men’s; it was more refined, and almost delicate, how he dropped casual little jokes into the conversation.
Daryl hadn’t had much of a sense of humor. She’d given up trying to joke with him early on in their marriage, because he never got it, and then she’d either feel awkward when he didn’t notice, or have to explain the joke to him and deal with him telling her it wasn’t funny.
“I
n any case, I could’ve retired years ago if I’d wanted to, and with the pension and my savings from all of the combat pay I’ve gotten, I wouldn’t have had to worry about money at all,” he said. “But—as I said before, I married my job. I wouldn’t know what to do with myself without it.”
Mavis privately thought that it sounded like he and his job might be on the rocks, and perhaps a divorce was in order. But she wasn’t about to dictate his life choices for him, so she kept her mouth shut.
The rest of dinner was in the same, more lighthearted vein. Wilson picked up the check, not even considering Mavis’ offer to pay.
“It’s the least I can do in exchange for the wonderful tour this afternoon,” he said, “and the company and conversation this evening.”
He held the door for her again on the way out. And then opened the sports car’s door for her, too.
She had to keep her mind out of impossible fantasies, somehow.
And then, once they were in the car, he said softly, “Did you want to continue our earlier conversation? If you’re comfortable. If not, I entirely understand.”
And Mavis heard herself saying, “Would you like to come to my place for a cup of coffee?”
Wilson said, “That sounds lovely,” and Mavis had to accept that she’d just asked a man up to her apartment only a day after meeting him.
And she didn’t regret it.
She was certain that Wilson would be a perfect gentleman, for one thing. And...if something did end up happening, Mavis was somehow sure she wouldn’t regret it.
She wanted to spend as much time with this man as she could, before he flew off, away from Montana forever. She wanted to experience every moment with him as fully as she could.
And from what she could tell, even fully clothed, he seemed to have the sort of body that a man twenty years younger would be envious of. Trim waist, broad shoulders, biceps that showed some definition even under his shirt...his jeans hugged his behind in a way that Mavis appreciated very much, and showed off powerful thighs.
She remembered him saying he ran six miles every morning. Looking at him as he got out of the car and came around to open her door, she could believe it.
She let him into her building. “It’s a bit shabby,” she said as they went upstairs.
“No need to apologize for anything about your home,” he said in firm tones.
So Mavis bit her tongue as they came into her apartment, with its secondhand couch and fraying blankets and pillows.
She’d left everything behind when she left Daryl. All of the nice things they’d bought for their house were still in the house, where Daryl was living. Mavis’ lawyer said that they could get her some of her things, and that she would certainly get a half-share of the home’s value...but that was sometime in the future, and right now the lawyer’s fees were taking up most of her spare income.
But Wilson settled into the Goodwill couch like it was the most comfortable place he’d ever sat. Mavis started up the coffee and came back into the living room.