But it was good for her to know this, wasn’t it? And good for him to know it. Because that was what had been behind his anger, earlier. It wasn’t that he was angry with Lynn for needing some time to process, or wanting to take things slow.
It was that he was afraid that she wasn’t as committed to this as he was. That the mate-bond meant less to her than it did to him.
If he’d been totally confident in her feelings, after all, he would’ve known that everything would turn out fine, and it wouldn’t have mattered as much.
He tightened his fingers around her hand. “I don’t want you to be afraid alone.” Sincerity bled through his voice, and he wondered if it was going to just spill out onto the table. He wasn’t used to being this serious for so long. “I don’t want you thinking you’re alone. The whole point of all this is that we’re together, right? So, sure, it’s scary. But we don’t have to be scared by ourselves.”
Lynn smiled. This wasn’t the little amused quirk, but a dawning happiness that spread slowly over her face. Ken drank in the sight.
“I wasn’t thinking about it like that at all,” she said. “I was thinking—what if you left, or died, or something, and then I was all by myself again? But I was behaving like I was all by myself anyway.” She squeezed his hand back. “Being together while we’re scared sounds like the better option.”
“By a lot,” Ken agreed. “Hey, here’s our food.”
They were both presented with burgers and fries, and so they took a break from the heavy emotional stuff to commit themselves to meat for a while. Ken not
iced with approval than Lynn attacked her burger with just as much gusto as Ken did, clearly hungry and not ashamed of it. He liked a woman who could eat.
When they’d both reduced their plates to remnants of dinner, Ken pushed his away and sighed. “That was good.”
“Oliver’s is a good restaurant,” Lynn said. “It’s like a diner, but the food is a cut above. My assistant, Nina, used to work here until I hired her away.”
Ken remembered her saying something about that earlier. “So you’re doing well enough with the tour guide business to need an assistant?” he asked.
Lynn nodded. “Nina’s mother, Mavis, helped me with some of the business side of things—she’s a financial consultant, and she used to work for bigtime clients in the city, but when she moved here, she starting putting a lot of work into helping little local businesses like me. I have her to thank for the sudden business boom, really.”
“Mavis,” Ken said slowly. “Isn’t she the one Colonel Hanes was really obviously falling for, back when we were all here for Cal’s wedding?”
Lynn nodded. “Turns out they’re mates. The Colonel’s been living here for a few months now.”
Ken blinked. “Wow. I am out of the gossip loop if I didn’t know that.” Although he’d really been burying his head in work the last few months, determined to get noticed over his younger peers. That was how he’d landed this Glacier assignment, after all.
He glanced around surreptitiously, suddenly aware that he could be surprised by his former commanding officer at any moment. “Do they come in here a lot?”
“Sometimes,” Lynn said, starting to laugh. “Are you afraid of Colonel Hanes seeing us together?”
“Well, if you put it like that, it sounds dumb.” Ken tried to figure out whether Lynn laughing at him counting as making her laugh. He’d give it to himself, he decided.
“No, no,” Lynn said. “I just didn’t realize we had to make this a—a stealth operation.” Her eyes twinkled.
She was teasing him. His heart bloomed with happiness. “Quick. You cover the exits, and I’ll sneak out the back. We can rendezvous back at the vehicles.”
She laughed, and for a moment, Ken forgot about everything in the world but the sound of her laugh, generous and unashamed.
“We do have to pay the check, at least,” she pointed out when she’d caught her breath. She started digging in her pockets.
“No way,” Ken said immediately, and found his wallet, catching the waitress’ eye.
“I invited you—” Lynn started to protest.
“Nope,” Ken said. Lynn subsided when the waitress came over, not willing to argue in front of her, but the second the check negotiations were over and the waitress had gone off with Ken’s credit card, she gave him the evil eye.
“Next time,” she said.
“You’re on.” He grinned at the thought of a next time—of many, many next times. Having to execute more stealth operations to try and beat Lynn out for the check. He wondered what she’d look like when she won, and then was caught by a sudden burning need to see her with a smug winner’s smile on her face.
Now, though, she looked hesitant. Ken leaned forward, wondering what was on her mind.
“Would you…” She stopped, breathed, and focused on him. After a moment, she smiled. “Would you like to come back home with me?”