“No, they couldn’t.” His face actually grew more serious. More pained. “And it wasn’t fun.”
Open mouth. Insert foot.
“I’m so sorry. I was just…” she wasn’t sure what to say.
“Don’t worry about it. It was a long time ago.” He smiled, a resigned smile that said the pain he felt was one that he was used to. “You wouldn’t by any chance want to dance, would you?’
She smiled broadly. “I thought you’d never ask.”
***
Dax stalked out of the Elite offices with the envelope that, for security reasons, he needed to personally deliver to either Seth or Riley. He could not believe his luck. Or should he say, lack thereof. There was always someone at these damn offices. Except tonight. Tonight they were all at The Plate because it was Ace’s wedding. Which was shitty for two reasons. One was, well, he’d missed his friend’s wedding.
But the real bitch of a reason was now he had to make one more stop before he could get his ass on a plane to Nashville and find Ginny. Tell her he loved her. That he was a jackass for letting her walk out of his house.
If she was young and needed to see other people, he’d even agree to that as long as he was one of them.
He’d realized something over the past twenty-two days when he’d not been able to hear her laugh, see her smile, hold her in his arms, be inside of her. He realized that he wasn’t full of shit when he’d told her that what they had was special. That people lived their whole lives and never experienced one tenth of what they had. So if she had to kiss a few frogs before she was sure, then he was man enough to deal with that. As long as he was in the running.
Of course, that was in theory. When it actually came down to practice he wasn’t sure if he’d be so pragmatic about it. But he’d cross that bridge when he came to it. He just needed to be able to see her angelic face. To kiss her full lips. To hold her in his arms. To feel her soft curves against his body. To hear her addictive laugh. To pick up the phone and call her.
He hadn’t talked to her since the night she left his house. His phone had thankfully been the only casualty in this mission. It had gone down in a fiery blaze on day two when he’d dropped it in their fire pit. It wouldn’t normally be a big deal, especially since the mission was dark so they were prohibited from using their devices anyway. But even when comms had been cleared he couldn’t call her because he was a dumb ass and hadn’t memorized her phone number. However, in his defense, who memorizes phone numbers?
In the past two weeks he’d lost eight days being stranded thanks to not one, but two convoys breaking down. Not falling under attack. Breaking. Down.
Thankfully, they hadn’t been in high-risk areas, although since they were not there with the official knowledge of the country they were in, they couldn’t exactly call for a taxi. And he’d been fucking miserable. Not because he’d been hungry, they’d had plenty of supplies and rations to keep their four-man team comfortable. The temperature had actually been preferable to the harsh Illinois winter they were experiencing. It hadn’t been dangerous, unless you counted the mosquitoes with fangs.
His misery had stemmed from a blue-eyed, blonde-haired country singer that he was either going to marry or spend the rest of his life trying.
As he pulled up to The Plate he noticed that there were still a lot of cars in the parking lot. He determined before he walked in the door that he didn’t care who stopped and wanted to talk to him, what issues at the restaurant needed his attention, even if the bride and groom themselves asked him to stay and toast he’d have to say no.
The only thing that he was doing was walking in, locating either Seth or Riley Sloan, relinquishing possession of the parcel that he was charged by the United States Government to deliver and get the hell out of there and find Ginny.
He knew there was a possibility that she wasn’t in Nashville, but he’d deal with that variable when he was there. He already had an action plan in place if that was the case. He would find the nearest cell phone store. Be there when they open. Replace his phone with his current SIM card so that he could call her.
After that he’d have to wing it. He had to take it one mission at a time.
He sprinted up the steps to the bar. He remembered the reception was up there because that’s where Ace and Stephanie had their first date. It also happened to be where he’d seen Ginny for the first time.
He opened the door and his eyes automatically flew to the stage that she’d been singing on that night. It was dark except for the corner where a DJ was set up. He continued to scan the room and hit the jackpot on his first pass. Seth and Riley were both posted on the corner nearest the bar.
Keeping his eyes on the prize, he beelined straight towards them. He could see some people waving out of his peripherals but they were fuzzy, he was locked on his target.
When he reached them he held the envelope out between them and said, “Here.”
They both looked at it and then up at him.
Neither made a move for the envelope.
In case they couldn’t hear him over the music he said it again. Louder. “Here.”
“How ya’ doin’?” Riley asked him with a concerned look.
“I’ve been better. But I will be better when one of you takes this and signs.”
They both still just glanced down at it and then back up at him.
“You in a rush?” Seth asked.