Page 78 of Trusting a Warrior

“I do. It’s not something I want to do long-term, though, so I’m thinking about other options.”

“Such as?”

“Not sure yet. I’m figuring things out one day at a time.” With a grin, she bumped him with her hip. “Prioritize and assess, right?”

“Right.” He bumped her back. “Now all I gotta do is get you exercising, and then you’re practically a SEAL, like it or not.”

She rolled her eyes. “Ha ha. Not gonna happen.”

They bantered and bickered as they wandered the brightly lit aisles of the grocery store.

“You sure learn a lot about someone from their food choices,” she commented at one point, glaring at the frozen dinners Geo’d piled up on one side of the cart.

“What?” He propped his hands on his hips. “I don’t know how to cook, and I certainly don’t expect you to do it all.”

“Well, I’m happy to teach you. It’s not hard to learn how to make simple, healthy, filling meals.”

“How’d you learn?” Geo took over pushing the cart, and almost absently, Lani threaded her arm through his.

“My dad, mostly, although my mom liked to cook, too. I loved those Saturdays, when we’d go to the farmers’ market, and then come home loaded down with produce, meats and cheeses. Sometimes he’d let Tyler and me have a tiny splash of French wine while we all worked together.”

“Tyler was there?” Geo spoke softly as to not break the spell of her memories.

“Oh, yeah. His specialty was nilagang baka, a Filipino beef stew he learned from my Lola. So good.” She inhaled deeply, as if still smelling it. “We’d play music really loud, and talk about anything and everything—politics, spirituality, sex. My dad used to say that preparing and eating a meal together is one of the oldest, most simple rituals we have. Those Saturdays definitely brought us closer as a family.”

And yet Tyler’s suicide had still come as a complete shock, even to the ones who knew him best.

For the first time, Geo caught a glimpse of the magnitude of that shock, and how, like an earthquake, it’d shaken Lani’s life off its secure foundation and sent her plummeting into a well of pain, neediness and confusion.

Geo glanced at her, unable to keep from marveling at how far she’d come in the few months he’d known her. The brittle, emotional woman of that first night in the bar had been replaced by one of quiet strength and calm understanding, a woman who could show up for a friend in crisis and know exactly what he needed. A woman who—in being there for that friend—was forced to confront her own pain, her own trauma, again, but wasn’t letting it control her anymore.

A true survivor.

His eyes started to burn. I don’t want to just endure this, because I don’t know how long I’ll be able to. I want to survive it, too.

“If I go to your group,” he said roughly, “I won’t talk, okay? I’ll just listen.”

He heard her tiny intake of breath.

“You don’t have to say anything you don’t want to, Geo.” Her voice was hushed. “And yes, sometimes just listening is the best therapy.”

She gazed up at him with those beautiful gold-flecked eyes, and almost helplessly Geo bent his head to brush his lips against hers. They caught, and lingered, the plush heat of her mouth sending a delicious shiver down his spine.

His need was reflected back at him in her slightly flushed cheeks and the pulse beating visibly in the hollow of her throat. “I’ve never made out in a grocery store before,” she whispered. “It’s, uh, sorta hot.”

Sliding his hands onto her hips, he backed her up against the dairy case. “Yeah? Does the skim milk turn you on, baby?” he leered, loving how she dissolved into laughter.

She glanced around. “It’s all this...heavy cream,” she hissed. “I can’t control myself.”

It was hard to kiss a woman who kept snickering, but Geo managed a few decent ones, decent enough that when a dry “Excuse me” from behind broke them apart, he had to keep his back turned for a moment until his body calmed down.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” Lani exclaimed to whomever had spoken. “We were just goofing off.”

“Y’all are so darn cute, I really hate to interrupt, but I need to grab this and get home.”

The female voice was familiar. So familiar, in fact, that Geo’s blood instantly turned to ice.

It can’t be her. Oh, God, please don’t let it be her.