Page 161 of The Best Thing He Never Wanted

“You just beat yourself on my behalf in an argument with you that I would never have won.”

He huffed out a laugh, trying to untangle that. “Yeah, maybe. But that’s not what I meant.”

“What did you mean, then, Blane?”

He looked at her for a long moment. “Shit.” He rubbed one hand over the back of his neck. “I was gonna try for the right moment. Find the right way to build up to it.”

Her eyes widened slightly, and that almost made him laugh again.

“What I’m trying to say, Bea, is that I love you.”

She went completely still in his arms and for one horrible second, he thought he’d gotten it wrong. But then a huge smile spread across her face, and something in his chest loosened.

“Oh my goodness, Blane. Well, that’s rather convenient, isn’t it?”

He frowned. “Convenient?”

She nodded happily, sliding her arms around his neck. “Yes. Because it seems we were each trying to say the same thing.” Her smile softened. “You see, I love you too. Very much.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

“I can call Nikos and tell him we can do this another day,” said Blane.

“No, you mustn’t. You’ve already told Cash that this land might be good for your training needs, and I already feel bad enough that I’m keeping you away from work. What on earth would he think if you told him you hadn’t gone to investigate the land because you had to come with me to see a little dog I’m worried about?”

Blane frowned. “It’s not an issue. I can go another time.”

She came to him and reached up to press a kiss to his lips. “I know you can, but I don’t want you to. I’m perfectly capable of going to collect Sifis by myself.” She smiled. “And since I’m bringing him home with me, it’s not as though you won’t get to see him, is it?”

He had to smile at that. “Yeah. I won’t deny I’m looking forward to that.”

“All right, then. You be on your way. I’d hate to make you late, and I want to get there and pick Sifis up. I hate the thought of that big dog bullying him.”

Blane pursed his lips—he did too. Sabine had called that morning to ask if Bea would bring Sifis home because there was a new dog at the shelter who’d taken a dislike to him. Sounded to Blane more like the little guy was being too damn stubborn about standing his ground than being bullied, but either way, he’d be glad when Bea got him out of there. “All right. I’ll meet you back here later.”

She kissed him again. “I hope the land turns out to be something you can use, darling. I probably shouldn’t say it, but I’m really hoping it means you’ll be able to make more trips back here.”

He cupped her cheek in his hand. There was a hell of a lot he wanted to say to that, but none of it belonged in the few minutes before they headed off in opposite directions. “I hope so too, darlin’.”

A little while later, he was driving the Vitara higher into the foothills, following the winding lanes toward the place Nikos had told him to meet him. As he drove, Blane tried to talk himself out of hating the man. He still wanted to, but it wasn’t constructive.

Nikos was already there when he arrived, and that annoyed him more than it should have. The man still looked wary of Blane as he greeted him. He pointed to a trail that led away from the road. “I show you.”

They walked in silence at first. Nikos picked exactly the line up the scree that Blane would have picked himself, which earned him a little respect. He moved over the ground the way some men did. He didn’t go fast; he read the terrain half a step ahead of his own feet, in a way Blane recognized. You could only walk like that on ground you’d bled on as a boy. As they climbed, Nikos began to talk. He pointed out where the rock was loose and where it held, which gullies filled when the rains came and which stayed dry, where a man could stand and see the whole valley without being seen himself.

Blane had to respect the man. He’d trained hundreds of men over the years, and trained them well, but none of them took to terrain quite the same way as the ones who’d learned it young, on their own land, before anyone had thought to call what they were doing a skill.

“Here,” Nikos said.

He wasn’t looking at Blane. He was looking at the ground and pointing with his chin toward a fold in the hillside that Blane had walked straight past.

“You want to teach your men not to be seen. Here they cannot be seen. Not from the road, not from the sea, not from…” He nodded down the valley, and Blane’s jaw tightened when he recognized the little stone house and the shepherd’s hut beyond it.

Nikos kept his gaze lowered, but a look crossed his face that Blane grudgingly recognized because he’d worn it himself. It was shame that had nowhere to go.

“They would not even be seen from her house,” Nikos finished. “I know. I watched it from here when I should not have.”

And there it was. Nikos confessing his shame. Blane could have said a lot of things. He’d rehearsed a few of them. Instead, he looked back at the fold in the hill. It was the right spot. Exactly the right spot. And it told him that Nikos understood this land in the way Blane needed him to, at least until he learned the place for himself.