A surge of hope hit her.
She could check a few things off her list and feel proud that she a) made it through the entire training and b) wouldn’t become one of those needy women that hung around him. She would not be clingy. She was independent after all. She smiled to herself. She was on the right track. She knew it.
But it was over now. At least she could hold her head high and—
Her happy thoughts cut short when she caught sight of what looked like a green roof, roughly a hundred yards in the distance.
It was the cabin. The one they’d met and started at.
She glared at the sleeping search and rescuer, then looked back at the cabin.
He’d walked her in circles for hours and had her thinking she was really in the wilderness when she was only on the edge of the damn park!
With anger rising, she stomped toward the cabin and hoped to God that sneaky man woke up with nothing more than morning wood and mosquito bites.
Chapter Four
Dex poured himself coffee from Gage’s office supply and gripped the Styrofoam cup. It had been a shit morning. He’d woken up alone in a mangled sleeping bag with the glaring realization that he’d been right.
Michelle hadn’t been here for the long haul. He’d thought maybe this one was different. But no. It was just him, and she was gone.
And the hell of it all?
Her intoxicating scent lingered on him and on the sleeping bag.
And now every time he used the damn thing, he’d smell hints of lilac and a sassy woman. A woman who’d taken off on him during the wee hours of the morning.
So now he was back at the office with Gage. At least he had coffee.
“You got ditched?” Gage asked, sitting behind his desk and drinking his own cup.
“I wasn’t ditched. When the sun came up, she obviously saw her car and decided her camping days were over.”
“Uh-huh,” Gage said, kicking up his feet on his desk. “Which means she realized you didn’t actually take her into the woods.”
“You saw what she was wearing,” Dex defended himself. “I wasn’t expecting her to last ten minutes and figured she’d be relieved when she called it quits and could walk a few yards to the outpost.”
“So she lasted ten hours?” Gage asked.
“Roughly,” Dex said, doing some quick mental math. “Probably closer to twelve.” Assuming she’d taken off around five a.m. Something that Dex was trying not to think about. Being left, that is. Granted, that’s what happened when you were only good for a woman for a single night. But he’d imagined things going differently when he’d awakened in the woods. He had expected to have her warm body against his, maybe go for a morning roll in the sleeping bag again.
Instead, he was tired and annoyed, and he’d been ditched. All in all, that left him just plain pissy. The woman clearly had a life, and she probably wanted to get back to it. Enough said. He wanted to get back to his life, too. Easy. One night. Over and done with.
“How do you know she’s okay?” Gage asked.
“Her car was gone. And I saw her tracks heading straight toward it.” Besides, the look on Gage’s face said that he knew she was fine, because he was being way too calm. Cheerful, even.
“You seem grouchy, Dexter.” Gage gave another big, annoying smile.
“I’m fine.”
“Rough night with the…what did you call her? Pageant queen?”
A fresh laugh surged in his belly, but he kept it quiet. He was supposed to be irritated as all hell about her. What would Gage think if he suddenly laughed just from talking about her?
“She was fine,” Dex said.
Gage raised his chin, and Dex realized his slip.
“It was fine. The training. Fine.”
That was apparently his new word of the day: Fine. And now he sounded like a moron. Gage was reading him like a book, and Dex didn’t like it. He wasn’t about to tell Gage about last night. As a friend, he wanted to. But at the moment, Gage was in boss mode. Dex couldn’t exactly come out and say that he’d nailed the sexy woman, but he wasn’t playing coy either.
“She’s friends with Chloe, you know?” Gage started.
Great. Now the rumor mill would get going. Not that Dex cared too much. He was used to it. He didn’t have a reputation that was worth protecting. Just a middle-of-the-road guy with some past wild excursions under his belt. But he wasn’t a lunatic with a “bad” reputation.
Gage, however, hadn’t stopped smiling.
“What’s up with you?” Dex asked.
“Just a good day.”
Dex wanted to punch his friend. Must be nice being so on top of the fucking world. Clearly he’d need more caffeine if he wanted rainbows to shoot out of his ass like his buddy over there.
“Well, then I’ll let you get back to your day. Just need my recertification signed by you,” Dex said. Then he could get back to doing what he loved. Getting out in the woods. Being with his team. Searching, training, and all things that didn’t smell like lilacs or require purses.
“Sorry, buddy, can’t sign off on your recertification.”