CHAPTER SEVEN
Diana didn’t always go to the gym on Saturday morning. She usually had too many chores to do before she started her weekend. If she was honest with herself, and she sure hoped that she was, she had come to see if Pierce D’Angelo would be waiting for her. He was. His hard face lit up when she came in.
His broad shoulders flexed and extended and his huge thighs bulged as he did squats with a barbell laden with more weight than she would have thought a guy that lean could lift. Diana congratulated herself on timing her visit to coincide with his. Blushing a little, she scurried over to the stair climber.
Pierce winked at her and finished his set. Then he hopped onto the StairMaster beside hers and cranked out a thousand steps in the time it took her to manage five hundred. She had had to bite her lip to stop from laughing out loud. Big, buff, heroic Maj. D’Angelo was showing off for chubby Diana Lowery like a ten-year-old boy.
Over the last two weeks they had fallen into a routine of sorts. They chatted a little bit while they worked side-by-side on the bikes or stair climbers. And then Pierce helped her to set up the free weights and train. She was now bench pressing a hundred and sixty. Because he was there to spot her, she was able to push herself to her max every time and improve. He was encouraging. He was kind.
He had suggested coffee once before. But last time she’d had to explain that she didn’t get a break on Thursdays. Not to speak of. Instead of thirty minutes at ten or ten thirty, she got ten minutes at nine in order to accommodate the weekly staff meeting. Management seemed to think that by providing coffee and pastries they were giving the staff a real treat. She would have preferred being on her own time. But even the best job had its peculiarities.
“Have breakfast with me?” His voice was elaborately casual. But Diana thought she was learning to read Pierce D’Angelo. He cared about her answer. Cared deeply.
“I’d like that,” she returned. She could always eat pasta all week if she didn’t get to the grocery store.
D’Angelo’s handsome face and laser sharp blue eyes did not waver. He looked grim, intense, and deadly earnest. Of course, he was probably lonely and looking for conversation.
She fussed after her shower, coaxing her unruly hair into neater ringlets than she usually bothered with. She put on her new red blouse over her best jeans and made a face at herself in the mirror. Had she really put these clothes into her gym bag by coincidence? The scarlet jersey swept under her bust and flowed away over her hips. She looked good. Taking in the side seams had given the garment a better shape. She looked like a woman instead of just a lump.
But she had better not start making daydreams about some military issue alpha male. The last thing she needed was a man who would expect to be in charge. She had better remember how little she had enjoyed having sex. And being married had been even worse. The sex had been far from the worst thing.
* * *
Pierce was waiting for her in the lobby when she came out of the change room. He was dressed in his usual crisp chinos and an equally crisp, button-front blue shirt. He held the door open for her as they went out into the fall sunshine. It was another beautiful Arizona morning. The faint chill of dawn was gone. He waited beside her hatchback until she had let the hot air out of her car.
“I’ll meet you at the Bluebonnet,” he said.
“Sure.” She slid under the steering wheel and prepared to back out of her slot. She liked that he hadn’t asked her to abandon her vehicle. No matter how well breakfast went, she wasn’t taking him home.
She was a little self-conscious walking into the Bluebonnet with Pierce. The staff was used to her coming in with her colleagues. And never on a Saturday. Eyebrows raised in a pantomime of surprise. Susan greeted them both cheerfully and plunked down two heavy ceramic mugs which she filled from the coffee pot in her hand. She asked them if they wanted menus. Diana was as familiar with the selection at the Bluebonnet as she was with the inside of her own fridge. She ordered her usual two eggs and toast. D’Angelo asked for the number three with extra sausage.
* * *
He was rather relieved when she came out the women’s change room wearing the fanciest duds he had seen her in to date. Her figure was even more glorious than he had guessed. Not that it made any difference. What his phoenix senses had responded to was the essence of her. Her character. The sort of good and decent woman that she was. He fully expected that that his innate knowledge of her character would only be confirmed when he learned the particulars of her history.
In the restaurant she seemed skittish. He set himself to put her at ease. But it was as though every time she got comfortable, she would remember that she should be careful around him. He had to have patience. He was a stranger. And his goal was to change that.
“How long have you lived in Arizona?” he asked when they were alone.
“It’s coming up on two years,” she said. “I’m from New Hampshire,” her plump lips closed on her words as though she wanted to take them back.
She didn’t expand on New Hampshire. Diana was reserved, but unnaturally so. As if her reticence was overlaid on what should be a livelier personality. What was up with that? He was going to need every scrap of patience he possessed to woo this woman.
“Window Rock must be a big change after New Hampshire,” he said.
“A good change,” she said fiercely enough to make his skin prickle.
“I grew up in Texas,” he said casually. “Of course it’s been a long time since I lived in Grape Creek. When I went to the Academy after high school I never really lived there again.”
“Where exactly is Grape Creek?” she asked.
“It’s outside San Angelo.”
Diana sipped her coffee. “Oh. So where do you actually live now?”
“Nowhere really. The Air Force has kept me hop-scotching around the States for years.”
“Is there an air base around here?” Her dark brows met over her short nose in puzzlement.
Pierce shook his head. “My family has a home up in the hills above Window Rock. Around Dry River. I’m staying there while I’m on medical leave.” He had to hope she wouldn’t pry. Although he was, of course, honor bound to tell her anything she wanted to know.
“How long has it been?”
“Four months.”
“I thought I’d been seeing you around,” she said nodding.
“I come into Window Rock six mornings a week to use the gym. I’m supposed to be regaining the mobility in my left arm.”
“Sounds like it’s going more slowly you wish,” she said sympathetically
He snorted, “You can say that again.”
“Sometimes it takes a long time to get back to normal. And sometimes you never do.” There was no overt sympathy in her voice.
“Tell me about it.”
Now that he had achieved his dearest ambition and Diana Lowery was sitting across the table from him, he had just snubbed her. He was an idiot. An oversensitive idiot. He swallowed his pride with his coffee and tried to explain. “I don’t hold out much hope for me,” he said.
Her rosy, eager face fell. She stretched out a hand and covered his. “You’re dying?” she breathed.
He felt as hot as he had when he had become fire in Syria. He cleared his throat. “No. But I’m not going to be able to keep my place in Special Forces.”
She didn’t actually laugh, but she sure looked surprised. “That matters a lot?”
“It’s been my whole life. The focus of my entire career.” He emptied his mug and tried not to feel self-pity.
“It’s okay to grieve, when something you value is gone.” Her voice was very quiet. Pitched to carry only to his ears.
“I’m not crippled,” he ground out.
“And yet you’ve lost your place in life. You’ve lost something important. Feeling angry and sad is only normal.” She turned her head and smiled over his shoulder at the waitress. “Thank you, Susan,” she said more loudly.
“Here y
ou go,” Susan slapped a huge platter with a steak, three eggs, sausages, and toast before Pierce. She set Diana’s eggs in front of her. And plunked down a wire basket of bottles. “I’ll be back with the coffee pot.”
“Thank you,” they said in unison, and Susan hustled off.
Pierce began to eat and hoped she would drop the conversation. She dove into her scrambled eggs and smiled at him. For a while they didn’t talk, they just ate. Diana spread jam on her last triangle of toast and accepted another refill from Susan.
“I should have asked before,” she said when Susan had gone. “I’ve been assuming you are not married.”
He was glad it was a question he could answer promptly. “I’m not. Never have been. What about you?”
“I’m divorced.” Scarlet ran up her face from collarbones to forehead.
“I’m sorry,” he said. That didn’t sound right. “I mean, I’m glad you’re free, and sorry your marriage didn’t work out.”
“Me too. But I’m not sorry I ditched my ex. Some relationships aren’t worth saving.”
She sounded savage and bitter. Pierce wanted to know more, but he wasn’t sure what to ask. He cleared his throat. “What are you doing with the rest of your day?”
“Grocery shopping. Errands. The usual Saturday stuff. What about you?”
“I’m going to go home and brood.” Now why had he said that? She was going to think he was a melancholy idiot.
“That doesn’t sound very useful. You should come with me. After I’ve bought my groceries, I’m going to play basketball with a friend’s kid.”
He would have gone anywhere with Diana Lowery. The grocery store. The hospital. The lower reaches of hell. Anywhere, if he could just be by her side. But he hadn’t anticipated that they would have a chaperon on their first date. Not that Ricky Gonzales wasn’t a cute kid. He was. He obviously adored his Auntie Die-Na. He was still young enough to mangle her name. And how did you play basketball with a kid with tiny, starfish hands, anyway?
Diana’s friends had given him the once over while she stammered and blushed. Apparently Curvy Girl didn’t bring her beaus by as a regular thing. Good. Ray Gonzales had shown Pierce how to install Ricky’s car seat in his SUV. And had conducted a low voiced interrogation while they were both bent over the back seat through opposite doorways.
“How long have you known Diana?” Ray asked.
Pierce explained that he had met her at the gym. That he was convalescing after an injury. That he didn’t so much live in Window Rock as he was using the cabin in Dry River as his base of operations while he was on medical leave.
“Diana doesn’t need any more grief in her life,” Ray said curtly. “She deserves better than some love ‘em and leave ‘em air boy.”
Pierce swallowed his pride. He should be grateful that someone was looking out for Diana. “She is a special person,” he said calmly. “I’m not looking for something casual. But it’s too early to say if she’ll have me. This is our first date.”
Ray burst out laughing. “Enjoy yourselves. And remember that little pitchers have big ears.”
They went to the court behind the elementary school. The baskets were lower than regulation. In fact, they only came up to Pierce’s chin and Diana’s eyes. Ricky topped out at Pierce’s knees, so they were plenty high.
“Is there a reason why we aren’t doing this with one of those plastic pole and hoop sets from Toys’r’Us?”
“He’s got one of those, this is about giving Tina and Ray a couple of hours with just Emily.” Diana reached into the grubby cloth bag she had taken from her hatchback and brought out a miniature basketball. She handed it to Pierce who balanced it on his palm. He reached up and placed it in the net and caught it in the other hand. Diana laughed.
Ricky had been exploring the weeds growing in the cracks in the concrete. He raced over to Diana with an orange and black flower which she accepted as if it were the crown jewels. “Thank you, darling,” she said. “This is a lovely flower. Do you remember what it’s called?”
“Debble’s paintbrush,” he shouted.
“That’s right,” she said.
Pierce raised his eyebrows.
“Devil’s paintbrush,” she mouthed at him laughing. She placed the tiny flower in her curls. “Let’s play.”
Ricky had his own ideas about basketball. He made up fresh rules as he went. He used his feet on the ball. And when he was ready to sink a basket, he expected to be hoisted up so he could make his throw. After twenty minutes Pierce felt more exhausted than he had after his workout.
“Now I know why you lift weights,” he said as he lifted Ricky for what felt like the hundredth time.
She giggled. He had never heard her giggle before. She sounded younger and happier. He sniffed. She was happier. He had not been aware before that there was a touch of sadness in Curvy Girl. But there was. He’d have to see if he could fix that. Not that a guy who was skirting clinical depression was ideally placed to lift someone else’s gloom.
They concluded their expedition to the schoolyard by watching Ricky run circuits. “How does he have so much energy?” Pierce asked.
“If we knew that, we could solve the energy crisis by plugging toddlers into the grid.”
Eventually Ricky ran down. One moment he was zooming around the periphery of the playground jumping over the hopscotch lines with both arms extended, buzzing like a fighter jet. The next he was drooping like a wilted lily.
“What now?” Pierce asked as he scooped the boy up and let him ride on his shoulders. He had forgotten how good carrying a kid felt.
“Lunch,” Ricky shouted. He grabbed fistfuls of Pierce’s hair to steady himself.
They went to the Dairy Queen where Ricky perked up long enough to eat a burger and most of a Blizzard. “Where does he put it?” Pierce asked Diana.
She shrugged and laughed and blotted the tiny dimpled chin with her napkin. What a great mother she would be. He could almost imagine they were a family. Other people thought so too. They grinned at the three of them sitting at the picnic table. Ricky was eyeing him and following his every move just as his nephews used to do.
His memories of Harrison’s three sons were bittersweet. How much he missed those three restless balls of fire. His nephews had been just such quicksilver scamps as Ricky was. It had been nine years since Stephanie and the boys had been killed by a drunk driver. But losing children wasn’t a grief you got over. You just learned to live with the pain.
CHAPTER EIGHT
He obviously loved kids. He was great with Ricky. Indulgent yet firm. Even when Ricky tried to scalp him, he only put his hands on top of the boy’s and said, “Ouch,” mildly. Ricky had cut his eyes sideways at her and given up when he saw her head shake.
He would make a great father. Clearly he would want kids of his own. Which was just another reason not to take whatever this was another step. Except that Pierce didn’t know she could never give him a child. He kept grinning at her while attending to Ricky’s endless stream of prattle. Ricky was on an endless quest for knowledge. He wanted to know the names of everything. And he only had to be told once to remember forever it seemed.
What was a blizzard? Pierce patiently explained to a kid who had never seen snow. He showed him a picture on his phone. Diana noted that it was a pricey, recent model. Even officers didn’t draw huge salaries. That phone seemed a huge luxury given how much he had spent on his SUV which was also nearly new. Of course, there couldn’t be a lot of vehicles into which he would comfortably fit. Not that it was any of her business if he was the most thriftless man in the history of the planet. She didn’t plan on keeping him.
Ricky fell asleep on the trip from the Dairy Queen to the Gonzales’ house. Pierce drove as he did everything, with measured deliberation and competence. The SUV detoured expertly around every pothole in the road. Ricky didn’t budge as Pierce eased the big four-wheel drive vehicle around sharp corners, and smoothly evaded the folks who braked first and signaled after.
He seemed talked out by Ricky and their silence felt comfortable. At least if felt that way to her. He smiled at her but concentrated on his driving as if he actively enjoyed it.
“Was this better than going home to brood?” she asked as they turned onto the Gonzales’ road.
“Yup. Much. Do you take him every Saturday?”
“For the last few months. I work with Tina — she’s on maternity leave just now — and Ray is an x-ray tech at the clinic. Working full time while being pregnant was difficult. They needed some alone time just to play catch up with each other. And now that they have two, they really need the break.”
“They’re lucky to have a free babysitter.”
She shook her head. “I’m the lucky one. I love Ricky and he’s a great kid.”
Pierce brought the SUV to a halt at the end of the Gonzales’ drive. Ricky’s head popped up and his eyes opened. “Are you coming for Halloween, Auntie Die-Na?” he asked immediately.
Pierce laughed. “I thought he was fast asleep.”
“He was,” Diana said. “And, yes, Ricky, I am still coming for Halloween.”
“Aunt Die-Na made me a Batman costume,” Ricky yelled. “Do you want to see?”
Pierce’s eyes met hers. She shrugged and opened her door.
“I don’t know what your Mom and Dad are doing,” she said quietly as she helped the boy out of his car seat. “But we need to use our indoor voices in case Emily is sleeping. Why don’t we see if it is appropriate to try on your costume?”
Ricky raced off to his room to find his costume. Ray and Pierce went outside to drink a beer and talk. Diana held tiny Emily’s fragrant sweetness close until the baby’s hunger pangs made her fussy.
Phoenix Ablaze (BBW / Phoenix Shifter Romance) (Alpha Phoenix Book 1) Page 5