“I don’t have any choice.”
He had to give Mantis and Alegria time to figure out whether they still loved each other as much as Dutch believed they did. The only way that could happen was if he was out of the picture for an extended period of time.
Chapter 14
Mantis and Alegria
Mantis tossed and turned most of the night, unable to think about anything other than the way he’d felt earlier when he took Alegria’s hand in his. As brief as the moment had been, having his skin touch hers, rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand, filled him with longing.
He had to keep reminding himself that the road they were tentatively headed down would only bring hurt to them both. She and Dutch were together, and he had no business getting in the middle of their relationship, no matter how rocky it appeared to be.
What kind of man would he be if he seduced his best friend’s girlfriend? He could justify it by saying Dutch had done the same to him, but he hadn’t. Nothing had happened between them until Dutch was certain she and Mantis had broken up.
He wished he could go back to their time in Mogadishu when Dutch had asked if Mantis wanted him to take a step back so he could try to work things out with Alegria. He’d said no at the time, and now he was cursing himself for it.
“What the hell, Dutch?” he murmured into the darkness.
When he saw the sun on the horizon, Mantis decided there was no point in staying in bed any longer. He got up and went downstairs to make a pot of coffee.
Once it was brewing, he walked into the living room and stood in front of the wall of family pictures. In the middle of all the high school yearbook shots, hung the photo of Ian, his older brother, taken the day he was sworn in as a firefighter for the city of New York.
Mantis rolled his shoulders and took a deep breath. The pain of missing his brother never went away. He wasn’t alone in that; his parents felt it too. Hell, everyone who’d ever known Ian, missed the hell out of him.
The coffee’s aroma beckoned him back into the kitchen. On a day like today, when he’d gotten no sleep the night before, his body needed the caffeine.
“Mmm,” he heard Alegria say from behind him. She took his breath away when he turned around and saw her standing in the doorway.
She was barefoot, wearing an Air Force t-shirt that fell almost to her knees. If he remembered right, she’d had it since their academy days.
“Is it almost ready?” she asked, opening the kitchen cupboard where his mother kept the coffee cups.
“Another minute or so,” he said, turning his back on her and opening the refrigerator as much to cool off as to get out the milk. As it was, he was a breath away from picking her up, setting her cute butt on the kitchen counter, and kissing her good morning the way he longed to.
When he turned back around, she was right in front of him with two steaming cups of coffee in her hands. He poured a little milk in each, set the container back in the fridge, and took one cup from her.
“Still no sugar, right?”
Alegria sat down at the table and rolled her eyes.
“What?”
“It hasn’t been that long.”
Actually, it felt as though it had been an eternity since they’d shared a cup of coffee while the rest of the world still slept. He took a seat across the table from her and watched as she closed her eyes and took a sip.
“This is really good,” she murmured. “You always did make a great pot of coffee.”
“I hope that wasn’t my only talent, Flygirl.”
Alegria’s cheeks pinkened and her eyes met his. God, he wanted to take her hand, pull her to his lap, and kiss her harder than he ever had before.
“I heard we had a visitor,” said his dad, coming into the kitchen at either the best or worst possible moment.
Alegria stood and hugged him. “Hey, Kip. How are you?”
“Better now that you’re here,” he said.
“Hey, Dad,” said Mantis, hugging his father after Alegria had.