“Of course not, sugar,” Mav said, infuriating her all the more.

“You’re impossible,” she snapped. He had made the decision for her the moment he’d brought the dog to her.

“I’ve been told that a lot,” he said as he grabbed a beer and sat down in a lounge chair, kicking back.

In her past life, as she saw it, she would have never let him get away with behavior like that. It made her feel a whole lot better about the situation because she did want the dog even if she hadn’t known how badly she did until Princess had shown up at her front door.

It didn’t take long for Benji to wear himself out. Then he came flying up on the deck and jumped on the end of the lounge chair, quickly curling up and falling asleep at Mav’s feet as if the two of them had always been together.

It was really difficult to stay irritated with a man when he had such a shaggy mutt by his side, or in this case, at his feet. The picture was too dang adorable.

She decided to ignore Mav and his overbearing ways as Cooper joined his brother and the two started talking airplanes. It seemed easier that way. She focused on Stormy instead.

“Where’s baby Aaron?” Lindsey asked.

“The little tiger is all worn out. I fed him and he crashed hard,” Stormy said.

“Oh.” Lindsey was disappointed. Holding the baby always soothed her nerves, and with Maverick around, her nerves were at an all-time high.

The four of them had a nice barbecue, then sat by the fire for what must have been hours before Lindsey found herself all alone with Maverick. Cooper and Stormy had disappeared on her.

Traitors!

“Sit with me.”

It wasn’t a question, it was a command, and though she wanted to resist him, she couldn’t seem to do it. Lindsey found herself pulled into his arms as the fire crackled in front of them.

“Why do you like to push me so much?” she finally asked him. Her guard seemed to be dropping.

“Honestly, I can’t explain it,” Mav said as he poked the fire with a stick.

“I don’t want to do the fund-raiser,” she said.

He was quiet for several moments. “If you truly don’t want to do it, then I will stop bugging you, but I think you’d do great,” he said. He wasn’t looking directly at her, which made it somehow easier to communicate.

“Why do you think I could do it? I haven’t ever done something like that before,” she pointed out.

“Because you know what it’s like to go through a traumatic experience, which means you can empathize with the cause,” he said.

She thought about his words for a moment, and it made her flash back to that awful night in the hospital. She’d spoken to counselors and they all told her she was suffering from PTSD. She didn’t necessarily believe that.

“It’s not the same,” she said.

“What’s not the same?” He turned to look at her then, and she was captured by his expression. There was just so much understanding in his eyes. It was almost too much.

“The soldiers go through so much more than what I went through,” she told him.

“Don’t do that, Lins. Don’t downplay your own pain,” he told her.

“I just don’t see how I can help anyone when I can’t even help myself,” she admitted in a rare moment of vulnerability.

He paused as he looked at her, as if he could see straight into her soul. It was very unnerving. She wanted to take back the words. But he wasn’t going to give her a chance to do that.

“You know you can talk to me, Lindsey. It really does help.”

“I can’t . . . can’t talk about it,” she told him. Even thinking about it hurt. She didn’t want to pull away from him, but she didn’t want to talk about the attack either.

“I’m not going to make you talk. I just want to let you know that I’m here for you if you need me. I had a bad experience while in the military, and I went through some serious crap after until I finally trusted someone with my story. Letting it out helped me more than anything else did.”

Lindsey pulled back so she could get a good look at his expression. He’d told her he understood what she was going through, but she hadn’t realized he’d been speaking from personal experience.

She tried remembering what he’d said to her before, but she couldn’t.

“Can you tell me about it?” she asked, expecting rejection.

“It’s not pretty, sug. But if you want to know, I will tell you,” he said as he gently ran his fingers through her hair.

“I really think I would like to know.”

“Let’s get a bit more comfortable.”

He arranged the cushions against a log, then leaned back into it and pulled her into his arms. His hands were wrapped around her middle as he rested his chin against her shoulder, turning to press a light kiss on her neck. She was surprised that she wasn’t pulling away from him, but right now she felt safer where she was than any other place.

She waited, knowing he needed to take time if he was about to speak of something traumatic. Everyone needed time when they were opening up.

If it were daylight with the sun shining down on her, she might think twice about where she was. But it was dark, and she was comfortable, with the buzz of alcohol zinging through her system. She didn’t want to move.

The dogs were curled up beside them. The moon was a dim glow in the sky, the stars were twinkling down on them, and the warm fire in front of them crackled, making her feel like they were the only two people in the universe.