Page 30 of Buck & Mari

“Mari? Are you okay?”

“Me?”

He heard a little sigh or something like it.

“You’re the one in danger!”

He couldn’t help but smile. “I’m not in any danger.”

“KBay is locked down. Doesn’t that mean that there’s something dangerous happening?”

He wasn’t sure if he should state the obvious but decided to explain because she sounded worried. “I’m a Marine. Danger is a thing we deal with.”

“Sure… sure. I know that, but you’re hurt.”

Normally, he’d bristle at the reminder that he was wounded, but he heard her indignant declaration and couldn’t help but feel a little happy.

That probably wasn’t the right word.

But he was struggling to understand what he was feeling.

“I’m okay.” The answer was one he could use at the drop of a hat. He’d said it time after time because it was easier than trying to pick out the best words to get his friends and his doctors out of his hair.

Buck lifted his free hand and brushed his palm over his hair. It was longer than he was used to. He hadn’t gone to the barber in a bit.

Something he’d have to rectify when he got a clean bill of health.

If…

“Are you?” Mari’s voice caught his attention and held it. “Are you really?”

If one of his friends had asked him that, he would have flipped them off or given them a little shove so he wouldn’t have to answer.

“Heath?”

His hand lowered to the back of his head, and he rubbed his palm against the unclipped hair at the base of his skull. “Yeah?”

“Are you really okay?”

His usual dismissive answer was poised on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn’t say it.

Not to her.

“I feel… I feel like I should be out there. Doing something.”

“Hmm…”

He heard the soft hum of her voice and felt it like a comforting touch.

He didn’t know why.

He just did.

“I can see that.”

He sat up a little, dropping his free hand to the table at his side. “Really?”

As soon as the word was out of his mouth, he wanted to kick himself.