Selena sucked in a breath, a warm tingle traveling through her. “How about in an hour?”
Chapter Nine
Maximus sliced into his ribeye and lifted the juicy piece with his fork. The beef was expensive for its quality, but he supposed that was the price one paid, literally, for being able to have a steak dinner on a beautiful island thousands of miles from the mainland. Isla Luna had its charms, but it was no Maui.
He had finished exchanging pleasantries with Selena. She’d already gulped down half a glass of wine. Her cheeks were red, and her tongue had become looser as she slipped into a discussion of her childhood. His size and hybrid metabolism gave him a much greater alcohol tolerance, but this wasn’t a date, so he avoided alcohol. It was pre-recon. He couldn’t risk any slow thoughts.
“It’s funny that I ended up where I did,” Selena said with a wistful sigh. “After Dad disappeared, Mom went to nursing school. She’d wanted to do it before, but he always insisted she didn’t need to work, and then he runs off because he can’t keep it in his pants. How is that for crap?”
“He sounds like a piece of garbage.” Maximus frowned. “You still in contact with him?”
“I last talked to him a couple of years ago. It got heated. I called him things I never thought I’d say aloud.” Selena shrugged. “I said a lot of things about what I thought about him and how he didn’t even have the decency to be there at her side when she needed him. We both agreed that we’d be better off going our separate ways.” She twirled a red strand in her finger and smiled warmly. “It’d be more accurate to say that he decided to never have anything to do with me after I threw a drink in his face and told him that he’d better never come near me again if he didn’t want me to stab him with a fork in the eye. I even told him that if he needed a kidney in the future, I’d sooner feed it to dying sharks than give it to him.”
“That’s one way to end a relationship.” Maximus laughed.
Whatever else he could say about the woman, he admired her spirit. There was something appealing about a woman who could stand up for herself.
“That must make me sound like a real ballbuster,” Selena said, wrinkling her nose.
“Nothing wrong with a woman who won’t put up with somebody else’s shit.” Maximus’s smile disappeared. “Besides, a man who can’t take care of his own woman and his child is no kind of man. You should have done a lot more than thrown a drink in his face. Not saying you should have stabbed him in the eye with the fork, but maybe the hand.”
Selena snickered. “Trust me, I almost did, but I didn’t want to end up in jail.” She sighed. “Anyway, getting back to what I was saying. I always thought I’d become a nurse. It’s good pay and steady work. It’s also a career where you can feel like you’re helping people.”
“And why didn’t you become a nurse?” Maximus asked. “It seems like your Mom liked the job from what you’ve said.”
“She did.” Selena smiled. “But… she died. Healthy and good shape her entire life, and dead in a year, in the summer after I graduated high school. Aggressive pancreatic cancer. That’s why I was so furious with my dad. He couldn’t even be there at the end.”
Maximus nodded slowly and tried not to growl. Her father sounded like a real son of a bitch, and the man better hope he never ran into Maximus in an alley.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he offered quietly.
He understood the pain of parental loss despite never knowing his parents. In a sense, he’d grown up grieving his entire life for the mother and father he would never know. He’d been raised as a tool and an experiment, his only parents the scientists and soldiers prodding, training, and testing him.
“Thank you, but it’s fine,” Selena said. “It hurts, and it hasn’t been as many years as I would have liked, but it changed everything.” She stared into her half-empty glass. “We had a conversation shortly before she passed about my future. Mom asked me what I wanted to do with my life, and I told her that I wanted to become a nurse. She asked me if I wanted to be a nurse or if I was doing it just because I thought it was good, stable work.” She shrugged. “I was honest, and that annoyed Mom. She told me that she’d become a nurse not just because it was good work, but because she genuinely enjoyed working with patients. She also told me that she’d worked with too many nurses who hadn’t entered the field for the right reasons, and that even if they were good people at heart, the years sanded them down until they didn’t care like a nurse should. She said no one should enter the field unless they truly wanted to become a nurse from the bottom of their heart.”
Maximus nodded but kept quiet, letting Selena continue her story. He wasn’t sure if knowing any of this was necessary for his mission, but he couldn’t help but want to learn more about the woman.
“She told me to think long and hard about what I wanted to do with my life,” Selena continued. “I realized I didn’t want to be a nurse. I’ve always been interested in show business, but I’ve never been a good actress. Becoming a production assistant with an eye on eventually becoming a producer seemed like a good path, and it’s been good, if slow progress. I got a decent job right out of college. It wasn’t in the exact area I wanted, but I always figured I could work my way up.” She held up her glass. “Be careful what you wish
