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.”She’d leave at the end of fire season, go back to Davis and her classes and whatever else it was she did there.He was used to jumpers coming and going, and what his guys did in the off-season was their business.He supposed he hadn’t thought about Gia riding off into the sunset quite the same way.She’d go and he wouldn’t see her again, unless he made the trip out to Davis.That would be weekend work, though, since Davis was several hours from Strong.Plus, he doubted she stuck around after she actually had the degree.There must be some PhD-y thing for her to do elsewhere.“What then? You read the weather on the evening news?”He kind of liked that idea.He could see her, even if it was on his flat screen.Whatever reasons drove her to jump, brought her out here in the field where the working conditions were brutal and the money shit, she probably had other plans for her future.He’d stay, because Donovan Brothers was his life and he and his brothers had built the business from the ground up.He had a good thing and knocking down fire was important.She punched him in the shoulder.“What was that for?”He removed his hand from her person and stared at her.She stared right back, arms crossed over her chest.“I’m not the weatherman.”“Okay.” Agreement seemed like the safest course of action.“I’ve just heard it mentioned,” he pointed out.“A time or two.”She snorted.“Try one or two hundred times.”“You don’t want to do that.Read the weather on TV.”She shook her head.“Absolutely not.”“I wouldn’t either,” he admitted and she laughed.The mental image of him all suited up and staring at a teleprompter while he mimed the week’s weather was pretty funny.“You’ve got the face for it.” She grinned at him.“But not the PhD.”She shrugged.“It’s hardly obligatory.You went to school, right?”Fucking bastard.Come on over here so I can teach you a lesson.Yeah.That particular temporary stepdad had been big on educating Rio with his fists.Or the belt.Whatever the man could find.Rio had spent most of his time making sure he was out of arms reach.Funny how the bruises faded, but the words stuck to him.“MIT,” he said, because now she was staring at him.She whistled.“Impressive.”“I didn’t like my options.And Uncle Sam picked up the tab.”In retrospect, it had been lucky.He’d left home as soon as he could and had met up with Evan and Jack.Together the three of them had been Lost Boy wanna-bes, carving out a life for themselves, first on the Sacramento streets and then south in San Francisco.Beachfront real estate, Jack had announced the first night they’d camped on the beach fronting the Pacific Ocean.The strip of sand was a long, thin piece of wild fringing a wilder, rougher city.They’d had hotdogs, sleeping bags, and a mindless determination to not go home.Rio was the one to push his brothers to get themselves an education.Knowledge was power and he wouldn’t be someone’s punching bag again.Even as a ten year-old boy, he’d known that hitting back might stop the beatings short-term, but that forced you down a violent path that couldn’t end well.He didn’t want to see the inside of San Quentin.“I grew up rough.”The woods were too dark to see her face clearly.She didn’t shove away or act surprised, so the Strong grapevine had probably done its job.He didn’t want her sympathy.He wasn’t that on-the-skids boy anymore.She rested her head against his chest, her fingers pressed against his heart.He breathed in and she smelled just as good as she had that first afternoon in her truck.Sweet and citrus and something that was simply, wonderfully Gia.“Uncle Sam, huh?”Her fingers traced a circle over his shirt.“Nonna gave me my second chance.Uncle Sam was my third.”“Did you need it?” She tilted her head back against his shoulder, looking up at him.“What?”“After you moved to Strong, did you screw up? Did you need that third chance?”He shook his head.“I had a hell of a lot to make up for.I wasn’t an angel and I got up to plenty before Strong.”“You were a child.”“I knew better.” Some rules were black and white [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]