Fuck, he had it bad. When first dating Paisley, had he felt this way? He’d thought he loved her, but he’d loved a person who didn’t exist. People put their best foot forward when dating—that was human nature. But, in Paisley’s case, the façade concealed someone totally different.

He had to wonder if his brothers would’ve seen her more clearly. Only Hawk had met her, just for a few minutes. He’d been headed back to the mercenaries. Gabe, in the same merc unit, had been overseas, and Caz’d been doing volunteer health care in South America.

Paisley’d presented herself as being honest and loyal, a person who believed in service to others. Hardly. She’d implied that she volunteered her time at a hospital. Turned out her only time in a hospital was to have her appendix removed.

Now, much wiser, he could see the red flags he’d missed. Including the one where she’d pushed for marrying so hastily.

Now, here was Frankie. Her past—and reason for being in Rescue—was a mystery. Yet…unlike with Paisley, he’d seen Frankie when she was stressed and in pain. After being shot. Harassed at the roadhouse. She’d handled herself in a way he could respect.

She had a temper, oh, yeah. She’d also given him quite a few cold looks in the beginning—because she thought he’d crushed someone’s feelings. That spoke of a compassionate heart.

Her sense of humor and ability to laugh at herself matched his. She had the determination to work out hard enough and long enough to be damn good at aikido.

Whenever Gryff was around, she was petting him—and the dog adored her.

Maybe he didn’t have the whole story, but he was certain of her character. Over the past few days, they’d been together a lot. They’d meet in the park, work out, return to her cabin for a different kind of workout, and then cook breakfast—or sometimes lunch—together.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t talk her into spending nights together. She was holding firm on the casual, not-a-relationship stance. Stubborn woman.

She was going to find he was an equally stubborn man.

As he strolled out the back door, she was opening the trunk of her small Toyota rental. He shook his head. “Your car is too low for our gravel roads.”

“I don’t drive around much. Here, can you carry these?” She handed him two grocery sacks, took two for herself, and slammed the trunk.

Didn’t drive much? She hadn’t talked about visiting any tourist traps, had she?

He followed her inside, enjoying the mesmerizing sway of her ass. Hell of a body.

Hell of a mind.