He collapses on top of me a few seconds later, our bodies dripping with sweat and our hearts beating together erratically.

“I didn’t want to tell you this,” he pants into my neck. “But my knee hurts like a motherfucker.”

He laughs before pushing himself off of me, flopping over onto his back.

I scramble up on my knees, my hands going straight to his leg and my fingers immediately running gently over the scarred tissue that is already starting to swell.

“Dammit, Cole! You should have said something!” I scold, pulling his leg up and bending his knee slowly to get some circulation going through it.

“Baby, I don’t care if my head was on fire and my leg was being cut off with a saw. That was definitely worth the pain,” he tells me with a smirk.

I shake my head my head at him. “What am I going to do with you?”

He pushes himself up on his hands until his face is right in front of mine.

“You’re going to love me forever and keep giving it to me, just like that,” he says with a laugh before placing a soft kiss on my lips.

I shove him away with my own laugh, scolding him as I urge him to lie back down and not move his knee so I can get him some ice.

This man is going to try my patience with that smug attitude of his, but he’s right. There’s nothing for me to do but love him. It’s the only thing I know how to do right.

“WELL, HELLO THERE, asshole.”

I can’t help but smile as Parker opens the door to her and Garrett’s house.

“It’s good to see you too, Parker.”

She sighs and pushes the door open wider. “I guess I should let you in. I wouldn’t want the neighbors gossiping about how I made a man on crutches stand on my front porch for hours.”

Parker steps aside to let me in and I move quickly and efficiently through the door on the crutches, thanks to Olivia. In between talking and having sex on every available surface, she’s been kicking my ass with therapy nonstop for the last two weeks. It’s been a good distraction since I still haven’t been able to talk to my mother. She conveniently manages to return my calls when I’m away from my phone. I’d had enough this morning when she didn’t answer my call yet again and left her an angry voicemail that just said, “I’m back with Olivia. We need to talk. Immediately.”

Maybe that will light a fire under her ass and she’ll come back home and quit avoiding me.

“Garrett! Your rat bastard of a friend is here!” Parker yells as she closes the door behind me.

Just then, a little brown-haired ball of energy comes running into the room, hot on the heels of a very freaked out cat, judging by its wide eyes darting around, searching for a place to hide.

Parker snatches up the cat and holds the poor, trembling thing out of reach as I stare in shock at the little girl jumping up and down around Parker’s legs trying to grab her “toy.” There’s no way this is Annie. She was a baby when I left, barely crawling. Now she’s running and talking and arguing with her mother.

“Kitty! I want kitty!” Annie shrieks, stomping her foot to drive her point home.

“And kitty wants to live a long, healthy life without fear of being strangled or pet to death,” Parker informs her in a sing-song voice. “Uncle Cole’s here. Do you remember Uncle Cole?”

Parker’s attempt at distraction works. Annie turns away from the cat and zeroes in on me.

“Hi, Annie. You’ve gotten so big,” I tell her with a smile.

“You bring present?” she asks, looking behind my back and all around my feet.

I laugh as I stare at her, a sharp pain working its way into my heart when I think about what Olivia told me that night on her couch. If things hadn’t gone wrong, this could have been our future—protecting our household pet from the hands of a toddler who is easily distracted.

It doesn’t matter. I don’t need that anymore. I have Olivia and that’s more than enough.

I push the thought away and bend over to get a closer look at my goddaughter.

“Sorry, I didn’t bring anything this time. But I promise, next time I come over I’ll bring you a whole truckload full of toys,” I tell her.

Her face lights up and she throws her little arms around my neck, squeezing me tight. “Maybe if you’re a good girl, I’ll bring you a stuffed kitty that you can hug and squeeze all you like.” I kiss the top of her head before standing back up and catching Parker staring at the two of us.

“Real smooth there, Vargas. Sucking up to my kid to get to me,” Parker says with a shake of her head.

“Did it work?” I ask with a smile and a raise of my eyebrows.

She huffs and switches the cat to her other arm, attempting to remove it’s claws from her skin. “My cold, dead heart where you’re concerned might be thawing a little, but I’m not making any promises.”

It’s a start. Parker and I became friends on the first mission in the Dominican and I earned a whole new respect for her when we all found out she was an undercover CIA agent and could kick all of our asses if we crossed her. Seeing how happy she made my friend only solidified my feelings for her. I hate it that I let so many people down when I left and I completely understand her disdain for me considering she’s Olivia’s best friend. I understand it, but that doesn’t make it any easier.

“Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in.”

I close my eyes and grit my teeth when I hear Garrett’s voice behind me. Trying to get back in Parker’s good graces was relatively easy compared to what I’ll go through with Garrett. He shared most of the same nightmares I did and he would have been the only one who understood my need to leave, yet I still shut him out.