“It was, baby. Damn good. In fact, the best.”
Everything in her screamed not to go back to asking him why, then, he chose another woman over her. He’d already told her how he felt and how he knew he didn’t love Alegria the way he thought he had. The time had come for her to let it go. He’d told her he was sorry, multiple times.
She pulled back and looked into his eyes. “I have to tell you something.” She bit her bottom lip, and Dutch tightened his grip.
“Go ahead.”
“I forgive you.”
He brought his hands up to her face and held her still, even when she tried to bring her lips back to his.
“Are you sure?”
She nodded. “Yes.”
“It can’t be about anything else, Malin.”
“What do you mean?”
“This is between me and you. What I did.”
“That’s all it is, Dutch. But there’s more.”
When he let go of her, she stood, walked over, and grabbed her shirt.
Dutch sat up and put his elbows on his knees. “Whatever you have to say to me you can say without your shirt on.”
“I don’t think I can.” If she was going to be as big a person as Dutch was, she had to stick to her resolve and apologize for what she did.
He stayed right where he was, not even attempting to grab his shorts.
“You’re kind of distracting that way.”
“Which way is that?”
“Naked.”
“I’m fine unless I’m making you uncomfortable.”
“This might be easier if you put your shorts on.” Malin picked them up and handed them to him.
He stood and pulled them up over his hips. “Better?”
“Yes, thank you.”
“Tell me whatever it is, Malin.”
“We need to talk about Germany.”
“Ah,” he said, nodding his head.
“I knew you were stopping at Ramstein for a meeting with AIRCOM before going on to Somalia to meet with Mohamed Abdullahi and with Ahmed Umar.”
—:—
He looked down at the sand and scrubbed his face with his hand. His meeting at the headquarters of both the United States Air Force in Europe and also for NATO Allied Air Command was supposed to be known only to those directly involved—with top-level security clearance. Malin had the clearance, but there was no reason she should have been read in on that meeting.
“You came looking for me?”