Wild Chance (Wild Irish Universe)(3)

His cheeks heated. “I really have to go. I know I don’t start till Monday, but I’ll stop by tomorrow night to see if you need me.”

“You do that.”

Aedan winked at her and shifted from the stool. He picked up his duffle and headed for the door. When he glanced toward Killian, the man merely turned and walked off into the back. Aedan sighed and shook his head. There was no way to explain to Killian what was happening at that time in his life.

Back outside, the sunlight was almost too much as vehicles sped by. It was a little dizzying for Aedan. A fire truck charged by him, sirens blaring along with two cop cars and a fire supervisor van. He squinted and craned his neck to watch them as long as he could. He blinked and tried watching them again, but the emergency service vehicles were nothing but a dot in the distance.

A second blink and they were gone.

With a sigh, he began focusing on re-familiarizing himself with his surroundings. If he recalled correctly, he would have two blocks before he was at his place.

Aedan inhaled deeply and turned down the street. So many thoughts filled his mind until he had to stop walking to refocus. He bottled them all, releasing only one—his motorcycle should be delivered within the next two days. Then he’d have to modify it to fit his now missing leg and the new prosthetic he’d had specially designed for riding. Being on the motorcycle gave him a sense of freedom and he wasn’t about to lose that too.

The walk took him by a small grocery store and Aedan stopped to pick up a few necessities—beer, toilet paper, steaks, fruits and vegetables, toothpaste, some spices and butter. He also stopped into a kitchen supplies store and bought all he’d need for the apartment’s kitchen. In the end, he had to call a cab. It wasn’t a long ride, but he’d purchased more than he realized and couldn’t possibly walk with everything.

Once he’d managed to lug everything to his unit, Aedan popped the beer in the empty fridge, dropped the stakes in the sink and set to work putting things away. Somehow, he’d pulled his head out of the clouds long enough to pick up enough for dinner for the weekend. It would be a challenge, since he hadn’t been feeling hungry but knew he had to eat. His therapist had warned him not to succumb to the depression going back to civilian life would bring. But Aedan didn’t know anything else.

At eighteen, he left Baltimore, wound up in New York and was recruited into a rock band. At nineteen the band fell apart.

In all honesty, they weren’t very good. At nineteen and a half he was at a military recruitment center filling out the paperwork.

All his adult life had been spent in uniform.

What was he supposed to do now?

His next job was to look through his new home. It was empty, sterile—silent. He was thirty three years old, staring thirty four in the eyes and all he had to show for all those years was an empty apartment, a purple heart, a motorcycle and a small savings account.

There has to be more to life than this.





Chapter Two


“Three months, two days and—” Esme Sanchez checked her watch. “Six hours.”

Mona Lisa Frye tilted her head and turned from watching the wedding party. She sipped from her champagne flute. “What?”

“Three months, two days and six hours. That’s how long you’ve been back, and you haven’t gone out once.”

“I don’t need to go out,” Mona said. “Brigitte didn’t go out partying and she still found Mark. I’m trying to say to you that anything is possible. Besides, I want a studious man.”

“Yes, Brigitte found her love on a dating site. And take it from someone who is a habitual dating site resident, she’s one of the lucky ones. At least let me take you out for a drink after the reception. We haven’t really gotten a chance to talk.”

“Es, we talk every day!”

Esme pouted. “Do you know, I’ve never had a girlfriend—not a girlfriend but a girl I can talk boys with, get our nails done—that sort of thing. And when you were gone, it sucked. I’m determined to make up for lost time.”

Mona groaned. She adored Esme. The fiery Latina had been her savior since arriving in Baltimore. It hadn’t been easy selling almost everything and moving States but she’d done it. Homesickness kicked in the second she stepped out of her cramped mini cooper in front of her new house. Then she’d gone back to New York to sell her condo there. She’d had the bright idea of renting it out. But the taxes and maintenance and the constant calls from the tenant—it wasn’t worth her rising blood pressure. It had gotten so bad, whenever she saw a New York area code pop up on her phone, she had this strange tick in her neck.

The decision to get rid of the place wasn’t hard. At the end of tenant’s contract, Mona sent him notice that he needed to vacate without sixty days. Legally, all she had to give him was thirty, but she was trying to be accommodating.

At the end of the day, the condo had been her final attachment to New York and now it was gone.

Freedom.

But Esme had been right. The truth was, when she had just arrived in Baltimore, Mona went out. She went on a few dates. After a few outings from hell, Mona realized she’d be looking for love in all the wrong places—websites. From jerks who wanted her to send them pictures of her breasts to ones who thought sending images of their privates was the perfectly acceptable way to say hello—Mona had gone through them all.