“I woke you up, didn’t I?”
“Yeah, I’m on night shift, so I just got to bed a bit ago.”
Cali buried her head in her hands, then looked up with an embarrassed smile. “I’m so sorry. I just added insult to injury.”
“It’s fine. I have some things to do anyway. Glad you came by.”
“Maybe this will help.”
Cali reached inside her coat and produced a brown paper sack. It was shaped an awful lot like a bottle. She extended it, and he took it in his hands.
“I don’t know much about bourbon,” she said, “but they said this was a good one. They threw it in on our order last time.”
King pulled the bottle from the bag. He couldn’t believe it: it was one of his favorites. “George T. Stagg? They just threw this in on your order?”
“Why, is it a good one?”
She really didn’t know. “It is. And one of my favorites.”
“Well, good. Glad I could give you a little piece of home.”
“It’s not necessary, but thank you.” King walked over to the small kitchen behind him and set the bottle on the stove. “Can I get you some coffee? It’s shitty, but it’s the only thing I have to offer so you’ll stay a little longer.”
He looked over his shoulder and watched as she removed her coat. King was trying to remember that he was once a charming bachelor. Maybe he still had a little game left. But it was hard to woo a woman in the shack he was currently living in, decorated with none of his own things, and in a land that was as foreign to him as a country song on pop radio.
“You kidding? I live on shitty coffee.”
King poured some preground beans into the coffee maker and filled the pot with water. He grabbed some strawberries from the fridge and spread them on a cutting board with a knife. He set the board on the small two-person dining table that separated the kitchen from the living room. “It isn’t the Beverly Hilton, but it’s what I’ve got.”
Cali took a seat. “You’ve been to LA?”
“I have. It’s not really my cup of tea, but I don’t mind south of the city.”
King used to have a place on the beach in San Diego. But that was a lifetime ago. Before he’d let go of his civilian life entirely.
“Really? I grew up in San Diego. My family moved to LA when my mother became a surgeon at Cedars-Sanai. It’s not exactly my vibe either.”
King grabbed the coffee pot and set down two mugs. “So were you running from something, too, when you came here?” He poured them both a cup. “You did say that’s what people do when they move to Barrow.”
She gave him a wry smile. “You could say my dad and I both were. My mom was killed trying to save a gang member’s life after we witnessed a drive-by shooting. They killed her for trying to help the man live.”
King knew all there was to know about loss. He wanted to relate with her, with any human at this point, but especially the pretty woman sitting at his table. He wasn’t sure what the rules were for sharing family history when undercover, but the urge to feel something with someone took precedent over what he thought was a small detail in a much larger life.
“I’m sorry. My mother was shot in front of me as well.”
“You’re kidding.”
“I’m not. I was only fifteen.”
She moved her hand from her mug to his hand and gave it a squeeze. “The hurt never goes away, does it?”
He shook his head.
“How did you deal with the pain?”
That portion of his history was not sharable. It’s a good story, but not one he could elaborate on with her. Burying your pain in the dead bodies of bad guys was an odd way to go, but for King it was the only thing that helped him cope with missing his parents.
He decided to lighten the mood. “Though it might not have seemed like it last night, I got into a lot of fights after my mom died.”
Cali smiled and gave him a wink. Then she took a shot at him. “Yeah? You’re right, it didn’t seem like it.”
King laughed. He was glad to receive the jab. Sam would have approved. With that thought he immediately checked his phone that was lying on the table beside him. No notifications. Sam should have checked in by now. As much as he wanted to be in the moment, the thought of Sam in trouble pulled him out of it.
“I’m sorry, it was just a joke,” Cali said as she took her hand away.
“What?” King looked back up at her. When he saw concern on her face, it snapped him back to the conversation. “No, sorry. Believe me, I appreciate a good ribbing. Especially when I deserve it. I was just supposed to hear from someone and haven’t yet. No big deal.”
“Natalie?”
King raised an eyebrow, then remembered he’d mentioned Natalie last night as the girl he’d come to Alaska to forget. “Oh, no. She’s a distant memory.”
A memory he couldn’t shake, but distant nonetheless.
“Good.” That smile again. Flecks of green flared in her hazel eyes.
It wasn’t often that he was with a woman so comfortable in her own skin to forgo makeup, but in Cali’s case, she must have known she didn’t need it.
“Sorry I got so deep so fast,” Cali said. “I’m not one to beat around the bush.”
“No problem,” he said. “I can appreciate that. You need any cream or sugar?”
“How ’bout some of that whiskey?”
King smiled. “You ever met anyone from Kentucky?”
“Not sure really. Why? I say something wrong?”
“A couple of things actually.”
She squinted her eyes at him. “Do tell, Mister Manners.”
“It’s just that if it’s bourbon we’re talking about, we would always call it bourbon. Not whiskey. Because to us there is a difference. And bourbon like George T. Stagg? You don’t go wasting that by mixing it with coffee. Mixing it with anything, for that matter.”
“Well, X, I’m so sorry to have trampled your heritage.”
They both laughed. Then he went back to the kitchen cabinet, opened it, and pulled out a bottle of Canadian whiskey. “Now this stuff? It’s good for mixing.”
“Don’t you lose your Kentucky card for buying a bottle like that?”
King feigned a look of being appalled. “Oh no, darlin’, I didn’t buy this. Whoever was here before me left it behind. And I don’t blame them. But it will work in the coffee.”
“I’m just glad you didn’t tell me that it’s five o’clock somewhere, like every other cliché American would.”
“I’m a lot of things, Cali,” he said as he poured some whiskey into both of their coffee cups, “but cliché isn’t one of them.”
“Yeah?” She took a sip. So did he. “I noticed that. You’re in awfully good shape for no good reason. You ex-military?”
“I am. It’s ingrained in the DNA at this point.”
King was entranced by Cali. She had that certain way about her. The way she drew him in with her eyes and left him hanging with that smile. But as with everything in King’s life, even a moment like this couldn’t sustain his full attention. The more time went by, the more his concern grew for Sam. She wasn’t the type to be late for anything. Especially checking in with him.