Luke Bristol = Clint Barton

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Prologue

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Marnie Greene hadn't planned on meeting him.

She had other plans for that day, other things she'd wanted to do. She had absolutely no intentions of meeting him, striking up a conversation and eventually asking him out for coffee. She never . . . did things like that.

She liked to think that she was a conventionalist in the fact that she always waited for men to ask her out—never had she reversed that philosophy where she asked them out instead. This was such a new experience for her. She was nervous, but for whatever reason, she just couldn't let this stranger walk away from her. Something about him was incredibly intriguing—she didn't know if it was his friendly, confident manner, the sound of his voice, or if it was his eyes. Something about him just made her feel drawn to him, like he was some kind of magnet. It was the strangest sensation she'd ever felt.

It was also very strange because she hadn't been on a date in quite a while, so she felt a little out of practice. She'd only gone out with a few boys in high school but would usually only spend her time hanging around her girl-friends—watching the football games, goofing off on the bleachers and gossiping about the latest breakups. Marnie had essentially been an average teenage girl.

After she graduated, she'd found a job working in a small cubicle answering customer complaints while taking classes at a local community college a few hours away from her home town. It wasn't necessarily a bad job. Mainly customers just shouted at her down the line while she rolled her eyes and sipped her coffee, talking in a sweet voice whilst wishing something large would fall on their heads. She'd been at that job for four years now, and although it was dull and nothing every changed, it paid the bills that always seemed to keep piling up.

And now here she was, asking this complete stranger out for coffee, a man whom she'd only just met a few minutes ago—and he had agreed, much to her relief.

They walked through the dusky evening light a few blocks down the sidewalk to a nearby coffee shop. It was a fairly nice place, with dark, cherry oak tables and smooth, polished floors. They seated themselves at a leather booth in the back near the window and talked for the rest of the evening, sipping their drinks. For Marnie it had been a pumpkin spice latte and for the man, named Luke Bristol, it had just been coffee—black, with no cream or sugar.

She had to admit that she found it strange how the two of them were getting along so well. Never in her whole life had she ever been able to hold a conversation so easily. Most men she had gone out to dinner with or dated had seemed to only want to talk about their jobs or their past girlfriends. Dates likes those had always ended a bit awkwardly. There were no whispered promises of "I'll call you" or "see you soon" coming from her mouth.

With Luke, however, it was different. Everything seemed so effortless with him. She didn't feel like she had to force herself to agree with the things he would say, just for the sake of being polite, and found that she didn't even want to in the first place.

They shared pleasantries with each other at first. She explained that her older brother Jackson was a police officer and that her parents lived three hours away in Fort Collins, Colorado, where she had been raised. Luke, in turn, told her that he didn't have any siblings, and then went on to explain that his parents had passed.

He didn't mention how they died, and Marnie was okay with that. She felt it was too soon to pry him with such personal questions anyways.

For the rest of evening they talked quietly. She listened to him with rapt attention, finding herself immersed and intrigued by his ideas, thoughts and opinions. He seemed so passionate about what he spoke of, talked with such conviction that something was strangely hypnotic about his tone.

She was genuinely sorry when one the workers from behind the counter arrived at their table to announce to them that they were closing shop. In the end, Luke had asked her if she wanted to meet again the next day and she immediately complied, excited. Here was someone exotic, someone who answered her yearning for adventure and understood her independent personality. She was hopelessly impressed with the older man.

After going out every day for the next two weeks, Luke took Marnie on a walk and confessed that he was in love with her. Marnie replied that she thought she loved him too and before their stroll was done, he had talked her into marrying him.

When Marnie broke the news to her parents, they were alarmed that their daughter was flinging herself into marriage with a man she'd known for just days. There was a lot she didn't know about Luke, a realization that was undoubtedly true, but didn't bother her. She loved Luke more than she had ever loved anyone before. She was convinced that he would reveal more of his past to her in time. He was a cloth, waiting to be unraveled before her eyes, a cloth that had to be peeled away slowly, carefully, and with the utmost care.

In critical ways, she was engaged to a stranger, but no matter how much her mother and father begged her to change her mind, Marnie couldn't be swayed. On March 28th, only three weeks later, the couple was married in a local chapel in front of close friends and family.

Marnie was in a bliss.

But ignorance can only last so long before reality sets in.

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