SEAL'd Perfection The Complete Collection: A Navy SEAL Romance (24 page)

I sat before him, staring out the window behind him, stunned into silence. The picture in my head of how this conversation was going to play out was the polar opposite of the reality, and I wasn’t prepared to tackle the things Mitch was saying. I supposed it didn’t matter anymore. Mitch had moved on, and there was no part of me that wanted him, or our marriage, back again. But the revealing conversation hurt. Was I really that bad?

When I steadied myself, I brought my gaze back to him. “I’m sorry for doing that to you Mitch. I never meant to hurt you. You have to put this in the past, you’ve moved on, and I’ve moved on, so please don’t do this. Don’t do this to me, because even though you want to hurt me, you can’t use our son to do it, because whether you see it or not, what you’re doing is going to end up hurting him too.”

Mitch’s face shifted, the emotion drained away, his eyes steely and uncaring as he looked down at me. “I’ll see you on Monday, Katherine.”

I stood up and walked over to the door. All of the energy had been sucked out of my body and I took a deep breath, willing myself to keep going. I turned to my ex, loathing him and replied. “Yes, Mitch, you will.”

Somehow, Kat and I managed to play it cool at the diner the next day, playing down the crazy escapade in the supply closet the day before. I still wasn’t sure what her abruptness had been all about, but she brought me lunch like it was any other day, and I’d started to wonder if the whole thing hadn’t been some kind of vivid dream, but she showed little signs that it hadn’t been all in my head. She let her fingers linger on mine when she handed me a menu, leaned over me, putting her tits in my face, when she refilled my water glass. But still, she was distant and didn’t say much. I tried not to let it bother me, and told myself that she was probably busy thinking about her upcoming court date.

Her co-worker couldn’t stop smiling every time she looked at me, and I had the feeling she knew every dirty detail. I didn’t care if she did, but I was surprised that Kat had shared since she was such a private person. I shrugged it off and kept my focus on Kat, enjoying picturing her naked as she went about her job, clearing tables, closing out tabs, serving refills of water and iced tea. It was becoming clear that no matter how many times I had Kat, it would never even come close to being enough. She was addictive. The taste of her kiss, the smell of her skin, the way she moved and responded to me, every breath, moan, and shudder had me under a spell and I never wanted it to break.

When she dropped off the check, I reached for her hand as she started to grab my empty plate. “Hey, why don’t you sit down a little while,” I said.

She smiled at me, but there was a hint of distraction behind her eyes. “I can’t. I’m ducking out early and my boss is already pissed enough at me. If he came in and saw me sitting down, chatting it up with a customer, I’d be lucky to keep my job.”

My heart jumped. “Why’s he pissed? Because of yesterday?” I asked, keeping my voice low. I prayed she would say no, I couldn’t take getting her into
more
trouble.

“No, no. No one knows about that.” She shook her head and looked over towards the front door, as though expecting the short, hairy man who I’d gathered to be the owner, to pop in at any second. “He’s mad because I’ve been taking so much time off lately.”

I wrinkled my brow. “That’s fucked up, it’s not like you’re running off to the Bahamas or something.”

She shrugged. “To him, family court and the Bahamas are the same place, it all means he has to actually get off his ass and reschedule shifts to make sure we’re covered.”

I wanted to dick punch the guy.

Kat continued, before I let myself get too carried away with revenge planning. “Anyways, I have to leave early today to do a video call with that lawyer I was telling you about…” she let her words trail off and I wondered what she was thinking about, her mind was obviously elsewhere.

I squeezed her hand. “That’s great!”

“Yeah.” She used her free hand to smooth back her ponytail.

“Kat,” I said, forcing her attention back to me with a tug of her hand. “What’s wrong? Is it about the money?”

“No, it’s nothing. I’m fine.”

She was lying to me—I could see it in her eyes, the way they darted away from mine when I tried to hold them too long. Her resistance to open up frustrated me, especially after I’d been so brutally honest with her the day before, but I didn’t want to push her. Not yet anyways. In the middle of the diner, while she was supposed to be working, wasn’t the right time or place for the kind of conversation we needed to have.

“Jace, stop looking at me like that,” Kat insisted.

I snaked my arm around her waist and pulled her closer, no longer caring what anyone thought. “I just want you to be happy.”

She backed away, out of my reach. “I’ll be happy when Jax is back home,” she replied softly, her voice breaking off as she choked up again.

“I know.” I pulled my arm back, dropping my hands to the table, trying not to let it bother me that she’d rebuffed me. “What time is your meeting?”

She glanced behind her at the large clock on the wall. “Half an hour. I should get going. I don’t know how long it’ll take. Do you want to come over for dinner tomorrow night?”

Her invitation brought a smile to my face, and I hated that I had to decline. “I would love to, but I’ll be out of town all weekend.” She cocked an eyebrow at me. “I have reserve weekend with the Navy. I’m still in the reserves and they have me training new recruits all weekend. Whipping them into boot camp shape,” I explained, flashing a wicked smile. Although I hated the idea of being away from Kat all weekend, I knew that it was bound to be a good time. Scaring the shit out of new recruits with stories of the horrors awaiting them at boot camp was always a good time.

“Those poor kids,” Kat teased, her genuine smile back in place. “When will you get back?”

I resisted the urge to smack her ass. “Sunday night.”

“Well, I think that would give me time to plan something. Besides, I’ll need a distraction from what waits Monday morning,” she said, her smile fading.

“Okay, you got a date little lady.”

She frowned at me but couldn’t hold it, and a smile broke through. “It’s not a date, just dinner.”

I rose from my seat and leaning close, growled in her ear, “You remember what happened last time we had a ‘just dinner’?”

She blushed and after dropping a twenty on the table. I walked out of the diner, stopping at the front door to look back in time to catch her checking out my ass. Realizing she’d been caught ogling, she huffed and stalked off to the kitchen.

I laughed all the way across the street back to the shop.

* * * *

As promised, I spent Friday night driving to the reserve base near Chicago, and all day Saturday torturing the new Navy recruits, running them ragged with drill after drill. When Saturday night rolled around, I finally let them go to the mess hall to get some chow. I followed behind the group, but halfway to the hall, decided against dinner, and went to the adjoining building where the weight room was located to get in my own workout. I’d been running all day, but found myself buzzing with unspent energy. The weight room was almost deserted, so I popped in my ear buds and went to work, putting myself through a rigorous workout.

When my body was finally exhausted, I sat down heavily on a bench and toweled myself off, letting my mind drift back to Kat. I was tempted to call her and ask how the meeting had gone, but knew that hearing her voice would only make me miss her more. I also didn’t want her to think I was really calling to find out the cost since I’d be the one footing the bill. It wasn’t about the money, not even a little bit, but Kat somehow managed to misinterpret things when it came to the whole money issue and I didn’t want to risk her backing out of the deal, not when I was finally feeling more relaxed and able to actually do some good.

Even if it had brought some new questions and challenges to the surface.

We’d entered new territory, and although I knew I wanted Kat in my life, and preferably in a romantic role, I had no idea what that truly meant in the long run. Since getting out of my time in active duty, I hadn’t entertained the idea of settling down, and figured that my time in the small town would be a limited-time thing, long enough for me to get my head together, and then I’d go back to Chicago where I could reboot my business there.

But Kat wouldn’t follow me to Chicago. Especially if things went south with the baby.

On the other hand, I wasn’t sure I could do the whole small town thing for the rest of my life.

I was still turning all the options over in my mind, sitting on the weight bench, when a familiar voice called over to me, “Hey, Winslow.”

I looked up to see my friend, Petty Officer Kyle Brown, standing in the doorway. “Hey man.”

“Don’t tell me you overdid those supplements again,” he groaned. “I came in earlier and you didn’t even see me. You looked straight up, outta your mind in here.”

I laughed. I’d gone a little nuts once after using some performance pills and smoked everyone in the gym, but in the process, nearly gave myself a heart attack. It’d become a running gag once everyone was clear that I’d be okay after a visit to the medical unit. “Naw, man. Just burning off some energy. It’s been a while since my last workout.”

“Yeah, yeah, too busy being all famous and shit,” Kyle said, a big goofy grin on his face.

The guys in my crew thought it was hilarious that I was some reality star, and I never got a moments peace about it. I shrugged most of it off, especially from Kyle. We’d been buddies long enough to know that he really thought it was pretty badass. I’d done ninety percent of the ink on his body over the past few years.

“All jokes aside, man. What’s going on? I heard those new boots were still walking when you got done with them. You losing your touch?”

I shook my head. “Naw, man, just got a lot on my mind, I guess.”

“Anything you wanna talk about, man?” Kyle asked, sitting down roughly on the bench across from me.

I was ready to brush it off and hit the showers, but changed my mind, mid-thought, and stared over at Kyle and the silver ring on his finger. “How’d you know when it was time to settle down?”

Kyle snapped to attention. “Fuck, man, you’ve got woman problems?”

“No, man. Not problems. I’m just asking. How did you know when you were ready?”

Kyle laughed. “Well, when the pregnancy test turned up, I figured it was sink or swim.”

Kyle had two little kids now, a daughter and a son, both under two, and although he joked around that he only married his wife, Leah, because she got knocked up, the guys closest to him knew he’d been long gone way before that point. “Come on, how did you
really
know?”

Kyle leaned forward, bracing his arms on his thighs and looked at me intently. “I couldn’t imagine being without her, you know. It’s so fuckin’ cheesy, but I couldn’t get enough, and I wanted her with me all the time. You know, this life is crazy, especially doing what we do, and she was the thing that grounded me and made me see what’s really important. Family, love, you know, all that cheesy shit.”

“All right, all right, well if I’d known you were gonna go all afternoon special on me,” I teased, smiling at him, not letting on how much his words sunk in.

“Yeah yeah, I know, I’m whipped, whatever.” He laughed and heaved off the bench to set up some weight on the bar.

“No, man, actually, I think that’s awesome.” I stood up and clapped him on the shoulder. “I’m gonna hit the showers, have a good one.”

“Take it easy brother. Oh, and by the way, I’m supposed to tell you that Master Chief Jenkins was looking for you,” he called after me.

I paused at the door to the locker room, my brow raised, wondering what on earth the Master Chief would need me for, but decided to make it a point to go find out once I showered.

“You know what it feels like? It feels like I can breathe again,” I told Jace, ending my synopsis of the video call with Kirk Folger. The call couldn’t have gone any better. He’d arrived on the call, dressed in a power suit, with laser sharp precision as we ran through the details of my case. He’d clearly done his homework, and as promised, was prepared to go to war against Mitch’s team of sharks. His confidence had transferred to me—and for the first time—I was beginning to see a beacon of hope.

“You know what the best part is?” I asked, turning to Jace who was sitting at the small dining table while I cooked dinner. He looked up at my question, but there was something else tugging at his mind for attention. He’d said he was tired from the long drive home and I’d left it alone, but looking at the hollowness to his eyes had me wondering if there wasn’t something else going on. “Are you sure you’re okay?” I asked, putting aside the conversation with the superstar lawyer.

He brought his eyes back to mine, and nodded, giving me a weak smile. “Yeah, just tired. Long weekend. I’m really glad the meeting went well, Kat.”

I considered him a moment longer, trying to figure out how to get to the truth without harassing him. I always hated when people dug into me, and tried to avoid doing it to others, but there was something he wasn’t telling me, and it was hard to carry on with the conversation as if everything was normal. Especially with the distinct feeling in my gut that something was off. I stirred the pot of pasta on the stove.

“What’s the best part?” Jace prompted. “You were starting to say…”

A zing of happiness went through me. “Right! The best part is going to be watching Mitch’s lawyers’ faces, and then his face, when they see me walk into the mediation with Folger on my side. He’s so important and powerful looking! His demeanor—his briefcase and the best part is…he’s not intimidated, he’s intimidating! It’s gonna be awesome!”

Jace laughed and stood to join me at the stove. “That’s great. Is there anything I can do to help with dinner?”

I shook my head. “I’ve got it. Almost done, I promise. Sit, sit, sit.”

He went back to the table and took a long pull from the beer bottle I’d given him when he’d first sat down. I finished the dinner and got everything ready, and asked Jace about the show, a topic he didn’t seem too interested in talking about beyond saying it would be over in two weeks.