His office was smaller than the lieutenant commander's, but they didn't stay there long after Paoletti excused himself with one last smile.
Jacquette led her back into the hall, down the stairs, and out into the brilliance of the afternoon as he repeated everything that Paoletti had told her.
His cell rang, and as he grimly excused himself and took the call, Joan had enough time both to find her sunglasses and to search through the long list of Navy abbreviations that Meredith had put into her file before she'd left her office last night.
Executive officer. Second in command. Aha. This Lieutenant Jacquette was Navy SEAL Team Sixteen's Mr. Spock.
Thank God for all those Star Trek reruns she'd watched in fifth grade, or she'd be completely in the dark.
"If there's anything you need while you're here," Jacquette told her with an appropriately Vulcan-like intensity, "come see me. Oh, good, here's Muldoon."
Joan looked up, and there, indeed, was Muldoon. Silhouetted by the sparkling backdrop of sunlight dancing on the ocean, this Muldoon couldn't have made a more dramatic appearance if he'd tried.
He was all broad shoulders and wide chest and long legs, packaged neatly into that same gleaming white uniform.
From a distance, he looked like a Lieutenant Commander Paoletti clone, with the same man-sized, extra-ripped build.
"Joan DaCosta—Lieutenant junior grade Michael Muldoon," Jacquette intoned.
The choir of angels missed their cue as Muldoon came close enough for her to see his face. But, hot damn, a face like that demanded a full forte gloria in excelsis deo.
Yes, as fit the pattern, Lieutenant junior grade—which made him sound as if he were a Daisy Scout compared to the non-junior lieutenants—Michael Muldoon was more picture-perfect handsome than both Jacquette and Paoletti combined. Of course, he was also only about twenty years old.
If the trend continued, within the next three minutes she was going to be handed off to a ten-year-old ensign, and then to that toddler seaman recruit she'd seen scrubbing the floor when she'd first arrived on the naval base.
"Lieutenant Muldoon is going to be your SEAL liaison for the duration of your visit," Jacquette informed her.
It really was remarkable. The guy was right out of central casting. Hello, Gertrude? Yeah, we need a Navy SEAL hero type over on lot twenty-four this afternoon. Make sure he stands well over six feet tall, is built like a Greek god, has neon blue eyes, golden brown hair, and a face more handsome than Brad Pitt's, willya?
"Ma'am."
And he should definitely be ridiculously young, so as to make me feel as old as possible by actually addressing me as ma'am.
Shit. When had she become a ma'am? Thirty-two didn't honestly qualify as ma 'am-dom, did it?
"Lieutenant Muldoon will give you today's tour," Jacquette said. "And he'll accompany you whenever you're here on base. Please try to stay with him at all tunes."
Oh-ho. Lieutenant Junior was her baby-sitter. Wasn't that annoying news?
And although he gave no outward sign—Junior was either unswervingly polite or brain dead—Joan had to believe that this was not an assignment that he'd requested. No, this was one he'd gotten stuck with, poor thing. He was doomed to be as miserable as she was.
"That's not just for your own personal safety," Jacquette continued, "but also for security reasons, of course. Again, if you need anything..."
Enough games. The U.S. Navy might not take this PR opportunity for Brooke Bryant seriously, but she sure as hell did. "I need full access to this base, Lieutenant," Joan told him.
He pretended not to understand. "Then I'll let you and Lieutenant Muldoon get to it," the XO said smoothly. "Enjoy your tour."
"Sir, I have full security clearance," she said.
But he was already taking another call on his cell—or at least pretending to take one—ending their conversation by turning his broad back and walking away.
And then there she was. All alone with Junior.
"Do you want fries with that?" Mary Lou Starrett asked.
The skinny sailor with a bad case of acne hardly looked at her once, let alone twice. "Just a vanilla shake."
"Small or large?" There was a time—not so long ago— when this kid wouldn't have been able to take his eyes off of her. And she, well, she wouldn't've given an enlisted loser like him the time of day.
"Large. And I'm in a real rush, so if you don't mind... ?" He finally looked at her, and it was with "Come on, you moron" in his eyes.
Mary Lou took a chicken sandwich from the warming bin, squishing a big hole in the bun with her thumb as she put it into the paper sack. It wasn't as satisfying as spitting into his shake, but it would have to do.
She took his money and gave him his change, and he grabbed his food and left. And the lunchtime rush at the Navy base's McDonald's was officially over.
Her husband, Lieutenant Sam Starrett of U.S. Navy SEAL Team Sixteen, hadn't come in with the rest of the crowd. Even though he knew she was working today. Even though he knew this was one of the three weekdays she dropped their daughter, Haley, at Mrs. Ustenski's day care center and actually got her ass out of the house. ..
Her twenty pounds overweight, size humongous, never-gonna-wear-a-thong-again big-ass ass.
It had been thirteen months since Haley was born. And it had been longer than that since she and Sam had had sex. Real sex. Not this do-it-in-the-dark-with-any-random-blow-up-doll-available-type sex they'd had very infrequently since then.
Mary Lou slowly organized the stack of paper cups alongside the soda machine, knowing if she didn't look busy, Aaron the asshole manager would find something for her to do.
Maybe if she lost this weight, Sam would look at her again as if she were a woman, instead of a sack of potatoes. Maybe when she finally stopped breast-feeding. Everyone said that breast-feeding made you lose weight, but maybe she was some kind of freak of nature. Maybe after she weaned Haley, she'd get thinner. And maybe then Sam would want her.
He stayed up late, watching TV in the living room, waiting until after she was asleep to come to bed. Or so he thought. She was usually awake, lying there wishing that he would reach for her, but knowing that he wouldn't.
If she wanted some, she had to make it very obvious. And even then, there had been times when he shut her down. Which eventually became so mortifying, she'd flat out stopped trying.
But maybe if she lost this weight...
Desperate, Mary Lou had tried over the past few months to make Sam happy by making his home beautiful. She cleaned the shit out of it every single day.
She tried to please him in other ways, too. By being agreeable. By holding her tongue and avoiding arguments at all costs.
She might not be the thinnest wife in the world, but she was working hard to be the least troublesome.
For instance, Sam had made a stink about her visiting the Team Sixteen building on the base. Apparently—even though the other SEALs' wives came to visit frequently— Sam didn't want Mary Lou to visit him at work. So she'd made sure she didn't bother him there, unless it was important or unless he was being deployed. Then, of course, all bets were off.
Their marriage wasn't perfect, but what marriage was? And he didn't have to marry her. Some guys wouldn't have, despite the fact that she'd been pregnant.
No, he'd married her because on some level, deep down, he loved her. And now she finally had someone—not just someone, a Navy SEAL—to take care of her. They had a daughter together, and a house and two cars—although hers was pretty much a rolling piece of crap.
Sooner or later, she'd lose the weight and make Sam happy again. He'd admit that he loved her, and maybe then the rest of her life would turn around, too. She'd finally be accepted by the other wives of the SEALs in Team Sixteen.
They were polite to her, sure. But she couldn't call a single one of them friend.
It wasn't fair—the wives' club was supposed to be part of the package, one of the perks of marrying an officer in the U.S. Navy SEALs. Her life was supposed to be glorious now, filled with wonderful girlfriends with sweet little babies like her own Haley, with Sam hurrying home to her every night after his training missions here in Coronado.
He was supposed to look at her with the same keen hunger in his blue eyes that had made her weak in the knees when she'd first laid eyes on him in the Ladybug Lounge nearly two years ago. He was supposed to make jokes and then they would laugh the way they'd laughed back then.
Of course, back then they'd both been drunk off then- asses pretty much all the time they were together. They'd make plans to meet at the bar, and she'd arrive early and get warmed up. He'd come in, pound down a few, and then they'd stagger back to her place and get naked and laugh some more.
'Course back then she usually ended up drinking until she puked or passed out.
But she'd grown up with a drunk for a mother. And she was good and goddamn sure that wasn't going to be the case for her little Haley.
"Mary Lou!"
Shit. Aaron was going to ask her to clean the fry machine. She just knew it.
But, "Counter," he said instead. She had customers. Glory be to God. She turned with relief at the reprieve and froze.
It was Alyssa Locke. Standing in front of Mary Lou's counter, intently gazing up at the menu as if it had radically changed in the past few years. Her FBI partner was with her. Jules Something. Sam had told her he was actually gay.
He was even prettier than Alyssa, and that was saying something, because Alyssa Locke was beautiful.
She was slender, with slim hips and thighs. Of course, her breasts were barely there. Mary Lou probably wore a larger bra size at age eleven.
Her dark hair was cut boyishly short, accenting her exotic green eyes, her mocha-colored skin, her high cheekbones, and her full lips. Making her look extremely non-boyish.
They hadn't noticed her, hadn't recognized her. Please God, don't let them recognize her.
"What was it I swore I'd never order again?" Alyssa asked her partner, her eyes still firmly on the menu.
"That was at the other place," he said. "Burger Hell."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. What's today's special?" Jules asked, giving Mary Lou a wink.
Didn't it figure? The one man who flirted with her today was gay.
Mary Lou didn't pretend to laugh at his joke. She couldn't. She couldn't so much as smile.
She just stared at the cash register as she took their order, praying they wouldn't recognize her, praying they would just take their lunch and leave.
"My turn to pay," Alyssa said to Jules in a husky voice that didn't have a trace of the deep south's honey and syrup. Everything about her was all business. Efficient and precise. Except for that lush mouth.
As Mary Lou watched, she opened her fanny pack and got out her wallet.
And it was then, while Mary Lou was giving her change, that Alyssa's gaze flickered down to her name badge.
And then up directly into Mary Lou's eyes.
And there it was. Recognition. Realization of who was waiting on her dawned in Alyssa's eyes. And Mary Lou couldn't hide the fact that she knew damn well who Alyssa was, either.
For about seven seconds, no one spoke. Mary Lou actually dared to hope that Alyssa would turn away, pretend that flash of recognition had never happened. After all, there had to be at least several thousand women named Mary Lou in San Diego.
But no. Alyssa had to open her perfect mouth. "I didn't realize you worked here."
No shit, Sherlock. Mary Lou didn't doubt for one second that Alyssa wanted to avoid her as much as she wanted to avoid seeing Alyssa. If Alyssa had known, she wouldn't have come within two miles of this place.
"Yeah," Mary Lou said instead. "I've been here for about three months now." And just so that Alyssa wouldn't think she had to work, that somehow Sam wasn't providing for her, she added, "Three four-hour shifts a week. Just enough to get out of the house for a while. See a few people who don't have diaper rash for a change."
Jules was looking back and forth between Alyssa and Mary Lou as if he were mystified.
"This is Lieutenant Starrett's wife," Alyssa told him.
He instantly became expressionless and bland. "Oh, right. Of course. Mary Lou. We met at your house about six months ago."
Yes, they did. Right before Sam left for Indonesia. Mary Lou certainly remembered. It was right before Alyssa Locke left for Indonesia, too.
Are you in town to fuck my husband? The words were on the tip of her tongue, but she choked them back. She didn't have to ask. She already knew. Sam still mumbled Alyssa's name in his sleep.
He swore—repeatedly—that he hadn't been with her since he and Mary Lou got married, that whatever had been between him and Alyssa was over and done with, a thing of the past. But it had been well over a year since Sam and Mary Lou got married. There was no way he'd still be dreaming about Alyssa if he wasn't still seeing her.