Night with a Seal (Hot SEALs #1) (3 page)

“Why?” Darci slipped the container on to the shelf of the fridge and then turned back to Ali, frowning. “Don’t you like Jon? He’s so nice—“

“He is very nice.” And hot . . . “I didn’t say he wasn’t. Just answer the question, Miss Evasive.”

“I’m not being evasive. In my expert opinion, Jon’s the best choice for you.”

That
expert opinion
was up for debate, considering the last guy who Darci had decided was perfect for Ali. She shivered just thinking about how badly that blind date had turned out.

Ali crossed her arms and leveled her gaze at her friend as she waited for her answer.

Finally, Darci huffed out a breath. “Fine. Here’s the run down. My brother is no good because I can see there’s no spark between you two. And considering we’re friends, that would be a big mess if you two dated and then broke up.”

Ali nodded. “I agree. Next.”

Darci rolled her eyes. “Grant’s married. You’ll meet him and his wife today. The other guys are single, but Thom is divorced with two little kids and you don’t want that kinda baggage. Zane is freaking gorgeous, but he’s a total ladies man and he’s bringing a date today anyway, so he’s out. Chris is the joker of the group even though he’s the oldest of them all and I’m not convinced he can be serious about anything, never mind a relationship. If he could be, he’d have been married long before now. Then there’s Brody. He can get a little dark and broody sometimes.”

“Brody is broody. Got it.” Ali’s head spun with the names and information Darci had ticked off on her fingers, but she didn’t worry that she would never keep them all straight because it didn’t matter anyway. She wasn’t going to date any one of them.

“Obviously, Jon’s the only logical one, so do you like him?”

It wasn’t quite so obvious to Ali, but Darci looked like a kid on Christmas morning waiting for the answer.

Ali shrugged. “Like I said, he seems nice.”

That was all the encouragement Ali was willing to give. She was here to enjoy a cold beverage and some good food on her day off. Not to partake of the man buffet Darci had listed for her, even with how good the first dish she’d come across had looked.

CHAPTER 3

Jon pulled the wire out of his truck’s dashboard audio input and carried it back to the house, only to notice the very attractive brunette and her potato salad had already gone inside.

Having his new acquaintance to look at during today’s gathering would be no hardship. Pretty in pink in her floral sundress, Ali was like a breath of fresh air on the hot July day. Jon should really thank Darci later for inviting her. It was nice that Rick’s barbecue wouldn’t be the usual sausage fest.

Not that Jon would take advantage of that and act upon this chance meeting with the woman. They were counting down in hours now, rather than days, until the squad left for a solid six months overseas. Bad timing, if ever he saw it.

Keeping that in mind, he cut across the lawn and made his way around the house.

“Got it?” Rick asked as Jon bounded up the stairs to the deck.

“I do.” Jon handed over the small white connector that he used to plug his smartphone into his truck’s audio so he could listen to his own music rather than the radio.

“Perfect. Thanks. Now we can have some decent tunes.” Rick moved toward the house.

Darci, coming out, stopped in the doorway just in time to hear the discussion about music. “I can go and get my iPod if you want.”

“Um, no. I’ve heard what’s on yours. We’re using mine.” Rick pushed past Darci and into the house as she turned and followed him.

Jon smiled as the siblings continued to bicker all the way into the house, before his attention turned to Ali, who’d walked out of the door with bowls of chips and dip in her hands.

She set them on the table and cut her gaze sideways to him. “Do they fight like this often?”

He let out a laugh. “Yeah. Pretty much every time I’ve seen them together.”

Not that he saw them together all that often. Time with family was pretty limited in his line of work. One reason why he was single. He reminded himself of that as he realized that he could see a distracting amount of Ali’s cleavage from this angle. He reached out and grabbed a chip to distract himself.

Music—hard acid metal—came blaring out of the house. Jon recognized it as one of the songs from the playlist Rick listened to for PT. The music screeched to a sudden halt during which Jon was sure the sibling battle continued inside. The silence lasted a few more seconds before a country tune came on, still a selection he recognized from one of Rick’s work out playlists, but far more mellow.

Apparently they’d reached a compromise. He smiled as he raised the bottle to his lips.

“So Darci says you’re deploying again soon.” Ali’s question brought his head around to her.

If she wanted small talk, he could do small talk. Though he did find it interesting that Darci and Ali had been discussing his squad, considering Rick was no longer a part of it.

“Yup.” Jon kept the response brief and indefinite, not giving anything away. After all these years, he was an expert at answering questions without really answering them.

“Are you worried?” A small wrinkle creased the space between her brows.

“Worried? Nah. This’ll be my thirteenth combat deployment.”

“Thirteen.” She cringed and then hid the expression as she glanced at him.

Jon frowned at her reaction. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” Eyes visibly widening behind her sunglasses, she tried to look innocent and failed.

Realization hit him and he laughed. “Are you concerned about this being my thirteenth?”

“You’re not?” She sounded skeptical.

“No, I’m not. Believe me, of all the many things that could kill me, kill us all really on a daily basis, the number thirteen is pretty low on the list.” He took a sip of his beer and eyed the brunette. “Are you superstitious?”

“I’ve been known to knock wood on occasion, and I do firmly believe Karma’s a bitch.” She let out a short laugh. “Do you think less of me now?”

“Not at all. But I do think less of myself that I’m letting you stand here in the hot sun and haven’t even offered to get you something cold to drink. What’s your pleasure?” Jon wrangled his mind off the many pleasures they could share together if things were different. He moved on to list for her the different drinks he’d seen in the cooler.

“I’ll have a beer, I guess.”

He raised his bottle to her in a toast. “A woman after my own heart. Stay right here. I’ll be back.”

By the time Jon got down the stairs, Rick was already at the cooler sticking bottles of water into the ice. Rick glanced up at him as Jon reached past and grabbed a bottle of beer. “So, I saw you talking to Darci’s friend.”

If there was a question buried in there, Jon didn’t hear it. Even so, he nodded. “Yup.”

“Do you like her?” Rick’s expression seemed to light up. Why, Jon didn’t know.

Even if Jon was the type to get serious with a girl, which he wasn’t, he sure as hell wasn’t going to do it on what could literally be the eve of a six month deployment that would drop him directly into the armpit of the war zone.

When they packed all their gear in three days—or tomorrow or the next day for all he knew—he needed his head to be firmly in the game, not on some piece of ass back in the States waiting on him.

Zane came out of the house and onto the deck at that moment. Jon saw Zane’s own bad decision hanging on his arm like he was a buoy and she was in open seas. It worked to cement Jon’s resolve on the matter. No relationships for him. At least not now.

Jon wrestled his attention away from squinting through his sunglasses at Zane’s date. He’d been trying to determine if she was the same girl he’d seen riding a pole at the strip club in town last time he’d been dragged there by the guys.

He turned to Rick and finally answered the man’s question. “I don’t know if I like her or not. I just met her. Why are you so concerned about me and Ali?”

Rick shrugged. “No reason. Just wondering.”

Apparently civilian life and boredom had turned Rick into a busybody. “Have another beer. You can’t be called in anymore. You can get as drunk as you want now, so go for it.”

Jon, on the other hand, had to throttle his own consumption. Even on an official “day off”, they still had to be mission ready on a moment’s notice. All of their pagers could go off at any time, and then they’d have to be at base and ready to go within an hour. He had become an expert on exactly how many drinks he could metabolize and still be okay if he got called in—just another of the many skills he’d picked up over the years.

It was good he couldn’t get sloppy drunk though, because a few too many often led to poor decisions. Thom came around the corner with his two kids and cemented Jon’s resolve further. Little Tommy had been conceived during a night when Thom had forgotten how much he could consume safely, which had led to the unplanned pregnancy and as a result the failed marriage he’d just signed the papers to end.

Rick’s snort brought Jon’s attention back to him. “I’d rather be deploying with the squad, than getting drunk here.”

“I know, buddy. I know.” Jon slapped his friend on the back and tipped his head toward the house. “Let’s go get a closer look at Zane’s date, shall we?”

If she was indeed who he thought she was, Jon wondered what name she was going by here. He rarely forgot a face—or any other body part—and he doubted she’d be using her stripper name, Mistress Mona, here at the barbecue. Then again, who knew?

Throttling down in concession to the heat and the fact his belly was empty and grumbling thanks to the barbecue on the horizon, Jon grabbed a bottle of water for himself and carried it to the deck along with Ali’s beer.

Grant had arrived at some point while Jon had been talking to Rick. He came out of the house now, his wife carrying a platter of what looked to be cheese and crackers.

The small roster of attendees was complete, but there was only one person Jon made a beeline for after climbing the stairs. He told himself it was because he had the beer he’d promised her, but deep down he knew that adorable little frown over the number thirteen coupled with the very attractive cleavage she was sporting had long since won him over.

Too bad a one-night stand was out of the question given who she was, and he didn’t do long term.

Maybe Ali had been correct. Karma, being a bitch, had dropped the smoking hot friend of his best friend’s sister in his path right before a deployment. If that wasn’t cosmic payback for his sins, he didn’t know what it was. After all the shit he’d done in the name of God and country while fighting an enemy who claimed the same, he supposed a larger neutral presence—if one existed—could find plenty to judge him on.

She was facing away from him, talking to Darci and Grant’s wife, Molly. He tapped Ali on the shoulder and thrust the bottle toward her when she turned.

“Thanks.” The smile she sent him was enough to make him silently curse Fate one more time.
 

CHAPTER 4

“Are you sure you’re okay to drive?” Darci’s asked.

“I’m fine. I had like three beers over the course of five hours on top of so much food I doubt my pants for work will fit in the morning.” Ali dismissed her friend’s concern with the wave of one hand while she cradled her clean, empty container from the long gone potato salad with the other.