moved out, Shane hadn’t seen any point in looking for other quarters—or in replacing the butt-ugly furniture.
“You’re sure he’s going to propose?”
Shane simply raised one brow. They didn’t call him Scavenger for nothing. There wasn’t anything he couldn’t find. Supplies, enemies, information.
“Right,” Mitch said, shaking his head. “Of course you’re sure. Which means he has no clue what you’re planning.”
“That’d be we, not me,” Shane pointed out. “And yeah, I’m sure. Nobody expects a party for getting engaged. Married, having a kid, okay. But for volunteering to hook on a ball and chain?” He gave a pitying shake of his head. Not over Gabriel landing Tessa, or that Mitch was newly married with a baby due any day. His friends had scored some great women.
But Shane figured the odds of military guys, SEALs especially, making it work long-term? Of finding a woman who got what they did, was okay living their life with a man who answered to Uncle Sam, put his life on the line on a regular basis and kept 90 percent of what he did to himself? Pretty much zilch.
Hell, he’d experienced issues himself in his family alone. His own mother was so pissed about his career, she refused to acknowledge it. To keep her happy, the entire family pretended he was a traveling salesman. It’d been funny for a while, but over the past couple of years it’d started getting to him. He’d got to the point that he rarely went back home to Little Lake, Idaho, and since nobody acknowledged his career, none of the family had ever visited him here in Southern California.
Shane frowned, taking the list from Mitch. He was better off without any more emotional crap in his life.
Maybe his buddies would do better. But he doubted it. Mitch had actually walked away from a shot to join the elite Special Mission Unit, DEVGRU. Sure, he said it was because he preferred training and wanted to stay with his team, but given that it’d happened about the same time as he met Livi, Shane had his doubts. And now Romeo was getting ready to pop the question. He’d already started making noises about extended training, taking on things that would keep him stateside instead of hot zones.
Shane got it. He understood why his friends were making those choices. But those weren’t the kind of choices he wanted to make.
So he’d make damned sure he didn’t get himself in a situation that would call for them.
“Any thoughts on the ETA?”
“Not yet.” Shane glanced over his list again. “He’s bought the engagement ring, but you know Romeo. He’s going to want to set the scene, make it something special. He’s leaving on maneuvers in the morning and he’ll be gone for the next two weeks, though, so it won’t be before that.”
When the front door swung open, neither Shane nor Mitch had to school their expressions. They were experts at keeping their faces blank.
And in came Romeo, in all his glory. But if you knew to look, you could see a hint of smug terror in his eyes. Yeah, he deserved this party. Shane casually folded the list into a neat rectangle and stuck it in his pocket as if he hadn’t just been planning on going behind the man’s back.
“Yo, Scavenger.”
“Yo, Romeo?”
“Mail for you.” Gabriel tossed a couple of envelopes on Shane’s lap on his way into the kitchen. “You got beer?”
“You’re in uniform,” Mitch pointed out, ever the stickler.
Gabriel simply lifted his hand, showing the gym bag he carried.
“I’ve got twelve hours before I have to report for maneuvers. Tessa’s meeting me for dinner at Zappatos since it’s halfway between here and our place,” he said when he came back with his unopened beer. Just one, since Mitch and Shane were still in fatigues, too. “So I’m using your shower.”
Flipping through the envelopes, Shane waved to indicate he do whatever he wanted.
“Shit.”
“What?” Mitch leaned forward.
“A letter from home.”
Knowing Shane’s family situation, Mitch gave a sympathetic grimace.
Shane stared at the flowery handwriting on the pastel envelope for a second, then with a sigh, tore it open. After all, Sara wouldn’t risk their mother’s wrath by addressing a letter to an FPO unless there was a really good reason. And she usually took care to make the three-hour drive to Boise to mail her letter. But this one had a Little Lake postmark.
Affection, irritation and resignation all tangled together in his belly as Shane unfolded the paper. As he scanned his little sister’s letter, his gut tightened.
“Well?”
“Huh?” He glanced at Mitch with a frown.
“The letter. What’s wrong?”
They’d served together, been through too much together, for Shane not to answer.
“Drama. Sara’s upset about the family rift. She wants me to come home for her birthday. Apparently she’ll be miserable and her entire year ruined if I don’t.”
Shane frowned at Mitch’s snicker.
“Go ahead, laugh. You’re an only child. You have no idea what this means. I have five sisters. If one blames me for her misery, they all will.”
“So? You’re what? Eight hundred miles or so away. They don’t even acknowledge you’re here. And it’d take a hell of a lot for them to storm the base and get to you.”
Shane didn’t laugh because he could imagine them doing just that. Women were scary. His sisters scarier than most.
“Maybe I can volunteer for a mission. Something far, far away,” he muttered.
“Or maybe you can take some of that leave you have built up and go home,” Mitch suggested. “Watch your sister blow out the candles, keep her from being miserable, fix the mess with your mom.”
Just the thought of it tightened his gut.
“I’m already working on an assignment,” he said quickly.
“An assignment that’s on hold for the next two weeks. Take a few days. Go home.” Mitch waited a beat, then smiled. “Consider it an order.”
* * *
“SO, HANDSOME...WANNA join the Mile High Club?”
Damning Mitch for making this an order, Shane peeled his eyes off the book he’d been trying to read. He didn’t turn his head. He just slid a glance to his right in hopes that the whispered question hadn’t been aimed at him.
But the big-haired blonde’s hungry smile dashed those hopes all to hell. And in case he’d been too dim to catch a clue, she skimmed her fingers up his thigh, those lethal nails skimming uncomfortably close to his goods. He wanted to shift away. He really wanted to move her hand. But he’d been trained to never blink first.
Shane
