not in the manner in which they were planning to go about it.
“Well, Sam’s picked Jade,” Squint said, nodding his head in the redhead’s direction. “That’s as far as we’ve gotten.”
Ty winced. If Sam thought he could just propose pregnancy to an independent woman like Jade Harper, it might be worth hanging around to see him get handed his head. Ty almost laughed at Sam’s plan.
Then again, maybe it wasn’t that funny. What if Jade said yes? She was twenty-seven, and a beauty like her shouldn’t still be on the market, except she claimed she wasn’t ready to settle down.
That might be changing now that her best friend, Mackenzie, was happily married.
Ty shrugged off the vague sense of uneasiness the thought gave him. “Picking a lady and having her fall for you are two different things.” He glanced Jade’s way, commanded himself to quit staring.
“We thought you’d support our plan,” Squint said, his tone surprised. “When you lured us to BC, you said there were plenty of ladies looking to settle down. When you’ve been in the military as long as we were, the thought of ladies looking to settle down is pretty inviting.”
“Yeah, why are you beefing about this?” Frog glared at him. “Dude, if you have a better idea, speak up. If not, say nothing. You’re leaving soon enough, and you won’t be doing much communicating once you’re trying to get through BUD/S. So our story won’t be of much interest to you.”
In other words, butt out. “Your plan is fine. Foolhardy, but fine. I wish you all the best.” A horrible thought occurred to Ty. “What if Jade were to say yes to Sam’s stupid pregnancy idea?”
His two friends/hires/tricksters stared at him.
“Well, they’d get married,” Frog said. “As sure as my name is Francisco Rodriguez Olivier Grant, I’d probably be best man.”
“That would be me,” Squint said, “as sure as my name’s John Squint Mathison.”
It could be serious if his lunkheaded buddies were already scrabbling over who was going to get high honor at this imaginary wedding. What possible difference does it make to me? Free country, like Dennis said.
He sneaked another glance at Jade, all long and lean and capable and sexy, with a mop of burgundy-red hair that was a siren’s call to Ty. She had a bright smile that teased, always laughing at him, and somehow with him. Captivating him. A laugh that never failed to bring a smile of response to his face, no matter what his mood was. No, when he’d thought up The Plan, the plan of bringing life back to BC, he’d put Jade on a pedestal out of sight, in a mental closet marked Private. Do Not Touch.
Mine.
Sam put his big, beefy hand over Jade’s delicate one, and Ty could hear that musical laugh across the aisle, reaching his ears with a pang that lodged in his heart. Something blew in his brain, like a transformer struck by lightning, and the next thing he knew, he was sliding into the white booth occupied by Jade and Sam, tucking himself up against Jade in the most friendly, brotherly fashion, because she expected friendly and brotherly from him.
Only he knew it was more of an ambush.
* * *
JADE GRINNED AT Ty when he bumped in next to her, jostling her arm away from Sam’s. “Look at you,” she said to Ty. “All buzz cut and ready to report for duty.”
Ty palmed his newly shorn head. She’d loved his hair long and wild, but he looked just as hot with it short, too. That was the problem with a rascal like Ty—he looked irresistible shaved or wild and woolly.
Spiritually, he was way too woolly for her.
“I let one of the ladies buzz me down,” Ty said, and Sam grinned.
“Your mother took the sheep shears to him,” Sam said.
“Betty didn’t have sheep shears,” Ty said, “but believe me, she was determined the brass wouldn’t be disappointed with me when I showed up for training.”
“It’s short.” Jade smiled. “I can just imagine Mom giving you the treatment. In another world, she could have been a hairstylist. The ice-cream shop just happened to get to her first.”
“A remarkable woman,” Sam agreed, and Ty elbowed Jade so that she looked at him again.
“Did you just elbow me? In a brotherly, somewhat obnoxious way?”
He looked pained. “I’m not really your brother. As much as it felt like that growing up, I’m not exactly brotherly material, as has been well noted by just about everyone.”
Including her, which was why she kept Ty very much on the outskirts of her radar. “Mom practically raised you, along with everyone else in this town. You even had a bunk at our place.” Her gaze softened as she took in Ty’s square, determined jaw and wide brown eyes. “You broke a lot of noses for my sake when we were growing up.”
Sam laughed. “He tried to break everything when we were on the circuit. Now go away, brother. This is a private lunch.”
“Private?” Ty glared at Sam. “Nothing’s private in BC.”
“This is,” Jade said. “You have to take your overprotective, buttinsky self elsewhere.”
She hated to send him off. But the thing about Ty was that the more he hung around her, the more her hopes rose. It was something she had almost no control over. He treated her like a little sister—and her heart mooned for him. Stupidly.
And this year, her resolution was to get on with her life and accept that Ty was simply too much bad boy for her. Her practical nature knew this, accepted that she wanted something completely different when she envisioned a husband.
But her heart—and her female side—wanted Ty. In fact, her mind and her body were practically enemies at this point, warring with each other, each convinced the other was right.
She’d done a darn good job of moving on, seeking new opportunities. And a new man. Okay, Sam Barr wasn’t “the one,” but he was the first man she’d gone out with in a long time, and he was nice, and she was looking for nice on her man list, wasn’t she?
“Go,” she told Ty, her voice a little urgent as she gave him a pointed push, practically edging him out of the booth.
He stood, put on his brown Stetson, looked at her a bit sadly with those big brown puppy-dog eyes and tipped his hat to her and Sam before returning to his own booth.
“Poor fellow,” Sam said. “Doesn’t know what he wants in life.”
“Poor fellow?” Jade refused to glance Ty’s way. “The man brought you here on a mission. He’s not a poor fellow at all. Don’t fall for the injured look he wears so well.” She sipped water, glad for the coolness, but couldn’t meet Sam’s eyes.
“He’s going to make it,” Sam said, his tone admiring. “He’s trained for a year to make it through BUD/S. Trained like a maniac. I predict he not only makes it, but he terrorizes all the other recruits.”
“Of
