“That’s Tripp’s best friend and his wife.” I clear my throat, aware of how this aware of how absurd this is going to sound to Nick. “Chip and Delilah.”
Nick does an exaggerated double take, looking at me and then them and then back at me. “Seriously?”
“Yep.”
“Seriously? Tripp and his best friend Chip? What is it with these people?”
“Tripp, because he’s Reginald Duchenne the third. And Chip because—”
“Oh, I get it. Chip off the old block. Presumably he’s someone the second.”
I clear my throat again, choking back laughter. “Actually the fourth.”
Nick is just shaking his head. “Wow, it’s like the douche canoe in the douche bag.”
“Or those chipmunks from Disney.”
Laughing, Nick brushes another kiss on my temple.
I ignore the heat that spirals through me at his action.
But let’s be honest. All those “innocent” touches and little kisses have completely saturated my panties and I’m surprised my nipples haven’t drilled holes through my lace bralette. I know everything from Nick is just for show. He’s designated himself my protector for this vacation and definitely has something he wants to prove.
It does seem that people are beginning to notice though. Especially since Tripp is glancing over at us.
When he catches me looking back, he starts guiltily, visibly gathers his composure, then gives me a polite nod.
“I guess with a name like that, he and I were never going to work out.” I sigh. “He’s not a bad guy though.”
“Just to be clear.” Nick’s voice is suddenly ice cold. “He slept with another woman when he was still with you. He’s not a good guy.”
I don’t want to be in a position of having to defend Tripp, because, yeah, what he did was in-fucking-excusable. If he didn’t want to be with me, he should have had the balls to just tell me and end it.
Still, I try to explain. “Oh, we got along. He liked me. Maybe he even loved me. At least, he said he did. I think mostly he loved the idea of what we could be together. I think we both did. I was what he thought he wanted, but I was never going to be who he actually wanted. I was never going to be someone like Delany. Someone who would stroke his ego and hang on his every word.”
“Some guys need that,” Nick says quietly. “Some guys don’t have the balls to stand on their own. To stand beside someone else who is just as strong as they are or maybe even stronger. But that’s a shit way to go through life.”
I study him, this strong, kind man who’s become my friend over the past few years. I know Nick, but I’m still surprised by his attitude, because I also know the kind of arrogance it takes to make it through BUD/S. To be a SEAL.
He glances down at me, and must seen the question in my gaze, and quirks a brow.
“That is … unexpectedly humble,” I admit.
He just shrugs, like it’s no big deal. “You can’t have that attitude on the team. I know what I’m good at. I know what the rest of the team is good at. None of us is the best at everything. That’s why it takes sixteen of us to get the job done.”
There’s something in the quiet, steely strength of his that soothes me in ways I didn’t even know I needed soothing. That brings me peace I didn’t know I needed.
“I’m glad you’re on my brother’s team. I’m glad you have his back.”
I know there are no guarantees in the SEALs. I know bad things sometimes happen to good people. I mean, that happens in real life, right? But in the SEAls? Heading in and out of war zones? Doing all the shit they do that no mere mortal men can do?
Yeah. There are no guarantees.
I get that. Even if I didn’t get it when I was younger, I certainly do since Wade’s accident. Wade, at six years older than me, was always the more reticent of my brothers. Maybe it’s because I’m the youngest, or maybe it’s because I’m girl. I’m not sure which, but there was always a distance between us. He was stern, serious. Thoughtful.
Since he lost his legs, all of that focus and intensity has morphed into a walled-off silence I don’t know how to breach or if anyone ever will.
But, despite all that, despite the hardship he’s already faced and that he’ll continue to face, I also know that he’s alive today because other members of his team dragged him out of there and kept him alive. So, yeah, I’m glad his team had his back. And I’m glad Remy has Nick with him, looking out for him.
And I can’t help but wish I had Nick, too.
Almost as if he can read my mind, he says, “You know I’ve got your back too, right?”
His words, plus the expression in his gaze, the intensity in those whisky brown eyes of his … all of it. It hits me like a punch to the chest.
I can’t breathe when he looks at me like that. I can’t think. I can’t speak.
All I know is that I want to give myself over to him completely. I want to lose myself in him.
