Page 49 of A SEAL's Fantasy


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Somehow, his words made it easier. Pulling her bad attitude around her like a protective cloak, Lara shrugged.

“Like I said...goodbye.”

Feeling ancient, every step filled with pain, she walked around him and out the doors.

It was like getting dumped twice.

12

LARA LOOKED UP from her plate of French fries and sighed.

“Seriously?” she asked, too exhausted to even sound angry.

“Looks like,” Phillip said as he slid into the booth opposite her. He was in civilian clothes, which probably accounted for why she’d been able to eat in peace for as long as she had.

“How’d you find me? Some secret SEAL tracking technique?” Lara leaned back in the cracked vinyl booth, laying one hand on her laptop. “Did Castillo install a GPS somewhere?”

“Nah. I just hit all the McDonald’s in walking distance until I found you.”

Lara couldn’t stop her smile as a hint of pleasure made its way through her misery.

“Old habits,” she said with a shrug.

As a vegetarian and a dancer, she’d lived on health food most of her life. So she’d always headed for junk food when she was upset. Phillip had found her at one when she’d run away at thirteen, at another after a disastrous country club dance when her date had dumped her for not putting out.

Lara was pretty sure the only times she and her brother had ever had anything that resembled personal conversations were that one Christmas and at McDonald’s.

Sighing, she slid a fry-covered tray to the middle of the table as a peace offering.

“Why are you here? Did Castillo guilt you or something?”

A fry halfway to his mouth, he gave her a look that was part confusion, part amusement.

“What do I have to feel guilty about?”

“Nothing.” She swiped a fry through the ketchup pool before pointing it at him. “Which is my point. But why else would you be here?”

“Castillo said I owed you some money,” he told her, not looking as though the fact bothered him.

“Oh,” she said, glancing down at the tray again.

It suddenly bothered Lara, though. It’d been one thing to joke about it with Castillo. It was another to sit in front of Phillip feeling like a charity case.

Then again, beggars and choosers were in vastly different categories.

“Hey, I realize it’s not my place. And I’m honestly not even sure why I’m asking....” Phillip grimaced, clearly not happy.

Whether it was the question he was not happy to ask, or simply having to talk with her, Lara didn’t know. Not feeling nearly as friendly anymore, she pulled the tray back to her side of the table.

His lips twitched, so he clearly got the message. But being Phillip, he ignored it. God forbid something like emotions get in the way of him doing what he saw as his duty.

“Believe me, I’m as unhappy asking as you will be answering. But right is right,” he said, giving the table a careful look before he laid his forearms on it and leaned forward. “Are you sure you want to walk out on him? He seems to genuinely care about you. And I know you wouldn’t have stayed here sharing a hotel room if you didn’t care about him.”

“He messed with my life,” she said.

“And?”

Fury flashed in Lara’s chest, so hot it was hard to breathe. She leaned forward so she was halfway across the table and got in her brother’s face.

“I’m not some guy’s project. A fun little sideline to make him feel righteous and manly while he fixes what he sees as the problems with my life. If I want changes in my life, I’m the one making them. I’ll be damned if some guy is going to call my shots.”

Phillip pulled a considering face, then slowly nodded.

Good. Lara leaned back, trying to even out her breathing.

Discussion finished, he could give her the money and this whole farce of a family reunion   would be over.

“But here’s the thing...”

Lara dropped her face into her hands and groaned.

“I’m not close to the guy, nor have I spent time with him outside of duty. But I wouldn’t classify Castillo as the kind of person who looks for reasons to feel righteous.” Phillip grimaced again. “If you ask me, he’s already got plenty of those. His ego and his sense of worth are considerable.”

Lara lifted her head just enough to peek over her fingers.

“Are you saying you think Dominic is a conceited know-it-all?” she asked slowly.

Phillip frowned for a second, then nodded.

“Yeah, pretty much. Which is why he clearly doesn’t need, nor would he go looking for, a project of any kind.”

“And yet, despite my saying not to, he brought you to see me. He tries to get me to take a job that’s totally outside my field and that I’d hate. Hell, he’s even offering up fashion advice.” Lara threw her hands in the air. “I’d say that has all the earmarks of a righteous project.”

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