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Lauren shrugged. “They’re almost as good as any SEAL.”
“Then,” Abby murmured, “he’s got to know how to swim.”
Sky saw Lauren make a prudish face. There was no question in her mind that Alex got under her skin, and she didn’t know what to do about it. She hid a smile and said nothing.
It was late afternoon when all the ex-SEALs in the dive boat shed their gear, their wetsuits, twin oxygen tanks, and harnesses, and headed back into San Diego harbor. Cal sat with Alex in the back, both of them slugging down a well-earned cold beer. Joe, Jack Driscoll, and a few other guys from Shield were at the bow of the boat, drinking beer as well.
Alex pushed his damp black hair off his brow and gave Cal a grin. “Lots of abalone steaks for tonight, eh?”
Cal nodded and gestured toward the huge ice chest where the abalone had been quickly separated from their rainbow shells and chilled. “The girls are going to be happy. Though Abby wasn’t sure about eating one.”
“Oh? Joe’s wife?”
“Yeah,” Cal said, “she’s West Virginia Hill people, and they don’t eat a whole lot of shellfish or ocean-going vittles. Frogs and fresh-water fish are okay, though.”
Alex grinned. “And what about Sky?”
Groaning, Cal muttered, “The jury is out on that one. She hates oysters, so I don’t know how she’s going to react to eating abalone.”
Alex wore a pair of faded Bermuda-style blue swim trunks that hung nearly to his knees. Like Cal, he was naked from the waist up, eagerly absorbing the hot sun’s rays. “And Lauren?”
“Ask her yourself.”
“What? And get killed at twenty yards with her drop-dead stare?”
“That bad, huh?” Cal took pity on him when he let his game face drop for a moment. “Look, you shouldn’t have shown up with a bouquet of roses on the shooting range where she was the instructor.”
“But you said red roses and a box of chocolates always fixed it with an American woman.”
Cal grimaced. “There’s a time and place for that, Alex. Not in your workplace and certainly not on a shooting range where you had to qualify that morning.”
“These American rules to get a woman to notice you are very, very strange,” he muttered, his black brows dropping.
“Yeah,” Cal commiserated, “it’s a long, tough ordeal, believe me.”
“Did you have to chase Sky like that?”
Cal chuckled. “Hell yes. She ran the moment she could get away from me. I didn’t even get a chance to give her roses or a box of chocolates.”
Straightening and throwing his broad, thick shoulders back, Alex growled, “But you caught her, without them?”
Cal remained patient. He felt sorry for Alex, who was obviously so damned in lust with Lauren that he couldn’t think straight. “I didn’t catch Sky. I did go to her, but I left the door open as to whether she was going to let me stay in her life or not. She made that decision.”
“Then, she was a smart woman to let you stay,” Alex said, gesturing as the boat gently rocked in the waves. “Look at her now. She is very happy with you. Everyone can see that.” He snorted. “I would like to see that look on Lauren’s face when she looks at me.”
Grimacing, Cal tried to put things gently to Alex. “Look, you need to chill out. Give her room. Don’t keep pressing her, Alex. All she’s going to do is round on you.” Cal scowled. “And I saw Lauren in a bar fight once. You DON’T want to goad or crowd her. She will respond.”
“Really? She was in a bar fight?”
“Yeah, a long time ago.”
“And you were there?”
Squirming, Cal said, “It was in a canteen at a black ops camp in Afghanistan. We’d hooked up with Marine Force Recons and Lauren was one of their snipers. The op was successful, so when we all flew back in a Chinook to Bagram Air Base, we went to one of the bars and got stinking drunk. An Army doggie type saw Lauren knocking back whiskey with us and started getting nasty with her. One of the Marines tried to tell the guy to shut the fuck up, but he was drunker than hell. When he called Lauren a bitch, she came over and took a swing, broke his nose, and sent him flying six feet from the table he was sitting at.”
“Impressive,” Alex said, his voice admiring.
“Hell, it got us into a brawl,” Cal growled. “The SEALs cleaned it up and the Army dudes went slinking out out of the bar with their tails tucked between their legs.” He grinned a little. “Lauren made a good account of herself. We made her an honorary SEAL, which she accepted.”
