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“You’re a SEAL? Or did the bell a-come ringing?”
“I’m a SEAL, sir. I was.”
“And then what? You became a shark?” He laughs so loudly, and suddenly, I almost leap back on instinct. “There’s no need for the weeping. I’ll come out the other side.”
“Still, I’d like to give you a ride if you’ll accept.”
I glance at Katy, realizing I haven’t even asked her permission, but she’s smiling, beaming from ear to ear. “Please, Eli. This is just silly.”
Eli sighs. “Only because you insist.”
I nod and exchange a smile with Katy. Then Jackal does something very strange. He’s in his done position. I was on a job once that turned ugly—gunshots, yelling—and I came running from the building, bleeding from a wound in the arm, and he was there at his post. Trembling, salivating, desperate to help, but loyally sitting where he should’ve been.
Now, without command, he stands and walks up to Katy, nuzzling her leg. I watch in awe, my heartbeat sending warm waves through my whole body, as he whines like a pup and rubs himself against her leg. She reaches down, stroking him on top of the head. He opens his mouth, grinning, wagging his tail.
“Is the brain firing fluidly, captain?” Eli says, clapping me on the arm with surprising strength.
“Uh, yes, Eli,” I say quietly, watching my dog and my lady, knowing this is a sign. It has to be.
“Shotgun,” Eli calls as we approach my car.
“This is your car?” Katy says from beside me, Jackal still at her side. She beams up at me with that gorgeous flush on her cheeks. “It’s like a tank.”
I smirk. “That’s the point.”
She lowers her voice. “Are you in danger often?”
“No,” I tell her quickly. “In fact, I could go the rest of my life without ever being in danger. It’s only when I put myself there.”
She nods, raises her hand, then glances at Eli, struggling to open the passenger-side door. It takes everything not to sweep Katy into my arms and kiss her. I open the door for Eli and help him up.
“Me and you in the back, yeah, Jackal?” Katy says, stroking him again.
He follows her, tail wagging so much his butt is shaking from side to side. He shoots me his puppy eyes as if daring me to get in the way of his new friendship. I grin and raise my hands.
“What are you saying to him?” Katy asks.
“I’m with him alone so much, so I think I can talk to him.”
“Hey, he seems to understand. So…”
I close the door on Eli, then step forward, inches from Katy. I can smell her perfume, and then, beneath it all, just her. She awakens my primal urgency again, the drive to claim her.
“I was telling him he didn’t need to be ashamed of his behavior.”
Katy laughs, stroking him under the chin. “Like a dog?”
“He never acts like this with anybody. He’s so well-trained. It’s a miracle he went to you without my permission. A miracle.”
Katy leans in. I lean in. There’s an air of danger to it as our lips meet, briefly, but all the hotter and more urgent for how quickly it happens. She puts her hand on my chest and glances at the car. “I shouldn’t have done that. Eli might tell my mom.”
“It doesn’t bother me if she knows,” I say. “Anyway, a mother should know her daughter’s boyfriend.”
Katy gasps and bites her lip. It’s red from our kissing and the previous biting. “How can we be… that? This is the second time we’ve met.”
“True, but it doesn’t feel like that. I feel like I know you.”
Careful.
She nods, emotion entering her eyes. “I feel exactly the same.”
Eli pounds on the window. “Are we going, or are we going?”
Katy laughs. I open the car door for her, offering my hand. She squeezes it tightly, sending warmth up my arm and chest. She climbs into the car, and Jackal happily jumps up after her.
“Do you know the address?” I ask Eli once I’m in the driver’s seat.
He drums his fingers on the dashboard. “Board. Hoard. Sword. Core. Lore. Abhor. Floor. Door. Dour. Dour! The Dour Vendor. No, that’s not it. Pawn-N-Grits, that’s it. I have the address written down.”
Unfortunately, he speaks in the disjointed way I recognize in some of my old military buddies. But his mind is failing through long years, not explosions or concussions. He pats down his pockets and produces a small slip of paper. “Will this do?” he asks, almost desperately.
I take it and read the address. “Looks good to me.”
He breathes a sigh of relief and slumps back in the chair. In the rearview, I see Katy buckling Jackal into the seat without me even needing to ask. She catches my eye and smiles, and I smile back. It feels good. It feels like we’re a couple already.
