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“Thanks.” Mia gazed down at the ring adorning her finger and then closed the box, tucking it inside that massive thing she called a bag. He could have packed the contents of his deployment duffel in there. He had no idea what it was with women and their purses, but Dani always had a similar oversize suitcase hanging off her shoulder.
“No problem.” There was a moment of awkward silence, as if they both knew engagement rings required some kind of conversation. Probably he should have hit Cal and Daeg up for tips, although the pair would have teased him for the next twenty years or so.
“So,” she said, pointing to his phone. The diamonds in her ring flashed, and he almost thought she was sneaking peeks at the band. But that wasn’t Mia. Other than the handbag and the terrible taste in cocktails, she didn’t have a girly bone in her body. That was why this thing between them worked so well. “Work crisis?”
“My CO.” He didn’t want to go into the details, but, fortunately, Mia already knew the drill. After all, she’d been the one shipping out for years.
“Pickup details?”
“Yeah.” He could practically hear an invisible clock ticking down his remaining hours. Whatever this thing was with Mia, it was almost over. His replacement for Deep Dive would be arriving any day now, and he’d all but wrapped it up here. Restless, he got up and wandered out to the alley, where Daeg was rinsing off dive equipment. He had no idea what Cal was doing, but it seemed to involve leaning against the wall, watching Daeg work.
Cal looked up when he came out. “We got your replacement lined up. Sam Black will be here by Monday.”
He’d bring the guy up to speed, then he’d turn in his keys to his landlord and board the ferry. Packing would be a ten-minute job, since he’d pretty much been living out of a single duffel bag.
Daeg dropped a load of fins into the tank. “Did Dr. Dolittle find homes for all of his animal companions?”
Cal’s mother was taking the rabbit, and one of his sisters had fallen for Beauregard. Love at first sight, or so she’d claimed. The cat would be in good hands. The dogs...well, it turned out that Dani had a soft spot for them.
He flipped Daeg a two-fingered salute. “Congratulations. You’re now the proud papa of a boxer and a Chihuahua.”
In answer, Daeg turned the hose on him. “You need to stop rescuing so many damned animals or you’re never leaving the island.”
“People,” Cal said. “That’s his real problem. He rescues them, and then, two legs or four legs, he gets attached.”
“Duly noted.” Although rescuing Mia hadn’t exactly been a hardship.
“So, you’re good to go,” Cal said.
Right. Good to go. His CO had tapped him for mission-critical work. Had offered him a chance to make a damned difference in the world. Mia knew where they stood, and he’d shipped out dozens of times before. This time shouldn’t have felt any different. Shouldn’t have been different.
“Yeah. I’m ready to hit the road,” he agreed. Funny, though, how his head knew leaving was the right thing to do, but his heart hadn’t quite gotten the message.
14
SOMEONE HAD ORDERED Tag a stack of extremely sexy “Billionaire Boss” books. Although Cal and Daeg had enjoyed the joke—and he now knew better than to open any package he hadn’t ordered himself—Tag was pretty sure he was sleeping with the culprit. He’d taken them back to his place, flipped through the first pages of one, and somehow the next thing he’d known, it had been dark o’clock outside and Beauregard was acting like he hadn’t been fed in at least one century. Or possibly two.
To show his appreciation, he’d marked the best spots with Post-it notes and considered depositing the stack on Mia’s desk. Turnabout was only fair, after all. But...holy. Hell. Reading those steamy page-turners had definitely broadened his horizons, which was undoubtedly the reason he was standing on her front porch with the books tucked under his arm.
“You sent me a present,” he said, when she opened the door. From somewhere inside the cottage, he heard the sound of running water. Apparently, he’d interrupted her en route to the shower.
“I might have and I’m glad to see you, too.” She smiled up at him, and he looked down at her mouth. The sweet curve of her throat. Her breasts where they peeked out above her black tank top. He’d seen her naked more than once, but he couldn’t imagine the day he’d get tired of unwrapping her.
