Code Name: Nina's Choice (Warrior's Challenge) (18 page)

“Nah.”
Slowly he raised his other hand and
brushed her lip with his thumb. “It’s not. Nothing you do is stupid. I know you
love him. The fact that I’ve been infatuated with you from the beginning is
just white noise.
You and Mace are meant for each
other. I’m just jealous, which makes me the dick I am.”

She wrapped a hand
around his neck and smiled at him. “You have a heart of gold, you know that?
All of you do. You always look so tough on the outside, but there’s a l
ittle piece of wonderful inside each of you.”

Tony’s brows shot
together with indecision. “What kind of an asshole falls in love with his best
friend’s girl?”

“You’re not an
asshole.” She popped a kiss on his cheek. “Forget it.” She tried to back away,
but
he stopped her and drew her into his arms.

“He’s one lucky
bastard, and you’re going to owe me big time for this. Now, tell me your plan.”

Chapter Eleven

Nina gripped the edge
of a big box and tugged on it. “Some three-hundred-pound heavyweight must
have packed these things,” she grumbled as something large
threw a shadow across the tail of the truck. Massive arms stretched around her
and gripped the box.

“Stand down, Ms.
Samson, you’ll give yourself a hernia,” Ghost said, sliding it off the moving
tr
uck like it was a paperweight.

“Captain Austen! What
are you doing here?”

“Getting
out of the line of fire.
That woman of mine has a mouth like a sailor when she’s
pissed.” He chuckled. “These days everything is my fault.”

Lieutenant Cobbs
appeared on the
other side of Nina. “Get used to it,
Ghost. Just say, ‘Yes, Dear.’” Cobbs set a box on the ground. “She’s got a
mouth like a sailor cuz she lives with one.”

Ghost gave his best
friend a crank of his head and a disapproving glare,
then
grunted. “She’s littl
e, but I
think I’m scared of her, and she’s got a good aim when she’s pissed.”

“What did you do this
time?” Cobbs asked.

“Dragged her kicking
and screaming all the way to the psychologist’s office.” He leaned the box
against his thigh. “I didn’t have to si
t on her to
keep her there, but my skin was black with the burning looks she kept firing my
way. She’s probably throwing darts at my picture right now.”

“Hey, Captain.” Fox,
the squad’s Master Chief, came around the side of the truck.

Ghost gave him a nod.
“Thought it might be wise to clear out and give you a hand
moving, Nina.”

“Uh-huh, and then I’m
supposed to call her and calm her down, right?” Nina lifted her brow.

“Wouldn’t
hurt.”
Ghost’s cheeks tightened with a grin.

“Well, thanks for
helping even tho
ugh you are taking cover. I could use
it. I didn’t think I’d collected so much stuff.”

“Is this the load from
Canada?” Ghost asked.

Nina brushed her
forehead with her arm. “It is. Thankfully, everyone’s here. The entire squad
and their wives came to help.”

She stepped out of
Ghost’s way and surveyed her new home. Small, dated, but the family had already
been transferred to Virginia so she signed on the dotted line and took
immediate possession. The middle of September was hot as the sun arched
downward in t
he sky. There were only a few more boxes
left and her couch. Thank God.

Ghost returned and
heaved himself onto the truck with Mace right behind him. “Mace, grab an end.”

With everyone’s help,
the truck emptied. Within an hour she’d found the barbeque and h
ad steaks ready to grill. Tony returned with a few cases of
cold beer and transferred them to the fridge.

Naomi, Caleb’s wife,
Kate, Fox’s wife, Shelly, Clay’s wife and Marg, Cobbs’ wife helped her in the
kitchen. They whipped up some salads, and threw som
e
potatoes in the oven to bake while they chatted.

“This house is a
perfect size for you and your daughter,” Marg said, leaning on the counter.
“It’s gonna take some updating, but it’s cute.”

“Thanks, Marg.” She
pulled a bowl from a box, gave it a swish un
der the
tap and dumped a bag of mixed greens into it. “Mom and Dad are gathering up
Gabbs’ stuff, and she’ll be here next week. She’s a little late joining her
classmates, but I couldn’t take the chance of bringing her here while the Shark
was still around
.”

“Kelsey can’t wait to
meet her,” Marg said. “They’re going to the same school.”

Naomi handed their son
off to Caleb. “Make yourself useful, SEAL.”

“Yes,
ma’am.”
His son giggled at him, and tried to wrap a chubby little fist around his nose.

Mace stood on the deck
forking the steaks onto the grill with the rest of the guys flanking him. The
newest addition to Alpha Squad, Ed Saxton, arrived a couple weeks ago. The guys
called him Cracker, but the name came with him from the East Coast teams he
’d served with before transferring to Alpha Squad. Nina
guessed he was in his late twenties. The guy wasn’t married, but finding a girl
wouldn’t be hard for the long, lean drink of blond water with deep brown eyes.
He’d gravitated to Tinman and Tadpole, pr
obably
because they were bachelors and knew the club scene. She hadn’t had a chance to
really talk to him. In a way he was unique, most SEALs were on the bold side.
Ed seemed a little withdrawn. Polite but quiet, he had a southern gentleman’s
drawl.

“So,
I noticed we didn’t move any of Mace’s boxes in here,”
Naomi said with a questioning look bringing Nina’s attention back to the
kitchen. Marg nudged Naomi.

“Did you ladies live
on your own before you got married?”

All the women nodded.

“I didn’t. I was jus
t in the process of moving out when I got pregnant with my
daughter. It was easier living with Mom and Dad.” Slicing the radishes, she
contemplated why she needed to stand on her own before letting Mace move in. “I
don’t know
,
I just feel I have to stumble
around on my own two feet for a while.”

“I get it.” Marg
rolled a beer bottle between her hands. “I heard through the grapevine your
parents are kind of like mine.”

Nina cocked her head.

“Money.”

Nina paused. “Uh,
well, yeah, I guess. They’re not hurting.
”

“I couldn’t wait to
move out,” Marg said. “I’d already had a good contract with a modeling agency
and could pay my own bills. I had to get the heck out. Dad kept bringing home
my future husbands for dinner. Guys
in
suits
who wanted to suck up big time.
Ugh!” She drew a
carrot from the salad bowl and munched on it. “I moved here to San Diego, which
was too far away for a fly-by harassment session from my mom.”

“They must have loved
Lieutenant Cobbs,” Nina commented.

Marg snorted.
“Yeah, right.
I could hav
e
told them I had cancer and they would have been happier. I love my parents, but
they’re snobs. Correction, they were snobs.”

“Gave him a bad time,
huh?” Nina added a tomato on top of the lettuce and drizzled ranch dressing
over the top.

“Yeah, I’d say. I
brought Pat home for dinner to meet them and you would
have thought he was tracking dog shit all over their expensive carpets.”

“What happened?” Naomi
asked.

“That night was a
disaster. Not only were they being jerks, but my dad brought another wannabe wi
th him from work. The guy’s family had money and he wanted
a trophy wife. If you think marrying off your daughter like chattel disappeared
a couple hundred years ago, think again.”

“Momma?”
Kelsey ran into the kitchen. Marg
turned her attention to her five
-year-old daughter.
“Where’s Daddy?”

“He’s—where is Pat?”
She looked around and saw him and Ghost talking on the small front lawn. “He’s
with Uncle Thane out front, baby.”

Kelsey ran for the
front door.

“Anyway, I lost Pat
that night. He walked away from m
e, from us.”

“Seriously?”
Nina reached in the fridge and plopped
four more beers for the girls on the counter.

Marg nodded. “Yup, he
said we came from two different worlds, my parents were the straw that broke
the camel’s back. It was the attention I was g
etting
because I’d landed a big contract with Estole Magazine. I got the cover and it
kinda poll vaulted my career. Pat thought he was doing the right thing by
setting me adrift.”

“Obviously, you didn’t
listen.”

“No, I didn’t, but
just when I thought we we
re going to patch things up
he got deployed for seven months. He walked away telling me to move on. That it
was really over between us. I cried a lot. I was scared shitless he wouldn’t
come home. Guys who wanted to date a supermodel came banging on my door
and I slammed it in every face. I tried a couple times,
but they were two-dimensional. I needed Pat’s depth. He was so real.
So deep.
No one affected me like him.”

“I can’t imagine
Lieutenant Cobbs being insecure, but it sounds like he was.” Nina said. Al
l the ladies leaned in listening. “What changed his mind?”

Marg’s brows lifted
and she fingered a radish. “It wasn’t only my parents and my career.”

The girls waited.

“I was only eighteen
when I moved to San Diego. I went to this bar and was partying one
night.” She cleared her throat. “I didn’t meet Pat first. I
met Thane.” Marg scattered a look across all their faces.

Nina felt a little
squeeze on her “ruh-roh” bone. “You didn’t…”

“Yeah, we did.”

“Holy shit, does Kayla
know?” Nina asked.

Marg nodded. “Sh
e does. Pat told her.”

Nina scratched her
temple and said, “So, Lieutenant Cobbs thought you had a thing for Ghost?”

Marg sighed. “I guess
I did for one night.” She gave them a wicked grin. “Kayla’s a lucky woman, let
me tell ya.”

They all burst out
laughi
ng.

“Seriously, when I saw
Pat for the first time, I literally felt my knees weaken. My heart nearly
exploded it beat so hard.”

“He obviously came
around,” Nina said, grinning.

“He did.” She smiled
to herself. “Sometimes a woman just has to go all—Navy SEA
L on a SEAL to get him to listen, and that’s what I did. I
dared him to love me for the rest of our lives.” Marg shook her head. “Nina, I
know you’re aware of this already, but there have been a lot of years of worry
and fear. You do a lot on your own bein
g the wife of
a SEAL. I guess that’s why we girls are all so close.” Marg set her eyes on
Nina. “But it’s worth it, you know? When he’s home, it’s all worth it.”

Naomi, Kate and Shelly
nodded. “Amen,” Kate said.

* * * *

Nina’s moving party
sat around wit
h happy bellies as she tuned into their
conversations. Mace reached for her hand. “You okay?”

“Sure, just tired.”

He leaned over and
planted one on her. “Did you call Kayla?”

“She says she’s not
feeling very good. The baby is doing the salsa in her belly,
so she just wants to rest.”

Ghost stood up and all
eyes rose to him.
“Thought I’d take
a second to congratulate you on your new home, Nina.”