Code Name: Nina's Choice (Warrior's Challenge) (22 page)

“Team Seven wives,”
Marg said, joining them. “Okay, lay it on the table, because your color still
hasn’t come back, Nina.”

Kayla fo
rked her fingers and settled back to listen. Nina hated
when she did that because she knew Kayla was going to analyze the shit out of
her. What pissed her off more was she was usually right.

“Wade came into town
in a cross-border exercise. DND, Navy, Coast
Guard,
Reserves, Marines, everyone converged in Victoria for a Canadian-U.S.
co-operative week long exercise. We met on the first night, when they had a
party. A socialization ball, I think some asshat decided to call it. Anyway, we
hooked up.” She shrugg
ed. “He left town. I found out
I was pregnant. That’s it.”

“Did you try to find
him?” Marg asked, taking the beers from the waitress and pushing one toward
Nina.

“Not really. I was
five weeks pregnant when I figured it out, and Wade mentioned he was about
to be deployed for seven months overseas. A year passed,
then
another,
and I just accepted the fact I’d never
see him again.” She forked her fingers and covered her eyes. “I know this isn’t
the end of the world, but for some reason it feels like it is.”

“N
ina,” Kayla began.

She dropped her hands,
and flopped back in the chair, waiting.

“You may not see him
again for another eight years.”

She shook her head.
“He knew. He knew Gabriella is his. Our relationship was complete animal
attraction. We didn’t talk m
uch, but he’d told me his
mother’s name was Gabriella. I loved it, that’s why I named her that.”

“She’s got your eyes,
your hair, and your spirit,” Kayla said, stretching her hands across the table
and grasping hers.

“But she’s got his
chin, and his nose.”
She swallowed heavily. “What if
he wants to be in her life?”

“Then you’ll let him,
Nina.” Kayla lowered her head. “He is Gabbs’ father. He never got the chance to
stay or walk away because he didn’t know. He might want to get to know his
daughter. He
might run for the hills. Wait and see.”

Marg grabbed her arm.
“I agree. I didn’t see a ring on his finger, but that doesn’t mean anything. He
might have a family, and this could drop a huge shit bomb in his life too.
Kayla’s right, wait and see.”

* * * *

The internal phone
line rang. “Yes, Captain Redding,” Nina answered, checking the time on the
large clock in Base Command.

“You have a visitor,
Nina.”

“Sir?”

“A Lieutenant Cayson
needs to speak with you. He’s in the lobby.”

“Yes, sir, I’ll be out
in a mom
ent.”

Wait and see. Shit.
It had only been two frickin’ days.
“John, I need to step out for a
minute.”

John gave her a wave
from across the room. “Wait and see,” she muttered to herself as she crossed
the ops room, and yanked the heavy anteroom door open.
Before walking through it, she inhaled deeply. Guess she was about to
see.

Wade swept his cap off
when she turned the corner and stopped in front of the admin desk. Her heart
hammered at a million paces per second. He stood in his work uniform, crisply
iro
ned, perfectly fit, his streamlined features
framed with jet black hair as his green eyes settled on her.

“Wade.”

A slow, heart-melting
smile grew on his lips. From behind his back he revealed a bouquet of flowers.
“Nina. I thought maybe you’d join me for
lunch. I,
ah—well, thought we could talk. Get to know each other again.”

Crap
. Okay, move to plan ‘B’. She took the
flowers and offered a stiff smile. “Thank you.” Maybe he would head for the
hills when he knew Gabriella was his, and that would be fine wit
h her. “I can’t really leave right now.” She’d only had the
sentence half out of her mouth when he brushed past her, and placed himself in
Captain Redding’s doorway.

“Captain
Redding, hello.
I’m Lieutenant Wade Cayson.”

She heard Captain
Redding acknowledg
e him and worse yet, so did Admiral
Austen. Why the hell did he have to be in the office?

“Admiral, would it be
permissible for me to take Ms. Samson for an hour?”

Say no, say no,
say
no!

She couldn’t make out
what Redding said, but the Admiral’s voice was
n’t
hard to miss.
“In regards to what,
Lieutenant?”

Atta boy, Ghost.

“I ran into Nina the
other day, we’re old friends. I just transferred here. I thought she might be
permitted to give me a tour.”

A long pause followed.

“Thank you, sir.”

The Admiral must
have nodded his approval.
Traitor
, she screamed in her head.

Wade turned and walked
back to her with a confident stride.
“After you.”

“Ha, well, I’ll get my
purse. Why don’t I meet you in the downstairs lobby?”

He nodded, his gaze
stalling on hers and then sliding down her body. “We don’t have to stay on the
base.” A warm reminiscent smile made her stomach flutter. “Why don’t you show
me where the best place on Coronado is to have lunch?
Maybe the Del?
I’m stayin
g
there for the next couple of days.”

Yes, they definitely
needed to talk, and it wouldn’t be before or post afternoon delight. “Sure.
It’s close. I can’t be gone longer than an hour.” She quickly turned and headed
back to the ops room. When she entered
,
she flung the flowers onto the nearest table and swept up her purse.
“Gone for a—meeting, John.
I’ll be back soon. You want me to pick
up something for you?”

John glanced at the
flowers on the desk and shook his head. “No
thanks,
brought my own.”

She stop
ped in the bathroom, did her business and leaned over the
counter toward the mirror.
Just great!
Bad enough he shows up, but with
flowers! She didn’t miss their new admin assistant hanging on every word
either.

She wasn’t like the
last slut they’d hired an
d fired after she’d tried to
play a good game of “save her own ass” while sacrificing Kayla and the
Admiral’s. Gail was in her thirties, homely as hell, and had a big fucking
mouth. She’d been around the base for a while, and had a huge gal pal group she
h
ung out with. They spent most of their time
bad-mouthing the other women on the base. Maybe if she dumped the Austin Powers
eyeglasses and went to a hair stylist
,
she’d get a date and stop being such a busybody.

Nina yanked the
bathroom door open and round
ed the corner. She
smacked more than pressed the down button on the elevator. Crossing her arms,
she waited. As she peered over her shoulder, Gail stared at her over
black-rimmed glasses.
Oh, hell no.
The elevator dinged to announce its
arrival. Nina took
the ten paces to Gail’s desk and
leaned over it. “Breathe one word of this to anyone, and you’re dead!”

Gail’s eye’s popped
open and her ugly glasses slid down her nose. With a finger she poked them in
the center, pushing them back into place.

“I mean it.”
Nina performed a perfect about-face and ran right into
Ghost’s chest. Jesus, the guy had a quiet footstep. She slowly turned her head
up and saw the famous SEAL’s expression of complete and utter disapproval. How
Kayla stood up to those eyes that could gu
t you in
second, she didn’t know.

“Going down,” he said
in an unusually low voice.

She swallowed and
nodded. Ghost followed her into the elevator. Until that moment she never
realized how interesting elevator walls were. Meanwhile, Ghost burned the top
lay
er of her skin off. “What, sir?” she said sharply.

“Was that Gabbs’
father?”

Shit
. She should have known Kayla would
share with her soon–to-be husband. She nodded.

“Have you seen him
since Seaport Village?”

She shook her head.
Kayla must have given him all
the details.

“Do you want me to get
rid of him?”

“No,
sir.
I’m going to tell him the truth, and then…” the elevator reached the bottom and
the doors slid open.

“Then
what, Nina?”
His expression softened.

She shook her head. “I
don’t know, Admiral. I reall
y don’t know.”

Chapter Fourteen

Ghost stepped out of
the elevator before her. He always let the ladies out first, a sure sign he was
going to take action. Sure enough
,
he angled straight toward Wade, who waited near the doors. Good thing she
wasn’t reserved like Kayla, and grabbed the back of the Admiral’s pants
,
which shocked him enough for her to rush past him.

“Okay, let’s go,” she
said, gripping Wade’s arm and pract
ically throwing
him through the front door. A backward glance proved her right as Ghost gave
her an icy glare. “Where ya parked?” she asked, pulling him along.

He chuckled.
“You in a rush?”
Wade asked, giving her the Playgirl
grin he should have packaged and sold for millions. He slid his arm around her
waist, and guided her toward the visitor’s parking lot. The rear lights flashed
on a silver Lexus, and he opened her door and waited until s
he was settled before getting in.

A quick drive around
the corner, and they were giving the keys to the valet at the Del. “Why don’t
we sit outside and enjoy the view?”

“Sure.” She let him
take her hand, and it felt familiar, but not. It also stabbed her w
ith guilt.

Settled, he wasn’t in
a rush to order, and laid the menu down. “I’m glad we ran into each other
again.”

She nodded and kept
her face half-hidden with the menu. What should she do? Dive right in and hope
he took cover?

“You seem nervous,” he
said
, giving her a friendly, but definitely sexy
smile. “I don’t remember you being that way.” His hands drew together as he
leaned forward. “But I do remember a lot.
Hard to forget, actually.”

“You knew where I
lived.” She dropped the menu and tagged her glas
s,
tipping it over. Wade grabbed it and set it up right before it poured water all
over the table.

“True, but we lived so
far apart and you seemed happy where you were. What changed?”

She tried to talk and
choked.
Water.
She grabbed the glass to clear her
dry throat. “Plenty,” she said after putting the glass
down. “I’m a mother now.”

He blinked and his
features softened. “Gabriella. She’s a beautiful little girl. She has your
amazing eyes, and your beautiful hair.” His words came out slowly and soothed
her
. Wade had an incredibly sexy voice.
A deep voice.
Back when they first met, she heard him
before she saw him. Her young hormones made her turn with curiosity. When she
did, he was staring right at her. Crazy sparks flew when she saw the handsome
man in th
e uniform. She’d thought she was immune to
them after working on the base for a while, but his cut jaw and alpha stare
made her legs weak. She’d never known what lust felt like until that moment.

“You’re not married?”
Come
on, be married or at least have a
long-time
girlfriend
.

“Married to the sea, I
suppose. I’ve been moving around every year for the last eight years.”

“Not happy in one
place?” She knew the regular Navy guys didn’t have to move that often. Why did
he move so much. She could start racking u
p asshole
points and that would give her just cause to make him keep his distance.

“I like new scenery.”
He lowered his chin with the smallest dimple and peered up at her. “But past
scenery is very attractive and interesting.”

“Are you ready to
order?”

“Gi
ve us a couple minutes,” Wade answered.
“And a bottle of Sauvignon.”
He didn’t even spare a glance at the
waiter. “You still like it, right?”

He remembered what she
drank? Crap. “I do.” She cleared her head. Who cares if he remembers stuff from
the past? “
Listen, I really never expected to see you
again.” She bit her lip.

“Me either, but I’ll
put it down to good fate.”

Frig
. “Wade, I’m seeing someone.”

He didn’t seem
put
off by her comment. “Serious?” He
leaned back, but never looked anywhere other than her
.
The ocean was nice, why didn’t he take an ogle break?

“Yes.”

“You live together.”

Damn, damn. “No. Not
yet,” she added quickly. “Mace and I decided Gabbs should get comfortable
living here first. She just arrived. I’m still unpacking boxes and moving int
o my place.”

“House?”

“Ah, yes. I bought a
little place on E Avenue. It’s small, but it has a backyard. Gabbs has wanted a
dog forever. She’s been living with my parents and they aren’t into having
animals around. I was thinking of getting her one.”

“How a
re your parents? Your father is a neurosurgeon if I
remember correctly.”

“They’re fine.”

Wade’s thumb caressed
the handle of his spoon. “Gabriella is a pretty name, why did you choose it?”

She let out a deep
breath, and stared at the ocean contemplating.

“She has your eyes,
but she has my chin, Nina.”

Her heart did a
galloping beat, and all four hooves dug into the dirt. She barely nodded. “She
does.” It came out as a whisper.

“Why didn’t you try to
find me?”

Her eyes darted to
his, and he looked hurt. Gui
lt niggled in her belly.
Had she made the wrong choice? A shrug wasn’t a very good answer. “It was just
a booty call. I came to terms with that when you didn’t come back. There was no
point. I wanted her, and I wanted to be a mother. My parents helped me a
nd my friend Kayla.”

Wade bowed his head.
“You’re probably not going to believe me, but I’ve thought about you a lot over
the years. I picked up the phone a bunch of times, but I had to remind myself
you lived in Canada, and I was here. Long distance relat
ionships rarely work, but…” He swallowed deeply. “That’s changed now. I
like San Diego, and my position here is one that I don’t have to transfer. If
you’re seeing someone, I suppose I should take a step back, even though
everything inside me says I should
do just the
opposite. I made a terrible mistake, and I want to make up for it. I’m sure
this is hard on you, but—I like children.” He picked up the menu, fiddling with
the edge. “Will you let me get to know my daughter?”

Oh fucking hell!
So much for runni
ng for the hills.
A hurdle in the road just grew to the
size of Mount Kilimanjaro. “Listen, Wade. Gabbs has asked about you. I’ve
avoided the question because she’s too young to explain what happened between
us. You have a right to know who she is, and she
has
a right to know who you are, but my concern is what you want? If it’s just a
quick fascination—”

He cut her off by
grasping her hand. “Nina, I’m a little off-center myself right now about this,
but the second I saw her I knew she was mine. I think ini
tially I was angry you didn’t find me, and let me do the
right thing. Not because I have to, but because I’ve never stopped thinking
about you. I wanted more the second we sailed out of Esquimalt Harbor. I felt
like I’d left someone very important behind.”

“How am I supposed to
explain you to a little eight–year-old girl?”

“Let me do it.”

Nina eyed him. “Why?”

“I’ll take the blame.
I’ll explain it. We made a beautiful child together, and although you think you
don’t want me in your life, I’d like to know Ga
briella.
I spent a long time moving around, feeling like no place was home. That’s
changed. It did the second I saw you again, but I’m certain now that I know
Gabriella is my daughter.” A trophy smile spread across his face.

Nina licked her dry
lips and re
ached for the wine. “Okay, Wade, but we
take it slow.
On my terms.
Agreed?” Wade cast one of his
knee-crippling smiles.

“Anything that pleases
you pleases me, Nina. That hasn’t changed either.”

* * * *

“Is that what I think
it is?” Tony asked as he joine
d Mace on the patio at
Breakers. Before Mace could hide it in his pocket Tony snatched it from his
hand and popped the top.
“Holy
shit.
It is.” He turned the box and showed it to the rest of the
squad who settled down around the table.

“Here
comes
the boss
men,”
Ditz said, shunting his chair to the right to make room.

Cobbs and Ghost cut
through the tables and appeared on the patio, zeroing in on their position at
the same time.

“Gentlemen,” Ghost
greeted, sitting down with a big sigh of relief.

“Sir, if you
don’t mind me saying, you look like shit.” Fox broke out
laughing.

Ghost nodded. “Adam
isn’t sleeping well at night. On the other hand Kayla is sleeping like a log,
so I get the night shift.” He dropped his head back and closed his eyes. “Carry
on,” he mu
mbled. “I think I’m going to have a nap.”

Cobbs chuckled and
said, “I don’t feel fucking sorry for you one bit, buddy.”

Fox pulled the box out
of Tony’s hand and shot it down the table. “You’re gonna wanna see this before
naptime, Admiral.”

Ghost’s head po
pped up, and he snatched it, lifting it in the air and
cracked it open for a look. His expression darkened, and he glanced at Mace. “I
thought you and Nina were taking things slow?”

Why the hell would he
say that?
“Yes, sir, for Gabbs’
sake.
She’s getting
settled in school and the new house. I
kept my place, but I’m there most nights for dinner at least. We’ve been doing
a tap dance around this topic for a while. I want to make it permanent. Tonight
I’m going to take the big plunge.”

Ghost glanced at the
ri
ng, and snapped the box closed. Turning it in his
fingers, he deliberated. “I see.”

 
Only Ghost could serve up a
gut-shriveling dose of disapproval with his eyes, and it had the desired
effect. What the hell? Ghost liked Nina. He was getting married himself. Maybe
sleep deprivation was making him
a
little nuts
. “Can Kayla babysit tonight?
”

“We have a dinner with
Admiral Timmins tonight. Marg is babysitting.” He pushed the ring box toward
him. “What’s the rush, Mace? You and Nina have only known each other for a
short while.”

“Sir?”
Short while?
Mace scanned the squad for answers.
Everyone
sensed Ghost’s reservations, and no one was
going to question them. It had been bad enough Nina had wanted to move into her
new place without him. He’d promised he would fit into her life, not try to
make them fit into his. “I thought you guys might be a l
ittle happy for me?” He settled back in the chair. These guys were like
his brothers. With a shrug of disgust, not to mention confusion, he said, “I
don’t get it, Admiral. You’re acting like I said I was quitting the team.”

Ghost rubbed his face
with both
hands and gnawed the inside of his cheek.
He glanced at the other guys. “I’m happy for you, Mace. Nina is a wonderful
woman.”

It came out as flat as
a pancake. Thick air wavered between them. “Sir, with all due respect, if
there’s something I need to know,
spill
it.” A year ago the shoe had been on
the other foot, and Ghost was turning himself inside out over Kayla, trying to
resist her. He lost that battle big time.