No Reservations (Special Ops: Tribute Book 1) (6 page)

“I’m hoping for that. And I’m hoping that it will make me a
little different from all the other inns in town. I mean, there are some
beauties here. Really well run places, too. And now that you’ve witnessed my
limited cooking skills, you know that people won’t be flocking here for the
great breakfasts.”

“Oh, they’ll come for this.” He glanced around. The room was
finished perfectly, as though she’d plucked from his mind what his idea of
heaven must be. “What was down here before?”

“Just storage. Concrete walls, cement slab floor. Nothing to
boast about. I told my aunt about the idea years ago, but she never did it. And
now that I’ve done it, I understand why.”

He looked at her quizzically.

“There was water seepage. Not a ton, but enough that I
couldn’t finish it without first putting in a drainage system all around the
perimeter.”

“Oh, hell, that must have cost you.”

“Yeah, it pretty much ruined a lot of my other update plans.
And everything upstairs I had to do on my own—take down wallpaper, paint.
I even rented a sander and refinished the hardwoods myself.”

“Impressive. They really look great.”

“They’re not perfect, but the rugs on the floor cover up my
mistakes.”

He hadn’t known her twenty-four hours yet and he was already
wishing he’d been able to roll up his sleeves for her just to take some of the
load off her back when she’d really needed the help. “This is a great idea. You
should have gone into marketing rather than law.”

“Thanks,” she said quietly, as though it was the first time
she’d ever been complimented in her life. “I’ve always been a good idea person.
But I’m not sure how I am on the actual follow-through yet.”

“Are you kidding? You’re nailing it on the follow-through,
Bridget. Just look around you. Look at this place.”

“Yeah, but I haven’t had the nerve to open the doors yet.”

“Well, I’ll start whittling down your honey-do list when we
get back. Still up for giving me a tour?”

“Of course.”

“Then we better go right away,” he informed her, taking her
by the arm.

“Why?”

“Because if I spend one more minute in this room, I’m going
to end up wasting my day blasting alien insects with my starfighter.”

Spending a day with a former SEAL should seem like an
enviable task for a single woman like Bridget. And while it was nice to feel
her hormones come out of hibernation every time she saw one of his lovely
muscles flex, it was killing her inside.

He’s taken, she kept reminding herself, fighting the inevitable
attraction. Truth be known, even if the guy
didn’t
sport an eight-pack, she’d
find him completely appealing just because his personality was off-the-charts.

Of course, those abs sure didn’t hurt.

They’d started their tour on Maryland Avenue, with a couple
coffees at Leia’s shop. Then they explored the circles, both Church and State, until
their walk pulled them toward the shimmering waters of the harbor as they
walked the downhill slope of Main Street.

He peered through the windows of every ice cream shop they
passed, since it was too early for them to be open, and snapped photos of their
locations. “Intelligence gathering,” he called it, saying he’d go back later to
sample the competition.

It was nearing noon by the time they made it to City Dock,
and Bridget slowed her pace.

“Am I tiring you out?” he asked, his hand brushing lightly
against her arms making every hair on her body spring to attention.

“A little,” she replied, but in reality, she was slowing
down simply because she didn’t want their tour together to end. It had been a
long time since she’d seen this city with the company of someone she enjoyed
this much. The conversation between them barely slowed. And on the few
occasions when it did, Bridget enjoyed the comfortable silence between them. There
was no urge to fill the air with needless chatter.

“We can stop, if you’d like.”

She would definitely
not
like. “No, I’m really having
a nice time. Whenever I live in a place, I seem to forget to see it like a
tourist.”

“Did you do that in DC, too?”

“Oh, definitely. I was working ten or twelve hour days. There
was no time to see the sights. I walked by the Capitol Building and White House
plenty, but that was about it.”

“I’ll take you down there sometime. I know it like the back
of my hand.”

“Were you stationed there?”

“No, but I spent my share of time TDY in the area.”

She nodded, recognizing the abbreviation for temporary duty
from her time with Tyler. There was a lot about Maddox that reminded her of
Tyler.

But there were other things that were entirely Maddox. It
somehow gave her hope. Nearly every date she’d had the past several years had
ended with her shaking her head, wondering if she’d ever feel as attracted to
someone as she had to Tyler. Having Maddox around was reminding her that it was
very, very possible.

They passed a vacant storefront, where he stopped, snapping
photos and taking a brief video of the surrounding area.

“Are you sending those to Becca?” she asked.

“Yeah, Becca. And the others.”

“Who are the others?”

“Well, there’s Captain Shey—Becca’s brother. He was my
CO for a couple years when I was with the SEALs. He and his wife are major
players in this. So is Aidan. He’s got a huge stake.”

“And he’s a SEAL, too?”

“Yep. He’s in San Diego now. And there’s Quinn and Thomas. I’ll
send the info to them, but they can’t be around when we make the decisions.”

“Where are they?”

Maddox cracked a half-smile. “Beats the hell out of me.
They’re on a mission.”

Struggling to keep alongside him in the crowd that walked
along the dock, she wished she could reach for his hand just to stop people
from darting between them. “Doesn’t that seem strange?” she asked.

“What?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Them all just going on without you. I had
that when I left my job. I’d call my co-workers—who I considered to be my
friends back then—and they all just kind of forgot about me, really. It’s
like when I stopped working there, we just stopped having anything in common.
And life at the office just marched onward.”

Maddox stared at her, his eyes filled with sympathy. “They
don’t sound like very good friends then.”

“I guess they weren’t.” In truth, Bridget wondered if all
friends were like that. Her undergrad friends all seemed to lose interest in
her when she went to law school. Her law school friends became so absorbed in
their high pressure careers after graduation that they didn’t have time to
maintain old ties. And her work friends only had work in common, leaving
Bridget to feel like she had an impressively long Christmas card list, yet no
one to really confide in. “So it’s not that way with your SEAL friends?”

“Oh, hell no. There’s a brotherhood among us that I don’t
see ever going away. But I can relate to that feeling you’re having of them
just going on. When you’re used to facing life-threatening situations with a
bunch of guys on a regular basis, and then you have to realize that they’re now
doing the same thing, but without you…”

His voice trailed a moment and he stopped, watching a
seagull dive in between two docked boats in the narrow waterway called Ego
Alley. He gave himself a shake. “It’s just strange. I worry about them more now
that I’m out than I did when I was in. It’s like I don’t have the control
anymore. I have to rely on some other guy having their backs when they’re under
fire. And I don’t like that. They’re like my brothers. They
are
my
brothers. They always will be.”

“You’re lucky to have friends like that. The kind that last.”

He glanced at her. “What about Leia?”

“Hmm?”

“Leia, the coffee house owner. You two seem pretty close.
Not many people would show up at your door armed with a can of pepper spray.”

“Yeah. Truth is, I only met her about a month ago. There
aren’t exactly many single women just starting businesses in this town. She’s
totally alone in this, like I am. We kind of latched onto each other.” Nearing
the end of City Dock now, Bridget stopped short, a family of four racing in
front of her, hand-in-hand.

“Wonder what their rush is?”

“Trying to catch the water taxi.”

“Water taxi?”

“Yeah.”

His eyes glimmered with interest. “Let’s grab it.”

Bridget looked at him quizzically. “Where do you want to
take it?”

“Anywhere. I haven’t been on the water in too damn long.”

She grinned, and took off in a sprint toward the vessel that
had just bumped up against City Dock.

The small boat was packed, so they were forced to squish
together—so close that the heat from his body seemed to lull her into a
warm and fuzzy state, making her desperately want to nestle her head atop his
strong shoulder.

He’s taken. Taken, taken, taken.

Why did she have to keep reminding herself that? And this
was just Day One of his stay. Seriously? She hoped he and Becca moved into that
apartment he’d mentioned soon.

“So what’s on the other side of the harbor?” Maddox inquired,
looking toward the boat docks, restaurants, and historic homes dotted along the
other side of Spa Creek.

“Eastport.”

“Do they have any good ice cream places?”

“I don’t know. I think it’s more residential than downtown.
Quieter, I guess. I don’t spend too much time there. There are a few nice
restaurants, I’ve heard, but I haven’t tried any.”

“Why not?”

“Too busy. Too broke.” She laughed. “Too dateless, if you’re
going to pull the truth out of me.”

His head turned fully toward hers, sparking with an apparent
interest that she couldn’t explain. “You don’t have a boyfriend?”

“Jeez, if I did, I would hope I’d have had a little more
help stripping wallpaper and sanding the floors.”

He smirked. “Oh, don’t be so sure. I’ve heard there are
plenty of useless boyfriends around.”

“I’m sure you’d never lump yourself in with that crowd.”

His eyes were distant, fixated on the approaching dock in
Eastport, but somehow seeming a million miles away. “As many times as I’ve
disappeared on women to go on missions, I’m sure there are those who would say
I’m definitely useless.”

But not Becca
, Bridget wanted to say.
I’m sure she
doesn’t think you’re useless.

She nearly said it out loud, even opened her mouth slightly,
when his words cut her off.

“So what’s a gorgeous girl like you doing single in a town
full of Navy men?”

Bridget scoffed. “You overestimate my appeal to the opposite
sex.”

His eyebrows rose and he leveled a heated gaze on her. “I
think I’d know, Bridget.”

The smile disappeared from her face and her lips parted,
breath quickening from the way he was staring at her right now. If she didn’t
know better, she’d think he was interested in her.

But she did know better.

Suddenly, his eyes flickered with amusement. “Where do Navy
guys get a drink around here?”

“I guess that would be O’Toole’s.”

“Then I’m taking you to O’Toole’s tonight.”

“You don’t have to do that,” she protested.

“Of course I do. I owe you for the tour. And I’m going to
prove you wrong.”

“How are you planning on doing that?”

“When you walk in, I’ll count how many heads turn. But just
remember who you’re going home with.” He said it in a suggestive way, making
her eyes widen till he finished, “You’re kind of sharing the same address as me
for a while.”

***

It was nine o’clock when they made it home from dinner at
O’Toole’s. And if other people were staying at the inn, Maddox would definitely
not be stomping around with his bucket of tools right now. But he knew Bridget
was still awake, so he doubted she’d mind him making use of the time by
checking off one of the simpler tasks on his honey-do list.

Besides, he had some pent-up energy to burn. The night had
been enjoyable—a little too enjoyable considering he still couldn’t quite
figure out his tempting innkeeper. She said she was single. But every time he
got close—close enough where he could feel the alluring heat from her
skin—she’d stiffen up like a day-old corpse.

Setting down a chair he lugged over from the dining room, he
eyed the culprit pantry door she’d pointed out and tried to nudge it shut. The
edge scraped against the doorway, just as Bridget had told him it would.

An easy fix, Maddox decided. Might as well check this off
the list.

Standing atop the chair to get a better look at it, his eyes
met with a curious sight—a piece of worn out duct tape covering something
up.

He picked at the tape, revealing a tiny envelope, no bigger
than a couple square inches. Opening it, a key slipped out and fell to the
floor.

“Hey, Bridget!” he called toward her room as he got off the
chair. “Bridget?” Still holding the envelope, he lifted the key off the ground.

She came around the corner.

“I found something taped to the top of the pantry door.” He
handed it to her.

She looked at it quizzically. “It looks like a safety
deposit box key.”

“So it’s not yours?”

“No, it was probably my aunt’s.” Taking the envelope into
her hand, she flipped it over. “I wonder if my mom’s been looking for this.”

“Why do you think that?”

“After they found out that Lydia left the B & B to me, my
mom and dad came up from South Carolina and cleared out all her paperwork. Old
files, bills, that sort of thing. I offered to help, but they didn’t want me
involved in it.” She flipped the key over in her fingers again. “Maybe they
found some paperwork about this box.”

“Can’t hurt to call them and find out.”

Bridget scoffed. “You say that, but you don’t know my
parents. They get frustrated anytime my aunt’s name comes up in conversation, which
makes things pretty difficult now that I’m living in her house.”

“Why don’t they like to talk about her?”

“Lydia was—I don’t know—flighty, I’m told. Irresponsible.
Impulsive.”

“My kind of woman.”

Bridget laughed. “Yeah. She always seemed to be all the
things my parents weren’t, I guess. Lydia—she just loved to be around
people, you know? But my parents are… reclusive.” She shrugged. “They have
their reasons.”

Maddox somehow knew instinctively not to pry beyond that.

She tossed him a look at his silence, raising her eyebrows,
and started walking toward the phone. “Oh well. Nothing ventured, nothing
gained,” she said, reaching for the receiver.

She listened, and Maddox could tell that voicemail had
picked up.

“Hey, Mom. I came across something at the inn. A safety
deposit box key. I was just wondering if you knew anything about it. Call me
back when you get a chance.”