Her Dominant SEAL(43)
She nodded.
“Everybody but Evie out of my kitchen.”
“Ah, come on. Five days ago you were calling me Eva.”
“Five days ago, Drake wasn’t here to remind me you were always Evie growing up,” Trenda said touching her sister on the nose with a flour covered finger.
“Nah, it’s Evie Lavender, get it right.”
“I like that. Eva Lavender,” Aiden said.
Evie blushed. “Weren’t you all told to get the hell out of the kitchen.”
“I have some calls to make anyway,” Drake said. “I was just in here for coffee, and to make sure that biscuits were on the menu.”
“Out,” Trenda pointed.
Drake, Aiden, and Karen turned to leave.
“Hey, when’s breakfast?”
“I refuse to use instant grits, so give it a half hour.”
Drake came back into the kitchen and opened the pantry.
“What now?”
He brought out a package of Oreo cookies. “This will tide me over.”
“Oh, for God’s sake.” Trenda went to the fruit bowl and handed him three bananas and three apples. “Share with the others, and eat these before you start in on the cookies.”
“I make no promises.”
***
He got out to the living room and found Karen waiting for him.
“Where’s Aiden?”
“He said he had to check his e-mail.”
Drake nodded. Karen eyed his bounty of food, and plucked the Oreos out of his hands and opened the package.
“So what are we doing?”
“It’s seven o’clock here, I thought I would wake up a buddy of mine and start his day out right.”
“That’s not nice. Shouldn’t we wait.”
“Nope, if the shoe was on the other foot, he’d do the same thing.” He tipped his head towards study, and she followed him.
“Are you really going to eat all that fruit?” she asked.
“Only if you pilfer all the Oreos.” He shouldered his way into the study. “Shit, my laptop’s upstairs. Give me those.” He took the package away from her. Then laughed when she stuck out her lower lip. He pulled out two and handed them to her. He left, jogged up the stairs and met Aiden as he was coming down.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah. It’s dull.”
“Dull’s good. Karen’s in the study. I’m getting my laptop. We’re going to call Clint.”
Aiden laughed. “You’re mean. Isn’t he engaged? You’re going to pull him out of a warm bed?”
“Oh, I’m pulling them both out. Lydia’ll want in on this too.”
“I forgot. They work as a team.”
“She’s something else.” Drake had always been happy for his buddy, but there had always been some envy as well. It wasn’t there anymore. Huh, that was surprising.
“What?” Aiden asked.
“Nothing. Go join Karen in the study.”
“I’ll take those,” Aiden said as he grabbed the cookies out of Drake’s hands.
Drake grabbed his laptop and was back to see Aiden settled in one of the two leather chairs opposite Karen. He took the desk. He booted up his laptop and called Clint’s number.
“Archer.”
“Hey man, I need your help.”
“Drake, it’s about damn time you called.” Clint sounded pretty alert for four in the morning. He heard a woman’s voice in the background.
“Hey!” Clint said, then Lydia was talking.
“Drake, I was worried about you. Are you in Jasper Creek? Are your sisters okay? What’s going on?”
Shit, was nothing a secret? Had everybody seen through his lies?
“Yeah, I’m in Jasper Creek. My sisters are currently fine. But we have a couple of issues. I need some information.”
There was a long pause, then for the first time since he’d known her, Lydia was tentative. “Is this about your father?”
“Yeah, he’s out of prison, and-”
“What?” she screeched. “Clint. What the fuck is wrong with you? Drake’s father is out of prison. I thought you had it arranged so you’d be notified when that would happen.”
Seriously. Seriously. Nothing was fucking sacred in the Midnight Delta team.
“Do you know the type of underwear I wear?” he asked Lydia.
“Boxer briefs,” she quickly answered.
Thank God, she got it wrong, he mostly went commando.
“Why are you talking to my woman about underwear?” Clint asked. “I want to know about that asshole of a father who’s out of prison. Was your family notified?”
“Nope came as a total surprise to them. My youngest sister had to climb out a window to get away from him.”