SEAL the Deal(27)

“Chardonnay,” Lacey said, feeling far more feminine now that she had heels.

“Ginger ale,” Bess whimpered.

Maeve gave a slight nod and sauntered off to the bar.

Lacey eyed Bess. “You’re really looking pale. Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Fine. I’m just really tired. It was a hard week.”

“I don’t know how you do it. I can hardly clean my room let alone a string of other people’s houses. Are you looking for any other kind of work? Maybe something in retail or—”

“No,” Bess interrupted. “I just don’t have the energy to start looking for something new right now.”

“Are you going to finish college? Maeve mentioned you were only short a semester or two.”

“Eventually.”

“You know, I have a laptop you can use. There are a lot of courses that you can take online. Maybe you could—” She stiffened suddenly, her senses stirring with awareness. Even with her back to the door, she knew Mick had walked in.

His hand brushed gently across her shoulders. “Hi, Lacey.”

“Mick, hi. This is my friend, Bess.”

Mick offered his hand to Bess and gestured to his friend. “And this is Jack. He works with me at the Academy. Teaches physics or some other useless science like that.”

Jack flashed his pearly whites.

Looking at them as they sat down, Lacey couldn’t help comparing the two men. Their short hair, perfect posture, and chiseled muscles made it obvious they were in the military, despite their lack of uniforms that night. But Mick’s shoulders and chest were broader and his face more rugged. Jack favored a slightly leaner, boyish look, with a body Lacey imagined was sculpted in a health club rather than by hauling gear through the mountainous terrain of Afghanistan.

Jack was handsome, but she preferred her Mick.

Her Mick? Did she really just think that? She nearly winced. Better not let that slip, or Maeve would never let her live it down.

“What can we get you from the bar?” Mick offered, starting to stand.

“Actually Maeve is—”

“Oh…my…God.” Maeve reappeared from the bar, a look of complete shock on her face. Both Bess and Lacey’s heads whipped around to see what she was looking at.

“Maeve.” Jack said her name in a hushed, almost reverent tone. His face slowly transformed from shock to pure joy, as though he were a kid who had just been handed his first ice cream sundae, dripping with hot fudge. “Maeve.”

“Jack.”

No one dared to say a word. There was an electric charge in the air, the kind Lacey had heard happened right before lightning struck.

Jack rose from his chair, shaking his head slowly. “My God, Maeve.” Standing only inches away, he wrapped his arms around her, lifted her from the ground, and whirled her in a full circle causing heads to turn.

Maeve put both of her hands alongside his face and pulled him into a kiss. It was brief, but whole-hearted, the kind she could either give the love of her life after being separated for years, or a friend who had just handed her the winning lottery ticket.

“So I, uh, take it you know each other?” Mick said with a grin.

They both inhaled as if trying to find the right words.

“Maeve is…she and I…we…”

Maeve interrupted with her usual candor. “Jack was the best sex I ever had.”

All eyebrows raised including Jack’s, as well as about four or five other people who were within earshot.

“The best?” Jack repeated.

“Absolutely.”

Jack shot a cocky grin to Mick. “I was the best.”

Lacey butted in. “And this was…when?”

“Six years ago, maybe?” Jack looked at Maeve.

“Seven, I think.” Maeve was glowing. “I was house-sitting for my grandma. It was the weekend after the Academy graduation, right?”

“Yep. The last weekend I was here before I went to Surface Warfare Officers School in Rhode Island. I met Maeve at a party for a friend.”

“Who was that?”

“Brian something.”

“Oh yeah, a friend of a neighbor.”

“We walked out of the party together and weren’t seen again…”

“…for the whole weekend,” Maeve finished for him.

They delved into the sordid details, perhaps a bit too much, each one finishing the other’s sentences as though they had been together for years.

“But you didn’t see each other again?” Bess asked when there was a break in the conversation.

“Oh, no. Of course not. He had just graduated. I was maybe six or seven years older than him and looking to settle down. We didn’t stand a chance,” Maeve said bluntly. “In fact, I met my husband just a couple months after that.”