But although they sat up, they didn’t stand. So Jim sighed and kept them in his peripheral as he went behind the bar—first things first.
“Glass o’ your favorite grape-flavored beer-substitute, TL?” he asked as he glanced at Ashley, not wanting to assume.
“Oh, God, yes, please,” she said. “The pinot noir. Thank you. LT.”
That pause beforeLTwas tiny and possibly a figment of his imagination. TL and LT. Look at them both being theexactright amount of casual-friendly. Since thatwaswhat he’d said he wanted, why did it annoy him?
As he poured her wine, Ashley turned to Thomas. For her,first things firstmeant asking, “Any word on your friend’s missing niece?”
“Yeah,” the young SEAL said, clearly surprised that with all the drama around Kenneth, she’d remembered. “Thank you—yes. They found her—well, actually, she called them. To say she’s staying with a friend, and that she’s safe.”
“Oh, I’m so glad,” Ashley said.
Thomas smiled his relief as he nodded. “Yeah.”
Not wanting to be left out, Rio chimed in. “Thanks for keeping us posted from the hospital. I’m glad Ken’s surgery went okay.”
“He’s doing well. Turns out his parents were visiting his sister in New Orleans, and they caught a flight to Orlando and drove down. I was imagining them flying in from London, but they were closer than that. Anyway, happy ending, they’re with Kenneth now. Clark, too. He’s still at the hospital,” Ashley said as she reached to take her glass of wine from the bar, briefly meeting Jim’s eyes with a smile and a “Thanks. LT.”
Nah, he was definitely not imagining that slight pause before LT—as if she’d remembered just a little too late that they were only friends, so she added it to make sure she didn’t come across astoofriendly.
And again, his annoyance spiked. Especially as she added, “Shall we sit?” as she motioned toward one of the little cafe tables close to the bar, so they could still talk to Thomas and Rio, but so that Jim could also be comfortable. Bar stools weren’t conducive to elevating feet—which is something he definitely needed to do to at least attempt to ease the ache in his knees. She was thinking of him, as always.
“Do you need ice?” she asked, and yes, he did, but there it was again. “LT?”
Thomas leapt into action. “I’ll get it, sir.”
“No, no, no,” Jim said, stopping the younger SEAL, because he suddenly couldn’t bear it another second—he had to get the hell out of there. “Email’s been weird on my phone—” not a lie, in fact he’d whined about it at least three different times at the hospital “—I should probably go check it on Dunk’s computer. I’ll get some ice while I’m over there and, you know…”
Checking his email was around fifty thousand on his list of things he actually wanted to do at 0100 after a long,longday, but he could not sit there and pretend he wasn’t as annoyed as hell by Ashley’s attempt to give him exactly what he’d asked for—her friendship.
Because he knew, with thatLet’s be friendsspeech he’d given her back in the SUV, that he’d disappointed her—but not enough, apparently, to challenge him, or to fight for what she wanted. And that pissed him off. Of course, it was also possible that she didn’t consider him truly worth fighting for…
She was now studying the wine in her glass, her face expressionless.
It was Thomas who shot Jim an almost comical WTF questioning look as Rio immediately moved down from his bar stool to join Ashley at her table.
Jim shook his head—just a miniscule movement—even as he sent Thomas back an answering look that clearly said,Do not leave her alone with the idiots over there in the corner.He glanced at Rosetti.Or with Rio, for that matter.Jesus.
Thomas was clearly puzzled, but he nodded.
“I better get to it,” Jim said aloud, but Ashley was already giving Rio her full attention—exactly the way she did when she spoke to anyone.
And as he took his beer and limped his way out of the lounge, he realized that he and Thomas were nearly as bad as Bull and Todd when it came to the way they treated Ashley. As if a woman wasn’t a person, but rather a… well, one word for it waspossession, somethingthat two men would discuss silently over the top of her head, without her knowledge.
Yeah, both Jim and Thomas were concerned for Ashley’s safety, but the true subtext of their silent conversation went like, Thomas:Wait, what, you’re gonna check email instead of chilling with this gorgeous woman who is clearly into you, whom you’re clearly into, too, I mean,really, sir…?
Jim:You’re wrong. I don’t want her.
Thomas:You crazy, but okay…
Jim:Babysit her for me, though. I don’t want her, and I know you don’t either, becauseyoucrazy, too, but let’s treat her like a total child who needs to be protected not just from assholes like Bull and Todd, but from her own potential choices because we both know that Rio’s certainly not right for her, but God forbid we trust Ashley to make that decision for herself…
As he went out the door, she laughed at something Rio said, and Jim glanced back to see that Thomas had joined them at the little table.
I don’t want her.Jesus, he was a goddamned liar.
And the wave of longing that hit him as he limped through the dimly lit mess hall was now more than mere annoyance. It was heartbreaking, because Ashley was different. Or rather,hewas different. Yeah, she was pretty and she’d caught his eye from the start, but unlike his MO of the past—thanks only to the structure of SEAL World, to be clear—Jim hadn’t immediately jumped into bed with her. Instead, over these past few days, he’d gotten to know her, and he honestly liked her. He saw her clearly—as the strong but flawed woman she was—and he wanted her not despite that but because of it.
