CHAPTER 1
Julian looked out the large,plate glass window for the tenth time in what felt like hours. In reality, only minutes had passed. He tried to tell himself he wasn’t being obsessive.
Uh, seriously?Epic fail.
Julian was, indeed, obsessed.
The subject of his preoccupation? One very compelling, intriguing UPS driver, whom he knew only as P. Bothswait from the badge on her truck; a woman who ran hot and cold with her interactions. She was due to deliver a box to the dive shop soon. Hopefully.
Please let it be soon,before the gang gets back.
Julian, for the first time since he’d joined Diver Downeast nearly three weeks before, was the only one in the store besides Jett’s two dogs, Langley and Tinker, who were sound asleep on their office beds. They’d been left behind when Trask and Jett had flown north for a quick job.
Normally there were several other pups in residence, as well, but Cooper, Duck, and Reyghan had all gone with their prospective humans today.
Tabbi and Spence, with Duck, were currently on the road headed home from Marshfield, Massachusetts with an arrivaltime of two hours. The pair—before they attempted to run their first diving class at Diver Downeast—had been receiving some hands-on experience at a sister shop, North Atlantic Scuba, learning the ropes from old friends.
Buck was supposed to be in-house today, but his wife Bobbie, a caterer, was having troubles with her main oven, and he’d gone to see if he could cobble together a fix until the appliance repair-person arrived. He’d taken their two fur-babies, Reyghan and Coooper, with him.
Shiela, Tabitha’s sister who was their office manager, was out sick today, or at least that’s what she’d said when she called in. Julian had his suspicions though, that she wanted to stay home with her cat, Rugby, who had just been spayed.
Hence, Julian being alone; two canines being the exception.
Manning the shop, solo, was an anomaly for sure, but it was perfect, because Julian wasn’t certain he’d make any kind of move with his siblings watching, even though he wouldn’t be able to hide his attraction to the delivery woman from them much longer. They were tenacious bastards. Once the cat was out of the bag, Julian would get an endless ration of shit from Spence, Buck, and Trask until he was either coerced into bringing his interactions with the lovely driver to the next level, or he flipped his brothers off and gave up altogether.
No. There was actually one more option, and it had been rattling around in Julian’s brain for a few weeks, since the first time he’d set eyes on the perplexing delivery woman. Hecouldenlist the help of Tabitha, Bobbie, and Jett to keep their husbands off his back. But that would mean admitting out loud—even if it was just to the women—that he had a serious, secret crush going on; a pill that would be hard to swallow. Crushes…and interactions of any kind with women on an intense personal level, were not something with which Julian had ever been completely comfortable, and declaring it would be gut churning.
Julian sighed.
One would think, being part of the handsome and gregarious Sothard clan, that Julian would never have a problem declaring his interest in a woman. But Julian didn’t have thr intrinsic magnetism of his brothers. He never had.
Thinking back, Julian sighed.
All through middle school and for the majority of high school, he’d been the runt of the litter; his complexion pimply, his teeth in braces, and his coordination a work in progress. His larger-than-life siblings had been busy quarterbacking football teams, heading debate clubs, and seeing how many girls they could make fall at their feet, while Julian…? He’d simply been trying to navigate life.
He'd tried like hell to keep up for a while, to no avail and a lot of teasing, and had subsequently done his best to stay under the radar, which became pretty easy with the oversized shadows his brothers cast. When hedidget noticed, unfortunately it was by bullies who wanted to check another box on their asshole-credentials by beating him to crap.
Of course, when they attempted it, the joke was inevitably on them.
When someone dared pound Julian into the pavement outside of school, they’d quickly come to regret it; victims of their own stupidity when Julian’s brothers found out and made them pay with far more bruises than Jules ever sustained.
It was…nice having body guards, but it had done nothing for his self-esteem.
By his senior year, Julian’s long awaited growth spurt finally kicked in, putting him firmly in the middle of his tall, family pack, and—thank the lord—well beyond what any schoolmate-thugs might want to tackle.
His siblings, in the ensuing years, had also taught him some self-defense techniques so he would no longer be vulnerable.He’d never had to use those skills, however, because he’d already perfected the art of blending into his surroundings to become invisible. It was a trait that had eventually aided him well as he’d followed his brothers into service for the United States.
After graduating high school, Julian had chosen to enlist in the Airforce, where his aptitude for all things covert guided him straight onto a Guardian Angel team. His legendary stealth became part and parcel of who he was for the next eighteen years, with Julian eventually rising to the rank of Combat Rescue Officer in charge of taking hand-picked teams into dangerous territory for covert ops and risky personnel recovery.
No man left behind had never been a motto for Julian, it had been a way of life.
But on the female front…
Julian shook his head as he glanced out the window again.
His dorkiness during high school meant that he’d never dated then, and once he was a “Doolie” in the Air Force, fraternization amongst the troops had been frowned upon, so he’d continued his virginity streak. Julian had, however, learned how to be good friends with his woman team members, which had given him a little more confidence. It had been nice, chatting up the female sex, but that had been the extent of his interactions.
It wasn’t until his first thirty day leave when he’d gone on a “beach holiday” with a couple of his buddies, that he’d hooked up for the first time.
