SEAL the Deal Read Online Free Page A

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bare-handed. But I can’t take this damn Annapolis heat in the summer.”
    “It’s hotter in San Diego.”
    “It’s not the heat...”
    “…it’s the humidity,” Jack finished for
him. “Yeah, I know. My ass is stuck to this chair.”
    Mick leaned back and stared vacantly at
his computer. He didn’t know the first thing about writing lesson plans or
syllabi. “How about you? Big physics brain?”
    Jack flashed a smile that made him look
scarily like Brad Pitt in his younger years. “That’s me. I’ll teach here for a
couple years, then back to sea as a department head. If I don’t take your route
and piss off my CO.”
    “Just don’t call him a pansy-ass bastard
to his face.”
    Jack let out a low whistle.
    Mick could tell he wanted to hear the
whole story, but knew better than to ask. SEAL missions were top secret, hidden
behind layers of nondisclosure forms. Black ops, they called it.
    Returning to typing, Jack gave a slight
nod at the framed photo on his desk of him surrounded by four women, two
holding infants on their laps. “I’m liking it here because my sisters are all
on the East coast. I’ve been at sea so much, I barely get to see them and their
kids.” He handed the photo to Mick proudly. “I’ve got one more niece and my
first nephew now.”
    Mick scowled. “You have four sisters? That
would kill me.”
    “Are you kidding? It’s great. I know
everything about women. I have the inside track. I ask all the right questions,
like ‘what are you thinking right now?’ Girls love that shit. Between that and
this uniform, I can’t keep women off me.”
    Mick laughed. One look at the young Lieutenant,
and anyone would know it was true. “Well, keep that uniform on, or you’ll have
the same experience I did this afternoon.”
    Jack raised his eyebrows, a silent request
for details.
    Mick ordinarily wasn’t the type to talk
much. Some guys liked talking about life over a few beers or while shooting
pool. The only male bonding Mick enjoyed was when he was headed into danger
with his fellow SEALs. But, staring at a blank monitor, suddenly socializing
seemed a lot less painful. “I was at the funeral of my Academy sponsor, and I
met this woman. Asked her to dinner and she shot me down.”
    “You tried to pick up a woman at a
funeral?”
    “Yeah.”
    “You don’t find that a bit…inappropriate?”
    Mick paused. “I just got back from six months
in a war zone. How would I know what’s appropriate?”
    “Poor excuse, Slick—I mean, Sir .”
Jack shook his head, his smile fading. “Seriously, man. Stay away from my
sisters.”
    ***
    Maeve Fischer rustled the pages of the
newspaper open. She took a lengthy sip from her wine glass and gazed out at the
Chesapeake Bay.
    Of all the rooms in her waterfront home,
it was the screened-in back porch that stole her heart the most. She had big
plans for rest of the house, but the porch would remain the same. Too many
perfect memories of her grandparents were on this porch. She could see them
right now, sipping their vodkas and holding hands as the sun set. They still
had held hands after nearly sixty years of marriage.
    They’re holding hands today, Maeve
thought, a little comforted by the idea. Her eyes got teary—must have
been allergies—and she raised her wine glass just a touch to the horizon.
    “Here’s to love that lasts,” she said
quietly, and watched two seagulls rise from the water and fly into the
distance.
    Still holding hands definitely. Indefinitely.
    A gentle breeze blew off the water causing
sections of the newspaper to scatter to the floor. She sighed and let them lie on
the ground. She wasn’t moving a muscle for anything right now. She was just
going to relax and enjoy the sun as it drifted lower in the sky.
    This was the best Maeve had felt in
months. She finally had both of the extra rooms of her house rented. She had a
Baltimore client with a stunning property in Canton and a boatload of cash to
decorate it.
    She