Matched with a Hot SEAL (Hot SEALs)

by Cat Johnson

  He had a feeling he’d gotten himself in way too deep. With Jessa and with this damn app he’d thought was such a good idea—until it got turned back on him.

  Handing his Facebook friend list over to his teammates so they could choose a date for him—it was one scary as fuck prospect.

  What the hell had he been thinking?

  CHAPTER 20

  Jessa listened to Will’s latest voicemail one more time. In fact, she’d been listening to it over and over. Analyzing every part of it.

  The tone of his voice—definitely not cheerful. In fact, almost dismal. His choice of words—so ominous. I was really hoping you’d answer.

  Each time she listened it cut her a little deeper because the only conclusion she could come to based on the evidence was that he was calling to tell her he couldn’t see her again.

  Jessa could only assume that Sara had called him and that he had forgiven her and was getting back together with her.

  She couldn’t bring herself to call Sara and ask. She supposed she could also answer the phone next time Will called instead of holding her breath and watching it ring. Somehow she couldn’t bring herself to do that either.

  God, she was hopeless.

  Meanwhile, she had an appointment at her soon to be new apartment to meet with the ever elusive Jon Rudnick, the supposed security expert. He was going to look it over for her and give her advice on what she needed to make sure it was safe.

  Better neighborhood or not, she would feel safer with the added security since she’d be living there alone.

  She really was pitiful—moving into a studio apartment barely big enough for one person just so she had a good excuse why Sara couldn’t move in with her.

  A stronger woman would tell the truth. That, selfish though it was, Jessa couldn’t see Sara happy with the man she wanted for herself.

  That she couldn’t stand to watch as the man she loved rode off into the sunset with her sister, who’d dumped him without even a goodbye.

  How she hated Will as much as she loved him for taking Sara back.

  Jessa pressed her hand to her belly as it growled from being empty. She couldn’t stomach food right now. She was so upset. On the bright side, heartache was proving to be an excellent diet plan.

  Even so, she’d have to force herself to eat a few bites of something. With a sigh she grabbed a yogurt from the fridge and a spoon from the drawer. She’d bring it along with her in the car on the way to the new place.

  The realization that she’d have to move all this stuff in her apartment before the first of the month, and by herself, increased her stress level.

  She’d pick up some boxes today and start packing things up tonight. She wasn’t sleeping well at night anyway. Might as well make use of the time instead of watching the hours click by on the bedside clock.

  Another benefit of heartache—all the extra time she’d have by not sleeping. She rolled her eyes at herself, undid the two locks Will had installed, and felt sick all over again at the memory as she headed out the door.

  In the car, when she’d been hoping for peace and quiet for the drive, her cell rang. Of course it did, because the universe had chosen to test her strength and it was doing a damn good job of it too.

  Glancing down, she saw it was Sara and once again she had a decision to make. Let it ring, or answer?

  Obviously into pain, Jessa hit the screen to answer the call and put it on speakerphone.

  Her heartbeat sped as she said, “Hello.”

  “Hey. Are you home?”

  “No. I’m actually on the way to my new place.”

  “Oh.”

  Something about Sara’s tone, in addition to the background noises, had Jessa asking, “Where are you?”

  “Just about to get off the exit for Norfolk.”

  Holy shit. She’d really come. Sara was here.

  Jessa swallowed hard. “Were you heading to my old place?”

  “I’d been thinking I would if you were there, but I guess I’ll just go to Will’s.”

  The car drifted until it hit the warning strip on the edge of the road. Jessa swerved back into her lane.

  She was going to have to pull over. Possibly to throw up. Definitely because she shouldn’t be driving right now or she’d end up causing an accident.

  So that was it then. It was done. She’d been right. Will had forgiven Sara and taken her back. And, thanks to Jessa signing that new lease on a studio, they’d be living together too.

  “Jess?” Sara asked.

  “Um, yeah?”

  “Oh, I thought I’d lost you.”

  She drew in a breath. “Nope.”

  Sara hadn’t lost anything at all. Jessa on the other hand had lost quite a lot.

  CHAPTER 21

  “Weber.”

  The summons from his commander had Will turning in the desk chair where he’d been reviewing satellite thermal images of movement in known insurgent hot spots in their region.

  Will stood. “Sir?”

  “I just got a message from Meade. They need you back there ASAP.”

  Will’s eyes widened. “Immediately?”

  Looking amused at his confusion, Groenning cocked up a brow. “That’s what ASAP means, Weber.”

  “Yes, sir. Do they know I’m OCONUS?” He wasn’t in the continental United States. He was in freaking Afghanistan, for God’s sake.

  This wasn’t like when he was already in Maryland on leave and could drive over on an hour’s notice. It wasn’t even as if he was on base in Virginia.

  “They know. They didn’t seem to care.”

  He was going to have to arrange transport back to the states. That should be real fun.

  “It’s going to take me a while to get back there.” Days, and that was barring any possible delays.

  If there was an emergency at Fort Meade, any number of things could happen between now and the time he could finally get there. He needed to get on a secure line and call them. Maybe he could help remotely from where he was.

  “Actually, they arranged for you to fly back on one of the planes in the Presidential fleet. Air Force Two, to be exact. The Vice President has been here visiting bases. He’s going to swing by and pick you up.” Groenning snorted. “Must be nice to be so valuable, huh, Weber?”

  After hearing what lengths they’d gone to to get him to Maryland Will was convinced it was less indicative of his value and more about how dire the situation at Meade was.

  Jesus. It must be big. They must have gotten a ping on the booby-trap they’d installed. Someone must be trying to use the Trojan Horse.

  It’s what they’d planned on. What they’d hoped for. And dammit, he wanted to be there for it and by all indications he would be soon.

  Adrenaline started to pump, surging into his blood stream as he asked, “When and where do I meet my transport?”

  The answer had Will scurrying to get his shit packed and be ready in time.

  The Vice President and him, on Air Force Two.

  Although he was sure there would be press and aides and secret service and a bunch of other people on the flight too, it was still pretty freaking surreal.

  He was just trying to wrap his head around it, and pack up his gear at the same time, when his teammates descended upon him.

  “It’s fucking true?” Tompkins sputtered when he saw Will with his duffle in hand.

  “That I got called back? Yeah.”

  “Pfft. He makes it sound so casual.” Fitzy shook his head.

  “Right?” Boomer scowled. “I wanna go on Air Force Two. You suck. I’m gonna call you Wanker from now on instead of Wonka.”

  Will laughed. “As if that would be worse?”

  “So anyway, down to business since our time with you is short, oh computer god. We picked your girls,” Tompkins began.

  “My what?” Will stopped zipping his duffle bag in mid-motion, confused.

  “On your app—which needs a name by the way.” Fitz raised a brow.

  W
ill shook his head. “I know. I’ll get to it.”

  “Good job, by the way. The app who has not been named kicks ass,” Fitzy added.

  “It sure does. I got me two dates already lined up for when we get back.” Boomer grinned.

  Apparently they were all enjoying his dating app, even if they were in Afghanistan.

  “Anyway, we narrowed it down to three choices for you,” Tompkins continued.

  Three. Not a terrible ratio.

  For the sake of the beta test, it was going to be very interesting for Will to see who his teammates had chosen for him from the hundreds of possible candidates.

  He’d have to run the numbers. See the exact percentage but it seemed promising.

  Three was workable given the number of Facebook friends on his list combined with the lists of the beta testers.

  After they’d culled the candidate pool based on the parameters he’d specified by weeding out the males, the females who weren’t age appropriate or weren’t single, and those who were too far geographically, there still had to be hundreds of women to choose from and they’d narrowed it down to three.

  This thing might actually work. Too bad he had far bigger computer fish to fry when he got back to the states. Maybe he could do a bit of work on the flight.

  Freaking Air Force Two—good luck concentrating on stats while on that.

  Will dragged his concentration back to his teammates, hovering as he packed. “Okay. Thanks for testing this thing for me.”

  “You gonna try to go out with all three of them?” Boomer asked.

  Will frowned at Boomer. “No. I’m not going out with any of them. I already told Tompkins before we started testing that I’ll go through the selection with you guys to be better able to evaluate the user process, but I’m not meeting anyone.”

  “What the fuck, man? He never told us you said that. Why are we wasting our time on this then?” Fitzy’s frown spoke his displeasure as much as his words.

  “Because you’re helping me with a beta test,” Will answered. “And as I said, thank you for doing it. I’m grateful.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Beta test. Whatever.” Tompkins dismissed Will with the wave of one hand. “We’re doing this because you’re damn well gonna go out with at least one of them. And if you won’t choose one out of the three, then we’ll pick her for you.”

  “No—”

  “Yes.” Tompkins cut off Will’s protest.

  Will laughed. “It’s not as if you can make me go out with any of them.”

  Tompkins crossed his arms. “We’ll see about that.”

  Will shook his head at Tompkins’s continued determination.

  Between this lively debate and his summons to Meade, it had been one hell of a day, and it wasn’t over yet. He still had his flight to the states with the VP.

  And he couldn’t forget what being stateside again meant. He’d finally be on the same continent as Jessa. If she wouldn’t answer his calls then he’d just see her face to face.

  He intended to do that as soon as possible. The moment this Meade thing was under control and he could get back to Virginia he was driving directly to her place and making her talk things out.

  CHAPTER 22

  It had been a long couple of days, working day and night in the computer lab at Meade. Grabbing a few hours sleep on the sofa in the lounge. Eating at the keyboard. Downing gallons of coffee.

  But damn, the shit they’d emerged with had been well worth it. Pure gold. The North Korean government’s attempted hack of the US servers had led Will and his team directly back to the hackers.

  It was like the yellow brick road and the golden ticket combined. He knew where to go and how to get in and what they’d found—Jesus—it was mind boggling.

  The North Korean’s entire nuclear program, laid out for them in vivid detail. So much information he would have suspected it was a plant to throw them off the right track, if he didn’t know for sure that his hack was not only completely unexpected but also untraceable.

  He’d been riding one hell of a caffeine and adrenaline high for days. He should really go home and crash for a few hours—or twelve. But his mind wouldn’t let him rest until he found Jessa and today would be the perfect time.

  Will could only fix things if he had some freaking clue as to what the hell the problem was. Now that he was back in Virginia he had every intention of finding out.

  It was early Saturday morning so Jessa should be home. But first, he really had to stop by his own place to shower and change.

  He punched in the code for his door lock—which he still hadn’t taken the time to change. He really needed to do that today.

  Now that he was home, hopefully for a couple of days before he had to go back to join the team, he’d be able to take care of a couple of situations that had been hanging over his head for too long now.

  Inside the front door, he stopped dead.

  Things were out of place.

  Sure, he’d gone directly from the night at Jessa’s, to base, then to Afghanistan, but he knew basically how he’d left things and it wasn’t like this.

  He definitely hadn’t left a coffee mug on the table or old coffee in the pot. And the television remote wasn’t where he always kept it.

  As he strode inside, he noticed more oddities. Someone had been in his home. No doubt about it. But robbers didn’t generally make coffee and watch television.

  Jessa might though. And if she’d been too afraid to sleep alone at her own place, she might just come to his.

  With that theory making his pulse quicken, Will strode toward the bedroom.

  In the dim room, lit by only the weak morning light filtering through the closed window blinds, he couldn’t see much more than the back of the head of the sleeping figure in his bed, but what he saw had him smiling.

  Jessa. In his bed.

  Things couldn’t be too wrong between them if she was here. Something must have happened with her cell phone. Maybe she hadn’t even gotten his calls or his messages.

  He’d been worried for nothing.

  More than happy that she was here and that she felt comfortable enough to come to his place instead of staying in her own apartment if she was scared, he moved toward the bed.

  He set the duffle down on the floor. He desperately needed a shower, but first, a morning kiss.

  Will leaned low and pressed his lips to her hair. “Hey, good morning, beautiful.”

  She rolled toward him, sounding sleepy as she said, “Hey, baby.”

  At the sound of that voice, so familiar, and that endearment, only used by one person, Will drew back.

  Straightening, he backed up. “Sara?”

  “Mmm, hmm. Who were you expecting?” she purred.

  Not her, that was for damn sure.

  “What the hell are you doing here?” he asked, still trying to recover from the shock.

  “I’m back.”

  He could see that. The question was why? Followed closely by what the fuck had made her think she could disappear completely from his life without even a goodbye and then waltz back into it two months later as if nothing had happened?

  Needing to put some light on the situation, literally and figuratively, Will switched on the bedroom lamp.

  Sara flipped the sheet back, sat up and swung her feet to the floor. She sat on the edge of the mattress in an oversized Crimson Tide shirt he didn’t recognize, thereby proving how long she’d been gone. He used to be familiar with all her clothes.

  The new Alabama football T-shirt was the perfect reminder of exactly how she’d left him to go back to her husband—not that Will needed a reminder. Maybe one day he’d forgive her for what she’d done and the way she’d done it, but he’d never forget.

  The question remained—what the fuck was she doing back, in this town and more importantly in his bed?

  She bit her lower lip as she gazed up at him, looking unsure. Good. Maybe she wasn’t completely delusional that he’d welcome her with open arms.
<
br />   Not gonna happen. Nope. No way.

  “Why are you here, Sara?” He folded his arms and drew in a breath, waiting.

  “Jessa told me to come back.”

  He’d expected tears, lies, flirting, something. Anything, but not that. “Jessa did?”

  Sara nodded. “She said I should have never left.”

  Will shook his head. He didn’t know what was happening with him and Jessa. He only knew one thing for certain. Things were not going back to the way they used to be between him and Sara.

  She’d left him in limbo. Sent him to hell. He’d dragged his way out and he wasn’t going back.

  “No.”

  “No what?” she asked.

  “No, we’re not getting back together. No, you can’t stay here at my place. No to everything. I’m sorry, but no.” His breath was coming faster.

  Nothing about this was easy, but everything about it felt right. He didn’t know what the deal was with Jessa but that didn’t matter. Whether Jessa was going to be a part of his life—his future—or not didn’t affect this here and now with Sara.

  Whether he was alone and lonely or happy and in love, his decision would be the same. Sara was his past.

  One day, maybe he’d be able to look back on their years together fondly and smile. Or maybe not. But it was over.

  The inevitable tears glistened in her eyes as she gazed up at him.

  “I’m sorry, Sara but you have to leave.” As her lip trembled, he felt like a monster and added, “Do you need some cash for gas or something?”

  She shook her head. “No.”

  “Okay. I’m gonna go. I’ve got some stuff to do, so you can get yourself and your things together without me here in your way. I expect you’ll be gone by the time I get back so I’ll say goodbye now.”

  Pale, teary eyed and obviously shocked, she finally nodded.

  In past, Sara looking like that would have broken him. Would have had him pulling her into his arms and trying to make it all better.

  Now, all her reaction did was baffle him.

  How could she honestly have expected to walk back into his life and resume their relationship as if nothing had happened after all this time? And after how she’d left.