SEALed and Delivered

by Monroe, Jill

  “What’s next?” asked another guest.

  The smile faded from her sister’s face.

  The bridal party had already played Groom Trivia, Wedding Night Surprise, opened the presents and consumed dozens of champagne soaked strawberries. Hailey had heard so many off-color wedding night jokes, she could probably start a stand-up routine. “What’s next?” her sister mouthed.

  After being awake for nearly twenty-four hours, Hailey had hoped it was a nap.

  The bride had mentioned something about fate, and ding ding ding, that little word triggered a memory in her sleep deprived and work fogged brain of a bookstore purchase not so long ago. So far fate had worked on their side, maybe they should keep it rolling. “Our last game will be ready as soon as we’ve cleared,” Hailey told them demurely, then turned to race up the stairs two at a time to her bedroom. If her grandma had seen her run through the hallway like that…

  Four months ago, the funding for her junior assistant curator position at the Dallas Museum of Art ran out, leaving her jobless. Back in San Diego, she’d reclaimed the bookshelf-lined room that had been hers. The corner room with a small window to the ocean had been her refuge from the oh-so-embarrassing job of working in her family’s B&B when she was growing up.

  While her friends were hitting the sandy beaches, she’d been learning the secrets to making spider web Grenache, or worse, taking care of the guests’ laundry. She smiled at the memory of her teen angst. What she wouldn’t give now to sit beside the large stove and talk to her mother as she made the delicious meals for their guests, or hear her grandma’s lessons of how a real lady crossed her legs at the ankle.

  A time when she didn’t have to worry about bills. Hailey wouldn’t lose the battle for The Sutherland before she’d really had a chance to implement her ideas. Growing up in a work of art, like The Sutherland, with so much history, it was no wonder she’d been drawn to preserving and showcasing the past. Now she was saving something infinitely more personal…her family’s legacy. Though she had work to do on the first step—save this wedding shower. She scanned the various self-help titles that now filled her bookshelf, looking for the bright red packaging. There they were—the Fate Delivery cards.

  She peeled off the plastic wrapping as she raced down the hallway, stuffing the cellophane wrapper into her apron. Hailey plastered on a serene expression reminiscent of their mother as she returned to the Tea Room where Rachel finished the last of the clean-up. Their guests were talking quietly, looking over the various gifts the bride had received.

  Needing to set some kind of mood here, Hailey flipped the switch cutting off the light provided by the chandeliers. The natural sunlight filled the room with its warm tones.

  “Okay, ladies, the time is now,” she said, her voice low and laced with dramatic flourish. An instant hush fell over the room. Hey, they were into it. Maybe Hailey had finally found the silver lining of taking that acting class in college, which sadly had led her to Fiancé Failure Number One.

  “Amy is about to embark on a new journey that fate has ordained. Now it’s our turn to see what’s destined for the rest of us.” Hailey fanned the cards in her hand. “Pick your fate, but don’t look at it.”

  Each guest in the circle took a card, holding it to her chest, giggling to one another about taking peeks. Hailey held out the deck to Amy.

  “Maybe I shouldn’t take a card,” the soon-to-be-bride said.

  “Oh, take a card, Amy,” said the maid of honor with a quick nudge. “It’s just a game.”

  With a good-humored smile, Amy slid a card from the deck and placed it face down on her lap.

  Hailey returned the unused cards back in the cardboard box they came in and set them aside. “Now ladies, the bride will choose who goes first,” she instructed, making the rules up as she went. “You will show your card to the rest of the group, then look at it yourself. Some of the fates are silly and fun, but others are true life-changing destinies.”

  She hoped.

  Maybe.

  Hailey backed away to the wall where her sister watched. “Fate had ordained?” Rachel whispered to her. “I’ve forgetten how dramatic you can be.”

  “If it works, it works. Did you catch my emphasis on the word last, when I talked about this game?”

  “Here’s hoping they did,” Rachel said, hiding a yawn with her hand.

  “Tori, you go first,” Amy said, clearly fired up to get this game going.

  Tori turned her card to show to the rest of the group. A few groans followed.

  “Oh, you have an easy one,” one of the ladies called out.

  Tori twirled the card around and read aloud. “Kick off your shoes and run into the wind.” Then she glanced at her friends, raising a brow. “Speak for yourself on that being easy. Once I get these heels off, they’re not going back on.”

  “No, you can’t get out of it,” Amy insisted, now fully involved in the game. “The beach is right outside this window.”

  Floor to ceiling windows dominated one side of the Tea Room. Shrouded in beautiful lace, the curtains allowed natural sunlight to filter into the room. But sweep them aside, and the Italian tiled terrace beckoned, as did the beach. The perfect place to kick off shoes and run.

  “I’ll handle this,” Hailey said as she pushed off the wall and walked to the curtains that hid the glass door to the terrace. After draping the heavy material in the ornate holdbacks, she unlocked the doors so the women could step outside.

  “Oh, this is beautiful,” several of the guests murmured as they stepped out onto the terrace, their heels clacking on the original tile some Sutherland relative had installed. She and Rachel hadn’t done much to this area but clean up the landscaping, although her sister had big plans to add tables and chairs, and serve brunch accompanied by an ocean breeze. There were other ways for the B&B to earn money besides guests in the rooms.

  “Tori, just because it’s pretty out here doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten why we’ve come. You’ve got some running to do.”

  With a sigh, Tori reached down and slid the straps off her heels, and carefully tucked her shoes to the side. “Here I go!” she called out.

  Hailey had to join in the laughter as Tori took off down the beach in her sundress, the wind blowing in her hair. She turned to run backwards, raising her hands in the air like a winning marathon winner.

  “Oh, no. Tori, look out.”

  But Tori was too far away to hear Amy’s warning call, and Tori jogged right into the very solid chest of a man enjoying the beach with his dog. Now off balance, Tori began to slide to the sand until the man dropped his Frisbee and caught her. He steadied her against his body.

  Amy’s warnings turned to laughter as Tori glanced up to her savior’s face. Then smiled. Slowly. The man didn’t let go.

  “Get his name,” one of the guests called.

  “And his number,” Amy added.

  “I tell you, she meets men in the weirdest ways,” said the maid of honor. “Amy, choose who should go next.”

  Amy glanced over at Tori, who was now tilting her head and brushing sand off the man’s arm. “Should we wait for her?”

  “No, that’s going to take awhile. Look at him, he’s a goner.”

  With a nod, Amy agreed. “Then you should go.”

  Just as the maid of honor was about to reveal her card, her cell phone rang. Looking down at the display she frowned. “Amy, I’m sorry, I have to take this.” The maid of honor thrust the card toward Hailey and quickly made her way back inside the Tea Room.

  “Oh, but—” Hailey stammered.

  “Show it, Hailey,” Amy said.

  Hailey glanced across the veranda to the Tea Room. It didn’t appear as if the maid of honor was coming back any time soon. Well, Hailey had bought these cards for a reason. Maybe now it was time to do something for herself. With a sigh, she turned the card toward her guests.

  To a lot of laughter.

  “Oh, that’s hilarious.”

  “That co
uld be really good or really bad.”

  With some alarm, Hailey quickly turned the card over and read, “Kiss the first man you see.”

  No. NO. And hell no. Getting away from men was the second reason she’d come home. Hailey wasn’t about to actually throw herself at one. And, as far as she was concerned, certainly nothing good ever came from kissing.

  Some of the women were already moving toward the end of the terrace to search the sandy beach for available men, their skirts twirling in the breeze. “I see a few contenders way down the beach,” one said, smiling.

  “Just think, five minutes earlier and it would be you in the arms of that guy instead of Tori,” said another.

  Tori was welcome to him. To all men.

  A strange whooshing sounded over their heads. Hailey’s skirt practically lifted to her chin thanks to a strong, very out-of-place gust of air. Okay, not completely out of place. Shielding her eyes with one hand, and trying to hold strands of her carefully constructed chignon in place, Hailey looked up to spot the now familiar helicopter hovering over the ocean.

  The Navy SEALs were back.

  Hailey suppressed a groan. The SEALs had been conducting their training nearby on a semi-regular basis ever since she’d returned to Coronado. But Saturday afternoons had always been blissfully free of the noise and the wind. Why now during their first formal event?

  The door of the helicopter’s cabin slid open sharply and some kind of rope was thrown out, the end suspended just a few feet above the water.

  “What’s going on?” asked a guest.

  “Would anyone like more tea?” Hailey tried, but no one was paying her any attention. Everyone’s focus was on the chopper.

  At the cabin’s entrance, a man emerged, clad in a skintight black wetsuit. Hell, she might as well look, too. She squinted, but Hailey was too far away to make out features. Besides, she was paying too much attention to the fact that he was solid, lean muscle. She swallowed as he caught and pulled the rope toward him, wrapping it around his wrists and hands while securing it with his long legs. Hailey gasped as he flung himself over the side of the helicopter, strength evident in his every move. Her mouth went dry as he slid down the rope, heading for the rough, churning water. When he reached the end of the rope, he dove into the ocean, leaving little splash.

  “Did you see that?” one of the women asked, her voice hushed.

  How could she not?

  After a moment he resurfaced, and the breath she’d been holding finally released.

  “I’d think that would qualify as the first man you see, Hailey,” Rachel said, not able to suppress the laughter from her voice.

  “Hope you have a nice bikini to wear to swim out there to meet him,” the bride said, joining in the fun. “But look.”

  With reluctance, Hailey took her gaze off the man easily treading in the ocean to find even more men scrambling out of the helicopter.

  Great. This was just great. The last thing she wanted to do was kiss a man, and fate had sent them literally falling out of the sky.

  2

  “WHICH ONE ARE YOU GOING to choose?” Rachel asked, her voice filled with laughter. Gleeful, encouraging-of-others to torment her sister kind of laughter. Now Hailey didn’t feel so bad about the “haircut” she’d given Rachel at the age of four.

  “Five, six, seven,” Amy counted as each man propelled himself onto the rope. “And they keep coming. So would the first one technically be the first one out of the helicopter?”

  “I have a self-help book that would be perfect to cure you of that sarcasm. It means you’re hiding a lot of pain,” Hailey whispered to her sister.

  “Nah,” Rachel said with a growing smile.

  “No, I think it would be the first one she’d reach,” said another guest.

  “Well, that could depend on which direction she swam, giving her a choice.”

  These ladies were applying the same kind of arguments and logic one would use when discussing String Theory or macroeconomics. It was just a guy.

  “So which one?” Amy asked.

  Curious eyes now gazed her way.

  None of them.

  Thankfully, the whooshing sounds from the helicopter drew their guests’ attention away from her.

  “Oh, they’re leaving,” one of the ladies said, clearly disappointed.

  “Just the helicopter. The guys are still in the water. Look.”

  Sure enough eight men waded in the water. Sometimes they would point, or go under the waves for a moment, but basically stayed in the same general location, performing what looked like drills.

  “Now that can’t feel good. The water is cold this time of year. Why would they be out there?” asked one of the women, frowning.

  The bride leaned forward. “One word—training. Those are Navy SEALs.”

  “SEALs?”

  The sisters nodded in confirmation. They’d witnessed this little scenario play out with several of their female tourists. First the confusion, then the excitement followed by the gawking.

  “Why didn’t you say so before?” Two of the women rushed to the railing to get a closer look, their heels clacking against the tile. Yeah, it was pretty much downhill from here.

  “I didn’t realize you could see them from the B&B.”

  “All up and down this area. They train right on Coronado,” Hailey told them.

  One woman, who Hailey thought might be the guest book attendant, pulled out her camera phone and snapped a picture.

  “What’s going on?” Tori asked. She’d left her new friend, slipping a note inside her purse as she rejoined the group.

  Amy looped her arm through Tori’s and led her to where she could see the beach. She pointed out toward the water. “Hailey’s fate is to kiss one of them.”

  “Lucky her,” Tori said, turning appreciative eyes out to the ocean.

  Amy propped her hand on her hip. “Didn’t you just have a bit of luck yourself? Was that a phone number I saw you squirreling away?”

  A slight flush touched Tori’s cheeks. “I have a date Friday night.”

  “Tori, you’re the only person I know who could snag a date at a wedding shower.”

  This had to be good for business. Following clean up, and a nap, Hailey would be buying more sets of cards. After she ducked out on fulfilling the dictates of the card thrusted upon her, that is.

  Amy put an arm around Hailey’s shoulder. “I see you backing away. Don’t think we forgot about you, kiddo. You still have a Fate waiting for you.”

  When had the bride become so menacing? Maybe Hailey wouldn’t be buying those additional decks after all.

  “Come on, ladies, you know I’m not swimming out there,” she told them, with a touch of fun firmness that said she understood she was in on the joke.

  “Maybe you won’t have to,” Tori said, pointing at the ocean. Two of the men had broken away from the group and were now swimming straight for The Sutherland. Straight toward her.

  Hailey’s eyes widened as she realized one of them wasn’t swimming, and appeared to be unconscious. She sucked in a breath, then watched in amazement as the swimmer rolled the other onto his back, then secured the inert man to his side. With strong sure strokes, he headed for shore. Swimming from that distance would have been exhausting, but pulling the weight of another full-grown man must have been almost impossible. She scanned the beach for some kind of boat. Maybe she could meet them half way.

  Kicking off her heels, she lifted her skirt and flew down the tiled stairs of the terrace to the sand below.

  “Looks like she found her kissing candidate.” Whistles and catcalls from the shower guests followed Hailey onto the beach.

  “Call 9–1-1,” she hollered and she raced toward the man, kicking up sand behind her.

  “What?” The ladies’ teasing turned into murmurs of concern.

  The swimmer was now standing waist deep in the water. She’d never seen anything like him. Clad shoulder to foot in a dark, skintight wetsuit, he emerged f
rom the ocean. The powerful muscles of his thighs flowed with strength. His suit outlined every solid ripple of the lean lines of his shoulders and arms. He reminded her of Colossus, the powerful X-Man who transformed into solid, dark steel. Her second fiancé sold a ton of those comic books in his store, and witnessing someone with such a show of strength in aid of another, she understood Colossus’ appeal.

  The SEAL’s burden still hadn’t moved, and her breath shallowed in panic. The cool water of the Pacific splashed at her ankles as she raced to meet them.

  “Stay back,” he warned.

  “Let me help,” she offered, seeing the fatigue lining his face. “I’m stronger than I look.”

  At five feet two inches, she must look pretty scrawny to this big man. With a reluctant nod from him, she looped the injured man’s arm around her shoulder, taking only a little of the weight. Colossus still managed the bulk of the load. “My friends are calling for help. 9–1-1,” she added.

  “I’ve already radioed for the helicopter.”

  “From in the water?” she asked, feeling almost instantly silly. Seeing the men up close in their wetsuits or rash guards or whatever they called that tight-fitting dive garb, there was no question they were military. Of course they had some kind of waterproof device. “I know CPR.”

  Colossus shook his head as they eased the man to the sand and positioned him on his back. “He’s breathing. He hit his head and blacked out. I made sure he didn’t take in any water.”

  “Oh,” she said, sitting back on her heels, her breath coming out in little pants. Okay, well. Colossus seemed to have everything in hand. What was the protocol in a situation like this? Offer him some mousse as they waited for rescue? It didn’t matter. He wasn’t paying her any attention, instead checking on his fallen comrade, counting out his pulse against his watch and lifting the man’s eyelids.

  Water ran crazy paths down his forehead and cheeks, but he never brushed it away, utterly focused on the task at hand.

  “Is there anything I can do?” she asked, wanting to help.

  The man simply shook his head. He didn’t seem to mind the cold she knew he must be feeling. His breathing was heavy, but he hadn’t handed over responsibility for the other soldier to her so he could take a break. His words had been confident, and his actions seemed to back him up. Unlike Fiancé Failure Number Three who never wasted an opportunity to offer an “expert” opinion, but was only adept at giving completely useless advice.