He suddenly realized what she was getting at. She had body image issues and so did he. But being with her had gone a long way toward erasing some of the negative he’d experienced. He’d make damn good and sure he did the same for her.
Maybe the next time they went for a walk on the beach he’d wear shorts. He’d have to buy some.
Chapter 17
‡
Cal gripped the ladder mounted alongside the wheelhouse door and braced his feet against the wallowing motion when the cabin cruiser hit the wake of another vessel. Looking east, he followed the flight of a lone gull as it glided on the stiff breeze cutting inland. It had been too long since he’d been on the water. Until they left the dock, he hadn’t realized how much he’d missed it.
He breathed in the salt-tinged air and studied the passing scenery as Zach, or Doc, as the other two SEALs on board referred to him, navigated out of the bay and pointed the vessel out to sea.
Flash Carney wandered out of the cabin and gripped the other side of the ladder. Though he had been a member of SEAL Team 5 at the time of Cal’s injury, Flash had been transferred to another team. He, Doc, and Bowie still had a bond. It had been apparent as soon as they dropped what they were carrying and moved in to greet each other with handshakes and hugs.
“It’s good to see you on your feet, Cal,” Flash yelled above the wind.
Cal grinned. These guys wouldn’t pussyfoot around his amputation. They’d witnessed it firsthand. They’d all had a hand in saving his life. “It’s good to be standing instead of on my back like the last time you saw me.”
“You came out of the Humvee with your side arm in your hand ready to fight. I knew you’d make it. So, you’re dating Doc’s sister?”
He’d wondered how long it would be before one of them would approach him about it. That it was Flash came as a surprise.
“Yeah, I am.”
He expected some razzing, but instead all Flash said was, “Funny how things come full circle isn’t it?”
Cal studied the man’s face. He’d been quiet and introspective most of the time he’d known him back in Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, Flash had talked more since showing up for the trip than Cal had ever heard him back in the day.
It was like kismet. What were the odds that he would hook up with the sister of the man who’d saved his life? “Yeah, it is. Kathleen kept talking about her brother Zach, but I had no idea he was the guy who dragged me out of the Humvee until we met face-to-face. It was a little surreal.”
“I bet.”
“He didn’t recognize me, but I remembered him.”
“Well, your face was pretty messed up, covered in blood and teeth and starting to swell. I wouldn’t have recognized you if I hadn’t known you before.”
“I guess not.”
“Looks like the docs put you back together pretty good. You’re still as ugly as ever.”
Cal laughed. “Yeah. I still have a few pieces of shrapnel here and there and this.” He raised his leg. “But I’m good.”
“Good.”
“And you?” Cal asked.
“Let me show you my girls.” Flash whipped out his wallet and pulled a picture free.
Ensign Dan Rivera, aka Bowie, appeared at the top of the ladder leading to the wheelhouse above. “He’s doing it again,” he said over his shoulder to Doc before mounting the ladder and climbing down.
Flash laughed. “You’re just jealous.” He extended a picture to Cal.
It was a candid shot taken out in the desert. The woman had strawberry blond hair and freckles across her nose. Her country girl beauty garnered more than just a passing glance. The little girl she held on her lap resembled her so much there was no mistaking they were mother and daughter.
Flash crowded close. “That’s Samantha, my fiancée, and Joy her daughter. Our daughter. As soon as we’re married, I’m putting the paperwork through to adopt Joy. She calls me Pop already, but we want it to be official.”
Meeting this woman had changed Flash. Cal had been around him for an hour and the difference was obvious. Some of it could be about being home from a war zone, but the way the guy had whipped the picture out… “They’re beautiful, man. When’s the wedding?”
“Two weeks. My team’s going wheels up soon, and we want to do it before that happens. Sam doesn’t know why I’m pushing it, but if something were to happen to me in action, I want them to be covered.”
Cal nodded. “Understood.”
“Besides. Sam and I are talking family. We’d like Joy to have a baby brother or sister soon. I have to make her an honest woman before that happens.”
Bowie came to stand on Flash’s right and lean against the opposite side of the ladder. “I’m the sixth son in a family of six. I can tell you how to have a boy, Flash.”
Flash raised a brow, suspicion in his expression. “All right I’ll bite.”
“Fill Sam a bubble bath and pour her a glass of wine. While she’s in the bath give her a back rub. You want her to be as relaxed as possible. Buy her something really sexy to wear to bed, you know, to get the pump primed. Kiss her and tell her how much you love her. Then…”
“Yeah?”
“Call me and I’ll take it from there.”
Cal bit his lip to keep from laughing.
“You son of a bitch,” Flash growled, eyes narrowed. Then he chuckled. “I’ve already warned Sam about you.”
“Moi?” Bowie pointed at his own chest, dimples flashing in each cheek as he grinned. “Why the hell would you do that? Even I have certain rules.”
“Like?”
“Never poach a teammate’s woman.” He squeezed Flash’s shoulder. “Relax, you still qualify. And never date anyone in a teammate’s family. I already have too many people shooting at me to chance someone I know doing it.”
All three of them laughed.
Bowie’s gaze slid to Cal and his lips twitched suspiciously. “You’re either a very brave man or you have a death wish.”
Cal knew where this was going. He shrugged. “Kathleen’s worth the risk.”
Bowie studied him for a long moment. “You may be a cooler customer than I am, Crowes.”
“Naw. If things went sideways between us…not that it’s going to happen…but if it did, it wouldn’t be Doc, Kathleen’s seven other brothers, or her dad I’d have to look out for.”
“Then who is it?”
“Her mom.”
Bowie pointed his finger at Cal and grinned. “Flash, you got to hear this story. Come up here and let Doc tell it to you.”
The two men climbed the ladder to the wheelhouse so Doc could share the story. Cal followed them and wedged a shoulder against one of the side supports to the awning against the rocking movement of the boat. He smiled while Doc explained how his mother had broken her hand punching Kathleen’s ex in the nose. Cal noticed he left out the part about what a cheating bastard the ex was and just called the guy a scumbag who’d tried to use their mom in an end run to get back with Kathleen.
A few minutes later the fish finder started pinging like crazy. Doc pulled back on the boat’s throttle and guided the vessel toward a cloud of gulls in the distance. Thirty feet from the disturbance, Doc cut the engine and let the boat glide to a stop. The large vessel wallowed in its own wake, then settled. “Gulls feeding like this usually means there’s a fish frenzy going on. Check that for me, Bowie.”
Bowie hunched over the sonar device. “Looks like some action for certain.”
“We’ll drop anchor here on the outskirts. Yellowfin love to come from the outside and feed off the bigger fish drawn in by the movement.”
“Okay, what’s the bet this time?” Flash asked.
Doc grinned. “Low man has to buy us each a case of beer and, just to give everyone an incentive, fillet all the fish we catch today.”
“Are we going by number or size?” Cal asked.
Doc chuckled. “You are a quick study, Callahan. We’ll measure each fish from snout to tail and keep a runn
ing tally.” He opened one of the seats and removed a marker board with metal hooks attached at the top and a black marker.
This was the first inkling Cal got about how serious these guys were about fishing. He did not want to be the poor sucker who had to clean a cooler full of fish. But he could get off on eating a few.
“Flash, drop anchor,” Doc ordered.
“Aye, aye.” Flash mounted the ladder and disappeared below.
“Cal, I set out four poles for you to choose from; they’re down in the cabin on the bunk. Check them out and take your pick. There’s a harness or two down there too.”
“Roger that.” He descended to the deck and ducked down into the cabin. A saltwater rig could run as much as nine hundred dollars with the reel. The rod alone could be as much as five hundred dollars. In for a penny, in for a pound. Cal chose a shiny new two-piece rod. He checked that the line wasn’t tangled and the reel worked properly, then picked up a harness. If he hooked something big he might need it.
He stood back and watched the three other men set up to fish. SEALs were driven and focused by nature, so were Marines. Cal understood the need to be both a teammate and a competitor. He’d missed being in the mix. Here he could compete. The playing field was even.
Gripping a lawn chair, he flipped it open and set it along the rail and baited his hook with a bait fish from the cooler Doc had furnished. “Casting,” he called out as he flipped the reel and whipped the end of his rod forward toward the feeding seagulls.
The line landed just where he wanted it. He braced his knee in the chair and slowly reeled it in to lure whatever was out there into biting.
Five minutes later Flash was the first one to hook something. The sound of his reel spinning was cut short when he set the hook. For several tense minutes he heaved and reeled to bring in his prize. The rest of them cheered him on as they waited to see what he had. “He’s surfaced, I need a gaff,” Flashed called out. His shoulder and arm muscles bulged beneath his T-shirt as he fought to keep the fish up.
Doc set aside his own rig and grabbed a long gaff secured to the side of the boat. With a practiced move, he leaned over the rail, hooked the large fish and dragged it on board. The yellowfin tuna was still fighting to be free and flopped on the deck. Cal estimated its weight at roughly thirty pounds. A good catch.
Doc measured and recorded Flash’s catch on the board while Flash secured it in a large cooler.
“Ladies we’re gonna need more than one of those if we’re going to feed the hungry hoard at Lang’s tonight,” Doc said.
Cal cast his line again and felt the immediate tug as the bait was hit. The reel spun as whatever had latched onto the scrod ran with it. He flipped the spindle with his thumb and the reel abruptly stopped, but the force of it nearly jerked the pole out of his hand. Jesus, whatever he’d hooked was big. He cranked the handle and felt the pressure of trying to keep the line tight. He pulled back on the rod, the tip bowed as he forced the fish closer and reeled in the line.
“Need any help over there, Cal?” Doc called.
“Not yet. Once I get him close in to the boat, I’ll yell.”
He took a seat in the lawn chair and braced his feet on the side of the boat. He took his time, working the fish in toward the vessel by short increments. Six minutes later he dropped his feet and stood, thinking surely he was close.
A gray-blue shadow swam back and forth beneath the water, disappeared beneath the boat, bending the end of the rod down at an angle. Cal pulled up on the pole with steady pressure but didn’t try to reel in any more line. He waited for the fish to swim back out. As soon as he saw the shadow again he cranked the reel furiously. When he saw the size of the thing his breath caught. He had no idea how he’d kept it on the hook.
“What is it?” Doc asked.
“I’ve hooked a yellowfin, and it’s big.”
Doc and Bowie reeled in their lines and laid aside their poles.
“Jesus!” Doc exclaimed. “That fucker’s huge.”
“Too big to eat,” Bowie said. “That’s a mounting weight.”
“You want him mounted, Cal?” Doc asked, his green eyes gleaming with excitement.
“No. I’m not a trophy kind of fisherman. I usually eat what I catch.” He could just imagine what Kathleen would have to say about a stuffed dead fish on his wall.
“He’s too nice to turn loose. Imagine all those tuna steaks on the grill,” Doc said, rubbing his hands together. “Keep his head up so he can’t go back under the boat. Bowie and I will gaff him and get him on board.”
Flash having reeled in his line wandered over to watch. “That might be a record, Cal. That sucker has to be at least five feet long.” He whipped out his cell phone and video’d the fish.
Bowie got the longer gaff, while Doc got a shorter one. Doc leaned over the side in order to reach the tuna. Bowie hit the fish in the top of the head with the hook and held on while it thrashed. Blood poured into the water. Doc swung to get a hook on it, too.
A large silver streak advanced on the yellowfin in a rush. Cal had only enough time to yell. “Shark!” A monster heaved up out of the water, jaws open, exposing razor sharp teeth. Its black eyes gleamed flat as it narrowly missed Doc’s arm and clamped down on the tuna from the side, shook its head with a frenzied fury and tore half of the yellowtail away.
Doc’s hand slipped off the railing and he started to pitch headfirst into the water. Cal dropped the pole and dove for his legs, and managed to grab a calf and part of his shirt. He was hanging by a foot just above the water with the predator likely circling to take another bite. His head was brushing the water.
Bowie jerked what was left of the tuna aboard and threw gaff and fish onto the deck, spreading blood across the polished wooden floor.
“Jesus H. Christ, get me up!” A long string of colorful swear words followed.
Bowie and Flash rushed to help. Bowie grabbed Doc’s arm and his belt while Flash fastened onto his other arm and his other leg. The three of them heaved him back onto the deck, and set him on his feet. He still held the gaff he’d been intending to use.
Cal grabbed the rail to regain his feet. “You okay?”
Breathing hard, Doc pushed his dripping hair back from his flushed face, his eyes wide. “Yeah.”
As they watched, the sickle-like dorsal and tail of the shark whipped back and forth as it circled past the boat in search of more prey.
“Shit!” Bowie whispered.
Flash bent over what was left of the dead, mangled tuna. “Dude, you were robbed.”
An hour later, they’d moved the boat to a different location and paused to eat the sandwiches and potato salad Cal and Kathleen fixed for their trip. They laughed again at Flash’s comment as he passed his phone around to view the video of Doc’s close call and as Bowie dubbed it “the great tuna tug-o-war.”
“It seems saving people is getting to be a habit with you, Cal,” Doc commented.
“I’ve just been at the right place at the right time a time or two. The shark would have been too full of my damn fish to munch on you anyway. But I didn’t think you’d want to get your clothes wet.”
“That was damn considerate of you.” Doc nodded. “The water out here is cold as hell. Makes my balls shrivel up just thinking about it.”
Cal grinned, more at ease with the low-key thanks than all the attention he’d gotten recently. He shrugged. “Just passing it on.” He realized he felt more relaxed with these guys than he did even with his building crew. They’d let him step back into the military brotherhood and just accepted him.
“Kathleen said you were going to be on television this week.”
Cal grimaced. “Yeah. Actually, it’s tonight. I got roped into doing an interview with Nora Harper, on Harping on the Truth. You were right about the video. We should never have posted it. I had to send her signed releases yesterday so she could use parts of it, but she’d already found it and put a link to it on her website. Women were leaving comments.”
“What sort of video and what sort of comments?” Bowie asked.
“It was just me at work doing stuff on the building site. But their comments were—suggestive.”
“Man, you should eat that shit up,” Bowie said.
Cal shook his head. “Not while I’m dating someone. I had Kathleen delete it and the comments.” His glanced at Doc.
Doc nodded his understanding. “Speaking of videos. Flash my man, I’m going to have to ask you to keep the gem you recorded to yourself.”
Flash looked up with a frown. “Why?”
“Because I’ve been halfway around the world and dodged more than bullets at numerous times, in numerous countries and never had a scratch. That damn shark came closer to getting me than any terrorist. I don’t want my family to see it. Every time I go out on the boat they’ll be thinking Jaws is out to get me.”
Cal laughed right along with the others.
Doc pointed his finger at the man. “Do not post it on some kind of social media site.”
“I won’t.” Flash threw up a hand as though swearing in court. “But I will email you and Cal a copy. Cal needs proof of the size of that fish.”
Chapter 18
‡
Kathleen leaned back against the picnic table and shielded her eyes from the setting sun as she scanned the backyard. The hedge of Hibiscus against the deck was in full bloom, and the fuchsia-colored blossoms busy with bees. The deck stretched down one side of the house and across the back. On one side a buffet table was arranged, a white tablecloth stretched over the dishes to protect them from children’s marauding fingers and insects.
She’d never been to Langley and Trish Marks’s house before, but the couple welcomed her with open arms. And she felt completely at home, even though she wasn’t the spouse of a SEAL or even the girlfriend or fiancée of one.
The Langley’s three children, Tad, Anna, and Jessica, took turns diving off the board at one end of the pool. They could swim like fish, but Langley kept watch over them out of the corner of his eye while he hung with Jeff Sizemore, another member of the team.
Breaking Boundaries (SEAL Team Heartbreakers Book 5) Page 18
