Attached (Coronado Series Book 3) (15 page)

She poured the coffee, took the cups into the bedroom and watched Travis make the bed. Big bad Travis was making the most perfect bed she’d ever seen. He stood back and looked at it before he nodded his approval. Cary stood next to him and handed him his cup of coffee. “That is pretty impressive, did you learn that in the navy?”

His eyes creased with amusement. “I sure did.”

“You’re a man of many talents.”

“I’m going to make you breakfast next.” He leaned over and kissed her and then walked out of the room.
 

Cary admired his behind as he walked away and then turned around and looked for her suitcase. She noticed that it was absent and had a feeling that Travis had hid it away. She started opening drawers and discovered that he’d put her clothes away next to his. She opened the top drawer and saw her panties and bras folded neatly next to his boxers. The next drawer had their socks comingling, and the next drawer had their T-shirts lying on top of each other. He was sending her a not-so-subtle message, and she wasn’t sure what to do about it. She pulled out a fresh pair of panties, walked into the closet and discovered her clothes hanging next to his. He had her all neatly moved in, and she was guessing that he was pretty happy with himself right about now. As she got into the shower, she decided to ignore what he’d done. She would give him this one and save her energy for something bigger.

Travis worked away in the kitchen and listened with a half ear to see if Cary was going to start yelling about where he’d put her clothes. All he heard was the shower turn on, so he figured that he was safe for now. He heard the washer stop and decided to switch the laundry. He put the set of sheets in the dryer and walked back to the bedroom to get the laundry basket. He noticed that Cary had emptied it and separated it by color. He saw his boxers mixed with her bras and panties and felt an overwhelming surge of happiness. This was definitely the right road to be on. The mixing of dirty clothes was definitely a good sign. He picked up one of the piles, took it to the laundry room and decided that this was an excellent beginning to their one-week anniversary.

********

Cary sat at the table and ate breakfast as she wondered how to get her center back. “Thank you for making breakfast.”

“I’m glad you like it, because it’s the only thing that I can cook.” He watched her and wondered what was going through her mind. She seemed a little preoccupied. “I can also handle the grill and make baked potatoes.”

“That’s pretty impressive.”

“What is going on in that mind of yours? I can see it working away at something.”

“I was just thinking about the rest of the summer and trying to come up with a plan. I think I need to stick around for a while and make sure that my house is getting done.”

“Have you ever had unstructured time?”

“Not really. I usually teach summer school and reading classes. I’m homeless with nothing to do. I need to figure out how to get my feet back under me.”

“I haven’t had any significant time off in the last fifteen years, and that’s why I decided to take off for the summer. I thought it might be easier if I was on the road, and I was hoping it would allow me to make the transition a little easier. So in some ways, we’re going through something similar.”

“I never thought about it that way. Somehow that makes me feel better.”

He rested his hand over hers and winked at her. “I have good news. We’re going to jump out of the airplane tomorrow. I have us scheduled for a morning jump with a friend of mine.”

“I’m excited and scared out of my mind. What if I freeze and can’t make myself do it?”

“We’re doing a tandem jump, so you’re not going to have a choice. I’m going to be controlling the whole thing. All you have to do is hang on and enjoy yourself.”

She put both her hands on her face and looked at him with a dazzling smile. “Saying thank you doesn’t seem like enough.” She leaned over, kissed him and put her head against his. “Thank you.”

“Happy one-week anniversary baby.”

She lifted her head and studied him “It’s been a week? It seems like much longer.”

“I’m going to take that as a compliment.”

She got up and laughed as she cleared the table. “I never doubted for a second you would.”

He followed her with the rest of the dishes. “What’s on your schedule today?”

“I’m going to go the library and the mall and then meet with Adam later on.”

“I think I’ll go over to ASI and fill out my paperwork, because they’ve been after me. I should just go and get it over with. I told Mark that I would go over to the base later on and fill in for one of his instructors. Maybe we can meet up at the beach later on and walk home.”

“OK, sounds good to me. Birdie told me a funny story last night about walking on the beach with Rory. They were walking toward the hotel and saw Mark leading his group down the beach on a run, so she waved to him. He made his whole group stop on the beach, turn around and do push-ups while he kissed her hello. Then he made them get up and resume their run. Rory was laughing out of her mind the whole time.”

“That sounds like Mark. I think it’s pretty funny that he made them turn around.”

“Mark told her later on that they were not worthy of seeing him kiss his wife.”

“I think SEALs treat love the same way we treat everything else in our life that means something: with dedication, full attention, commitment and unwavering focus.”

“Are you trying to tell me something?”

“I just want to prepare you, so you can get your mind right. I want you to be ready for what’s coming your way.”

“I should say the same thing to you. Get ready, Travis Mathers. You think you’re ready…..but you’re not.” With that, she sauntered out of the kitchen and down the hall. She heard his big, loud laugh and kept going. She had no idea what she’d meant when she said that, but she didn’t like him throwing challenges at her all the time. She’d thrown something back and had no idea what it meant.
That’s OK, I’ll figure something out later on.

She came back out with her phone in her hand and showed Travis an address. “Do you know where this is?”

He looked at it. “That’s down by the airport. It’s probably one of the hangars.”

“Oh, that makes sense. I’m going to meet Adam, and he’s probably starting the work out there for Max.”

“Why don’t we go together? I haven’t been to the hangar yet, and I want to see what kind of set-up they have. We can stop at the offices first in downtown and then go out there.”

“You can drop me off at the mall while you go in to the office.”
 

“All right. What are you going to buy at the mall? Do you need my help?”

“No, I don’t need your help. I can buy underwear all by myself. I’ve been doing it for years.”

“I could give you my opinion. I have lots of them.”

“I noticed that, but I think I’m good.”

 
“You can show me everything when you get home, maybe give me a little fashion show.”

“You wouldn’t make it through the first set, because you like underwear when it’s on the floor.”

“That’s true. I think that’s a good place for it. I like the process of getting it off you, though.”

“I noticed that last night. I like how you used your teeth to free me of my clothing. That was very creative.”

“I have a lot more ideas like that.”

“I’m sure you do. You can keep them to yourself for now.”

“Are you sure?”

“As sure as sugar. I would like to be able to walk today.”

“Walking is overrated.”

“What are you going to tell Mark when you can’t manage to work-out with his recruits?”

“I can do both, and if I can’t, then Mark will just be out of luck. I’m retired now, and I have to focus on my transitional activities. The head doctor told me that.”

“Getting at me two or three times a day is a transitional activity?”

“It’s the only one I care about.”

“Good to know. I like a man who has focus, and you seem to have that in spades.”

“He grabbed her waist and pressed his hips against her. “You have no idea.”

“Oh, I think I do, I can feel your focus right now and it’s going to stay where it’s at.”

“All right. Let me know when you’re ready.”

“I sure will.” She laughed at him and started to feel better. She was starting to get a little mojo back. She was tired of feeling out of sorts. They could figure out how to get through their summer together. Who better than a navy SEAL to be her partner in crime?
 

CHAPTER ELEVEN

They stood at the open door of the hangar and watched the helicopter hover over the ground. It seemed really low. But what did she know about helicopters and how high or low they were supposed to be? She did know that men hanging off the skids and doing pull-ups was probably not a good idea. She held on to Travis’s arm as the rotor blades whipped the wind around them. She shouted into his ear, “Are they supposed to be doing that?”

He shouted back, “Define “
supposed to
,” as a devilish happy grin played on his face. He watched as the men pulled themselves up on the skids and shouted a loud Hooyah! The chopper took off into the sky, and the guys climbed back in and waved to everyone below. He might just like working with Max and the Team after all. This was the same crazy shit they did when they were employed by Uncle Sam, only now he was going to be making a load of money. He couldn’t believe what they were offering to pay him in the first year. He knew the guys already and had worked with most of them at some point over the years. Hell, his best friend and swim buddy already worked there. He suddenly had a feeling of happiness bloom in his chest for the first time since he retired. The future didn’t seem so scary and depressing. He had his arm around Cary and was looking at a bunch of men whom he respected the hell out of. “That was fun, but I’ll have to show them how it’s done next time.”

“Are you telling me that you’re going to swing off the side of a helicopter and do pull-ups?”

“Yeah, it’s not that crazy.” A look of horror passed across her face as she studied him. Maybe he didn’t need to tell her about what went on at work. They could just skip that part. He kissed her head. “Do you want to go up in the chopper?”

“I don’t trust any of you, because you all are crazy, and I mean
lock you up
crazy.” She continued to shake her head and look at the men in the hangar. She heard the chopper and looked up as the pilot landed it with a graceful touch against the ground. She heard the engines start to shut down and the rotor blades unwind slowly. She watched three men jump out, and they were laughing and clapping one another on the back with big smiles on their face. They all looked like men coming home from the best adventure of their life. One of the men had on shorts and had a prosthetic leg. He was massively built, and the leg wasn’t something that you would notice at first. Her first instinct was to go up to him and thank him for his service, but she didn’t know what the right thing to do was. Where was the manners book in a situations like this? The guys came into the hangar and caught sight of Travis, and they all greeted one another and slapped and hugged each other.
 

David walked up to Cary, put his arm around her shoulder and whispered in her ear, “We’re all bat shit crazy. That’s why they let us on the Teams. It worked in our favor when we were out there in the world.” He gave her a squeeze. “When you get tired of my best friend, you can give me a call. People always said that I was the more reasonable one out of the two of us.”

She turned and looked at him and let out a laugh. “You’re just saying that to see if you can cause trouble. You’re really cute, but you’re trouble. No wonder none of Birdie’s matches are working out.”

“Oh, man….you heard about that. I was out on an op last night and I didn’t mean to stand the woman up.”

“It worked out, because her friend didn’t show, either. Apparently Birdie had to really talk her into it. She canceled at the last minute because she wasn’t able to get out of a meeting, so I think you were the one who was stood up.”

“I wasn’t even there. How could I be stood up?”

“I think she canceled before you called with your excuses. Her call came in before yours. You were stood up.”
 

She watched him cross his arms over his chest as he looked out over the airfield. “I didn’t even want to go out with her anyways.”

Cary patted his arm and used her soft teacher voice. “You just keep telling yourself that. Walk it off… just walk it off. I’m sure it never would have worked out.”

He let his arms go and turned to her. “You don’t know that. Why would you say that?”

“Birdie told me all about Gracie, and I don’t think she’s the woman for you. I’m guessing you would like someone who’s really attractive in an obvious way and has a sweet personality. How am I doing so far?”

“I do like nice, pretty girls. So what?”

“I’m not judging you. I just think that you and Gracie would be oil and water. Birdie told me that she’s an accomplished lawyer and a skilled negotiator. Apparently she doesn’t put up with bull shit. She looks like a dark fairy and has the sense of humor to go with it. I don’t think you two would’ve lasted ten minutes on a date-I think it worked out for the best.”