Tears stinging her eyes, she firmly pushed aside her idea of what Rhys and Devon’s perfect wedding should’ve been, and hugged her back. “We’re sisters now,” she whispered. “You know that, right?”
“Yeah.” Pressing their foreheads together, Devon rasped, “Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
Not long after that, the raucousness of the party quieted down as the single guys left for more exciting pastures. Couples with young kids and babysitters at home started drifting away, too, and soon it was just the six of them left, sprawled out among the wreckage.
“Great party,” Devon said drowsily, not even bothering to lift her head from where it was resting against Rhys’s chest. Curled up on Geo’s lap, Lani mumbled, “Thanks.”
Shane sat on the floor of the patio, back against a support post, Matt between his legs, arms wrapped around Shane’s upraised knees. Their heads were tilted close together as they whispered, every now and then sharing a lingering kiss.
Lani couldn’t help but smile, and Geo brushed his lips over her temple. “What’re you thinking about, sweetheart?”
She sighed. “About the first time I saw them, that night at the bar. Matt was so prickly, and Shane so arrogant, and yet they were so in love with each other they couldn’t see straight. Who’d have thought I’d be sitting here with them on their wedding day? It just makes me so happy.”
He leaned down and kissed away the tear that slid down her cheek. “It was your engagement party, too, wasn’t it?”
She gasped. “Oh, my God, it was. I forgot for a second.” In the process of casting Rhys a guilty look, she caught him with his hand sliding along Devon’s silky thigh, where it slowly disappeared under her skirt.
Whoops.
Quickly looking away again, she snuggled down against Geo’s broad chest. “It’s scary to think how close I came to marrying the wrong man. What if you’d picked another bar to have a drink in that night? What if I hadn’t gotten so sick at that exact moment?”
Then I wouldn’t be here, a little bit tipsy on wine and a lot drunk on happiness, sitting on my husband’s lap next to some of my most favorite people in the whole wide world.
Lani gazed up at the sky, Geo’s arms around her, squeezing her tight.
Was it you, Ty, watching out for me?
She’d like to think that it was.
Thanks, big brother.
It might’ve been her imagination, or her tired brain, or the fact she’d finally let go of anger, of bitterness, and opened her heart, but she could’ve sworn she heard Tyler’s voice whisper in her ear, Love ya, lil sis.
* * *
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When Nichole Masters feels like she’s being watched, Navy SEAL Jack Daniels is the only person she can turn to. He’s a protector and problem solver by nature and training. Accepting his protection is one thing, but Nichole didn’t count on falling in love.
Keep reading for an excerpt from Operation K-9 Brothers by Sandra Owens.
Chapter One
“Stupid me. I trusted you,” said the voice on the other end of the phone.
Jack Daniels, Whiskey to his SEAL teammates, blinked sleepy eyes at his bedside clock. Three in the morning sucked for getting angry calls from women. What the hell had he done to this one?
“Who’s this?” That was the wrong thing to say. Jack held the phone away from his ear in an effort to save his hearing. He didn’t recognize the number on the screen. Her voice wasn’t familiar either.
“Sweetheart,” he said, interrupting her tirade. “You sure you have the right number?” Even though her voice and phone number didn’t ring any bells, he couldn’t say for sure he wasn’t the douchebag—along with some other impressively creative names she was calling him—in question.
Ah hell, now she was crying.
“How could you?” she said, her words slightly slurred. She hung up on him.
After thirty minutes of trying to go back to sleep, Jack let out a long sigh. How could he what? That question was going to bug him until he got an answer. Although her voice hadn’t been at all familiar, he’d liked it, even when she’d been calling him names. He grinned. Sewer-sucking slimeball and twatwaffle were good, but his favorite was doggy doo. That one had a nice ring to it.
He got out of bed and padded to the living room where he’d left his laptop. Dakota sighed in resignation before hoisting herself up from her dog bed, her nails clicking on the wood floor as she followed him. She liked her sleep, something he interrupted too often for her taste because of his nightmares. At least they weren’t occurring every night anymore. She sat near his leg and peered up at him with worried eyes.
“Not a nightmare this time, girl. We got a mystery on our hands. What do you think of that?”
She knew him inside and out, knew from the tone of his voice that he wasn’t weighed down by his memories this time. Once she determined he didn’t need her comfort, she made two circles, got her damaged leg under her, then curled up on the floor at his feet, apparently liking her sleep more than mysteries. Jack was intrigued, though, his interest in something flaring for the first time since coming home.
It only took a few minutes to find a name and address attached to her phone number. Nichole Masters, currently living in Asheville. Nope, not ringing even one little bell in his memory bank of female acquaintances or hookups. It was possible he’d forgotten one but not likely. He had a good memory, especially for women, and she had a sexy voice he was sure he wouldn’t have forgotten.
Jack stared absently at the half moon framed by the window. Coming to a decision, he nodded. “All right, Nikki girl, you have me curious.” As his teammates would tell anyone who asked, get on Whiskey’s radar and all bets were off.
He showered, and after staring at himself for a minute in the mirror, he shaved off his beard, seeing his face for the first time in months. He felt naked.
* * *
At sunrise Jack made a recon run on one Nichole Masters. Her house was a cute little bungalow near the River Arts District of Asheville, North Carolina. As soon as he downloaded her Facebook profile picture to his phone, he knew that he’d never met her. There was no way he’d forget that face.
He should let it go, but she’d fucking cried, believing he was the cause. That couldn’t stand. And yeah, he recognized that his reasoning was skewed. She’d thought he was some other douchebag, but Jack couldn’t get her voice out of his head. Then there were her eyes, a warm golden brown. Were they as beautiful in person as they were in the photo? But it was her smile that drew him. It was an honest smile, and he sensed that Nichole Masters was a happy person. That some faceless man had made her cry didn’t sit well.