“What’s difficult about them?”
She shrugged. “Nothing big. The usual kind of thing. They don’t want their rooms cleaned, but they pile wet towels on the floor in the hall. Then they ask for new ones but won’t let me clean their bathrooms. They insist on room service when we don’t offer it. They’re always calling down for me to bring them coffee. I’ve told them a million times they can get coffee on the corner, or use the coffee maker in their room, but that isn’t good enough. Nothing big, and those things aren’t uncommon, but when I’m working like a crazy person, it can be annoying.”
He could understand that. “The women in my family would probably hit them over the head.” Cayenne, Trap’s wife, would bundle them up in a silken cocoon and hang them from a tree, but he couldn’t say that.
“I shouldn’t complain about them. They were really nice to Jacy. They even brought her back a coloring book and crayons when she was upset one day and they heard her crying. Tania said she has a younger sister, a girl about ten years younger than her, but she adores her. She hated the fact that Jacy was upset, so even though they have annoying ways, they can be sweet. Everyone else heard her crying as well, I know because Bryon and Anna Cooper inquired about her the next day and so did one of the men from Lantern International, but only Tania thought to do something for Jacy.”
Malichai had nearly finished off his burger and was working through his fries, trying not to eye hers. She hadn’t touched one. In fact, she was the slowest eater he’d ever seen. She chewed each bite a hundred times or more.
“Tell me about your friend’s little girls. You said he had five daughters. I’ve never seen actual triplets.”
He felt the instant stillness in his body. None of the team members talked much about the girls. They protected them, just as they protected Pepper, Wyatt’s wife. The triplets had been slated to be terminated by one of Whitney’s followers, who had been head of a laboratory until Malichai’s team killed him.
“I don’t know that much about kids, but they’re pretty damn cute. Probably wouldn’t know what to do with one, but they make you want to have children. They smile at you and you just kind of melt.” He held her eyes across the table. “You want kids?”
She nodded and pushed the little woven basket containing half her burger and all of her fries toward him. “I’m saving room for lasagna and sourdough bread.” She indicated the basket. “I sit on the beach and watch the kids play in the sand or make castles. Jacy definitely melts my heart. Yeah, I’d like to have children someday.”
Malichai watched the couple, Bryon and Anna, get up together. Bryon slung his arm around his wife’s shoulders, and they took the stairs heading down to the beach. The day was beautiful, clear, feeling to Malichai as if he could see all the way to the other side of the ocean. The waves rolled in gently to the sandy beach, where dozens of bright umbrellas were set up and families played or read or just enjoyed the late afternoon sun.
There was peace in being there. Or maybe it was just spending time with Amaryllis. It wasn’t like he spent time with a lot of women. He usually picked one up in a bar, spent a few hours with her and was gone. His life was about service to his country, being with his teammates and building a fortress out in the middle of the Louisiana swamp in the hopes that they could protect themselves from any attack on them.
GhostWalkers were different. Experiments. Already, they had a few enemies in the White House, men and women who believed they were too dangerous to allow them to live. There were four teams of GhostWalkers. The first team had problems with brain bleeds and other major issues, but they still went out and did the work deemed necessary for their country.
All of them had gone through rigorous special forces training and then some. The first team had joined with the second squad out in the wilds of Montana and were building a fortress there to protect their families. Team three was in San Francisco, putting together their stronghold, and his team was in Louisiana doing the same.
“Never thought I’d be sitting in a place like this, talking to a woman like you,” Malichai said. He picked up the burger she’d carefully cut in half and took a bite.
“Like me?”
“So damn beautiful I can barely breathe.” He couldn’t believe the words in his brain came out of his mouth. “Clearly I can’t censor either.”
She looked pleased and a little embarrassed. “Thank you, that’s a very sweet thing to say.”
He winced. “Don’t do that ‘sweet’ thing. Women start viewing a man as sweet and he has zero chance with her.”
“Zero chance?” she echoed. “Barring sweet, you’d like a chance with me?”
“That’s right.” He finished off the burger. “Thanks for sharing.”
“You’re never going to be able to eat dinner, and the lasagna is so good. It’s one of the house specialties.”
“I’ll eat it. Nonny always says I have a hole in my leg and the food falls out. My woman is going to have a very difficult time keeping up with my appetites.” He grinned at her.
Amaryllis shook her head. “You’re awful.”
“But now you’re so much more interested. I can tell.”
She laughed, just as he knew she would. “You’re awful,” she repeated, “and we should get going. Are you taking those fries?”
“No, the birds can have them.” He indicated the gulls that walked on the sand and the wooden patio waiting for them to leave. “I want the lasagna, remember?”
Malichai stood when she did and held out his hand to her. She took it without hesitation, which pleased him. She started toward the stairs that led to the beach, the same direction the couple from the bed-and-breakfast had taken. As they walked back toward the B and B, he moved closer to her and drew her hand to his chest, pressing her palm against his heart for a moment.
He felt her look, but he kept walking, observing around him, not her. It felt right just walking with her. Being with her. That was a new experience for him as well. It was the simplest thing, just strolling together, neither feeling the need to break their silence. They got all the way to the bed-and-breakfast before she stopped and pulled her hand from his.
“What is it, honey?” He slid his fingers around the nape of her neck, but his thumb dared to slide over her exquisite cheekbone.
“I just want you to know, I like your sweet.”
She leaned into him and pressed a kiss to his jaw, just a brief touch of her lips against that inevitable shadow that darkened the lower half of his face. His heart felt as though it had stopped in his chest while his entire body absorbed the feel of those lips on his skin. That fast, she turned away from him and was gone down the hall, disappearing into the part of the house that was off-limits to guests. He stared after her for a longer time than necessary and was grateful none of his fellow GhostWalkers were around. They would never have allowed him to hear the end of it.
Malichai headed to his room. This time he met two men coming out of their room. They were new at the B and B, arrivals sometime that day. He took his phone out of his pocket on the pretense of reading text messages. It wasn’t like he didn’t have plenty to read. Mostly they were from his brothers telling him he was going to get a beating if he didn’t answer soon. They wanted to know if he was all right.