“I’ll just go last. I don’t want to hold you guys up,” she said.
Every single one of the men smiled at that. Elodie had no idea what was so funny, but Scott quickly explained.
“You aren’t going to hold us up. We’re going to take this at your pace, babe. And for the record, this isn’t a workout. We aren’t planning on force marching you to and from the waterfalls. If you see something along the way that you want to stop and look at, we’ll stop. If you need to rest, we’ll stop. And no way in hell would we ever expose your six by having you go last. You’ll stay between us so if anything happens, you slip or a large grizzly bear appears out of nowhere, we can fight it off like the big bad Navy SEALs we are.”
Elodie rolled her eyes. “There aren’t any bears in Hawaii,” she said with a laugh.
“That you know of,” Pid retorted. “Maybe one escaped the zoo.”
“Fine,” she said with a shake of her head. “I’ll walk between you guys, but if I go too slow, just tell me.”
“Yeah, sure, we’ll do that,” Scott told her.
Elodie felt a little bad at first that she was the only one without a pack on her shoulders, but quickly decided she was glad after they’d started. The trail wasn’t difficult. It seemed to be following a river, but like Scott said, it was very muddy. It was hard to keep her footing and after slipping a few times, she had mud caked all the way up to her thighs.
She would’ve been embarrassed about the fact she kept losing her balance, but the other guys were stumbling just as much. When Midas, who was walking in front of her, went to step over a rock and his feet went flying out from under him, she couldn’t help but laugh. He’d looked hilarious sitting in the mud in the middle of the trail. Luckily, he wasn’t hurt and laughed right along with her.
After that, they began to talk as they walked, and she was enjoying getting to know him a little better.
“You’re doing okay after what happened on the cargo ship?” he asked.
“Surprisingly, yeah. I still think about Captain Conger sometimes and feel bad though,” Elodie said.
“If it makes you feel any better, after reading the report, it was obvious he did everything right. He hadn’t made any stupid decisions that made the Asaka Express vulnerable to attack. It seemed as if you guys were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“You read the report?” Elodie asked in surprise.
“Yeah, we all did. Why?”
“I just…” She shrugged. “I guess I thought doing that sort of mission was kinda routine for you guys. And reading the official reports of what happened on every mission you go on would get old.” She didn’t really know anything about how SEAL teams operated or what their standard procedures were, but it seemed odd to her that they’d go out of their way to revisit a mission once it was over.
“Well, it’s always good to evaluate what we did while on a mission so if we made mistakes, we don’t repeat them next time. Besides…you made quite the impression on us, which made us all even more curious as to the circumstances of how the cargo ship got hijacked in the first place. We were kinda looking for someone to blame, and realized there wasn’t anyone, really. It was just shitty timing.”
Elodie’s respect for Scott’s team went up a notch. She knew they were well trained and elite special forces soldiers, but she honestly hadn’t realized how much they did both before and after their missions. “What’s your story?” she asked. “I mean, shouldn’t you be a professional basketball player or something?”
Midas laughed. “Because I’m tall? I had no interest in playing ball. I was a swimmer. I spent every summer in our neighborhood pool, from the time it opened until dinnertime. I think my dad would’ve liked me to be interested in a more manly sport than swimming, but there was this girl…” His voice trailed off, and he turned and winked at Elodie. “She was two years older than me, and when I realized she was on the swim team, and I could hang out with her at meets and practice—and see her in a swimsuit while I was at it—I was all in.”
“Were you any good?” Elodie asked.
“I was okay,” Midas said.
“He’s full of shit,” Aleck said from behind her. “He got his nickname because his senior year, he won all three of his individual events at State and was on three winning relays. He had so many gold medals, everyone started calling him Midas.”
“Wow, that’s kinda impressive,” Elodie told him. “Did you end up dating that girl?”
Midas grinned. “Nope. Turns out she was into women, but I did find several other girls who thought it was cool to date a swimming stud.”
Elodie laughed. “Right. And I’m sure checking you out in your Speedo had nothing to do with that.” For a second, she was aghast at what she’d just blurted, but when all of the guys burst out laughing, she relaxed.
“I plead the Fifth on that one,” Midas said.
“Ask him what his specialty stroke was,” Pid called from behind them.
Amazingly, Elodie saw a flush of pink steal over Midas’s cheeks. “Oh my God, you were a breaststroker, weren’t you?”
The guys behind her were laughing so hard now, she wasn’t sure how they were all staying upright on the muddy trail.
Midas shrugged. “I was a sprinter too,” he said, as if that would make her forget his teammates’ ribbing.
Having pity on him and deciding not to tease him, she asked, “Does it come in handy to be a state champion when you’re a SEAL?” she asked.
“Yes and no. When we have water ops, we aren’t exactly sprinting through the water. We’re trying to be stealthy or we’re swimming underwater.”
That made sense. The group came up to a place in the trail where they had to cross the river. There were rocks strategically placed in the rushing water, but Midas didn’t bother attempting to use them. He waded through the water without hesitation.
“Here, grab my arm,” Aleck said as he came up next to her. Looking back, Elodie saw Scott was bringing up the rear of their little group. She didn’t mind that he wasn’t right at her side, she knew without having to think about it if things got awkward or it looked like she was uncomfortable, he’d come up to hike with her, but she appreciated him giving her space to get to know his team.
Grabbing Aleck’s arm, she did what Midas had done and tromped through the chilly water without trying to keep her feet dry. They were already soaked, and it actually felt good to wash off some of the sticky mud that was stubbornly clinging to her sneakers.
They continued on the trail, and now Elodie found herself walking behind Aleck. “So, you have a fancy condo, huh?” she asked.
Without seeming to be embarrassed about it, Aleck nodded. “Yeah, it’s sweet. It’s got three bedrooms, a huge kitchen, and the balcony is to die for. It overlooks the courtyard, not the pool—which, trust me, is a big deal. The last thing you want to hear is screeching kids day and night when you’re trying to relax after a long day or mission.”
“What do your parents do? Am I allowed to ask that?”
“You can ask whatever you want. They’re in real estate. They started out renting their own house a long time ago, when they moved after they got married and couldn’t sell it. Things kind of went from there, and now they own way too many properties for me to even remember.”