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“Sebastian, I know you won’t be able to understand this because you’ve never really been in love, never found your soulmate, and thankfully have never lost someone you had planned on being with forever. But I know I’m not going to find anyone like your dad out there. He was the love of my life and I still miss him and what our lives could have been like if he was still here.”
“Sounds lonely,” Sebastian said, sad that was the case.
“No, sweetie,” she said. “When you and Kelly were at home, you kept me busy. I made a lot of friends with your friends’ moms and at work. I never wanted to date when you were both home because I didn’t want to confuse you by bringing a man around who may or may not remain in your lives.”
“And after we were both gone?” Roth posed.
“I still had many of those friends and there are a few men I’ve spent some time with for the purposes of companionship and friendship.”
He took a second and digested that last part. Did that mean what he thought it meant?
“But nothing serious and no one who is important to me enough to invite them to meet you and your sister at Christmas,” she added when he remained quiet.
“If there was someone who had no family or anyplace to go for Christmas dinner, I wouldn’t mind them being here.”
Jill Roth gave her son a hug. “That’s very kind of you. But really, there isn’t anyone who is that special to me. I consider myself an understanding type of person, but by my age, most men have baggage, a lot more than I want to deal with. And I know men feel the same way about the women they meet. My advice to you, Sebastian, is that if this Briana interests you and she doesn’t have any baggage that is a deal-breaker for you, pursue her. If you don’t and you meet up with her by chance in ten years, neither of you are going to be the same person and she might have some of that baggage that are deal-breakers for you. That just naturally happens as we age.”
“Thanks, Mom,” he said. He felt sad that his mom had not dated because she still mourned the loss of his dad. How had he not known that?
Papa
Roth was an hour out from HQ. It was nearly fourteen hundred hours on December thirty-first, New Year's Eve. That evening would be Lambchop and Michaela’s wedding. He was on time to arrive at the clubhouse in the townhouse community, where the wedding would take place by fifteen hundred. Charlie Team was primary for onsite security during the wedding and after. Echo Team was secondary, but all eight of them were scheduled to report at fifteen hundred.
He was dressed in black dress pants and a blue striped dress shirt his mother insisted on ironing for him when he pulled the iron out that morning. His suit jacket was hung in the backseat. The entire week he’d been at his mom’s house, he’d kept his pistol holstered on his ankle, as he always did when he visited his mom. He’d relocate it to the small of his back when he arrived.
That was yet another thing he didn’t want to tell her about. Technically, he knew he could tell his mom the lie, that he was a DEA agent, show her his creds and explain why he was armed. But he was sure it would bother her as much as being a SEAL did. She was better off thinking he was just a regular Hospital Corpsman.
His visit home was great. He helped his mom with several projects she needed a strong arm for. She worked three of the days, though, and Kelly and Brandon spent very little time at home while they were in town, so he had a lot of time to relax and soak in the peace of being home.
He felt revived as he drove back to his regular life. When operations restarted, he’d be assigned back to the PGP Project. It was inevitable, but he’d rather continue to work other cases. He didn’t mind being on event security for the evening. The others all had a significant other. A wedding and a night celebrating New Year's Eve was more for them than it was for him and Charlie Team.
He recognized many cars when he pulled into the parking lot of the clubhouse. Michaela and Lambchop were already there. BT pulled in and parked beside him. Evie wasn’t in the car with him. “Hey,” he greeted BT.
“Hi,” BT said. “Did you have a good week back home?”
“Yes. It’s always great to spend time with my mom and sister and I know my mom appreciates that I get to more now than when I was on active duty. Did you and Evie have a nice Christmas?”
“Yes, it was nice. I worked a few shifts in Ops on the days she had the clinic open. It was dead.”
Roth laughed as they entered the building. “Damn, Kaylee has this placed done up nice.”
“Why, thank you,” she said from nearby. “Is Evie coming later?” she asked BT.
“Yes, she’ll ride in with Annaka, Brielle, and Dahlia,” BT said. “This was way too early for them to be ready and none of them wanted to sit around for over almost two hours before the ceremony.”
Laura Lee and Dupont arrived. Roth gave a slow whistle. “Very nice, Lah-lee,” he said. She was dressed in a slinky black dress. “And you don’t look half-bad either,” he said, glancing at Dupont, who wore a suit.
“Thank you,” Laura Lee said.
“Not sure where you have your piece hidden, though,” Roth said.
Laura Lee flipped open the side of her beaded clutch purse to reveal her Glock. She presented it like a game show girl showing off the prize.
“Love it,” Kaylee said. “I have to get me one of those.”
They all laughed.
Michael Cooper came in shortly thereafter and he indicated that Wilson and the rest of Charlie Team were parking. Garcia showed them to the room where they’d set up the monitoring equipment.
