Page 43 of Their Stormy Reunion

“What’s the point of having your fancy-assed security system if you don’t bother to lock your door?”

I shrugged. “I’m not thinking that Daddy Dearest will be coming at me on a Wednesday afternoon when half the retirees in the neighborhood are out watering their lawn.”

Zarek gave me a dark look. “You should take this shit seriously.”

“I do take this shit seriously. I want my mom and dad protected.”

“I read the note he sent to you. You told me it was your testimony that sent him to prison. He’s gunning for you, Michael. Don’t think otherwise. Lock your goddamn door and set your fucking alarm from now on.”

I held up my hands. “Fine. I will. Geez, Zarek, mellow out.”

“I won’t mellow out. You know just how precarious life is. You’ve seen it during your time in Afghanistan. I had a front row seat when Chloe and I lost two of our babies before they had a chance to live,” he choked out.

I hadn’t heard him sound like this since the last miscarriage.

“You’re right, big guy. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again,” I whispered.

“It better not. When’s Bruno getting here?”

“He’s not. He’s meeting us there. He’s doing a last walk-thru at his brother’s house to make sure the kitchen remodel is up to snuff.”

“How are Jace and his family settling in?”

“From what I’ve heard so far, good. Now, that’s been from Roan. He’s high on Jace joining Onyx Security. Bruno will have a better feel for him. My guess is that somebody who’d been with the SEAL teams as long as Jace had, and then got boarded out, it had to have hit him hard. I don’t know how long he’d been with his particular team.”

“What’s boarded out?”

“It’s just slang for having gone through the Medical and Physical Evaluation Board. The process sucks ass,” I explained.

Zarek nodded. “I could see that.”

“You ready to head out?”

“I see you’re wearing a dark shirt. Good call. You’ll be getting hot in that in no time.” Zarek grinned.

“I like this cunning side of you. Keep it up, I’m going to need it.”

Really, did he really need to take off his shirt? I mean it was hot out, but Bruno and Zarek had kept their shirts on.

Shit, Michael looked good. He’d gained weight from the last time I’d seen him shirtless, and it was all muscle.

So many beautiful muscles.

And they were all gleaming with sweat. Thank God I had sunglasses on, otherwise everybody would see my eyes popping out as I ogled the man like he was some stripper in Vegas.

Down girl.

But seriously, I’d only had two lovers since Michael, and neither one of them had really done much for me in the bedroom, not compared to Michael. Now here I was, face-to-face with my favorite fantasy, and it was even better than I had remembered.

“I think we need to plant some pansies at the base of the trees, don’t you?”

Huh?

“Are you listening to me?”

I looked over to where my mom was setting out a tray of glasses to go with the homemade lemonade. I don’t think I had seen her this happy since I’d been home. I looked closer at her face, but no, she wasn’t ogling Michael; I think it was just all the attention her yard was getting.

“Pansies. Yeah, I heard you.”