by Jaime Lewis
The two new friends spent another hour talking until Alex told her she’d better head home. She was surprised Ace hadn’t called to track her down. She did tell him she had an errand to run on her way home. Then she remembered the team was coming over to watch the MMA fights. Shit! She was supposed to cook dinner for them. She looked down at her watch. Damn, almost eight o’clock. Well, that wasn’t going to happen. They will just have to settle for pizza and wings.
After saying good-bye to Autumn and promising to get together soon, she headed home. And boy was she itching to get there because Frost would be there, and he had some major explaining to do.
Chapter Thirteen
“So, Ace…What is Alex fixing for dinner?” Skittles asked, taking a seat on the large sectional sofa in the media room. Everyone was there to watch the MMA fights. As a bonus, they were celebrating Frost’s return to the team. He had passed his PRT, making it official. Well, his first official day would be in about a week. He had to go through all the paperwork first. They didn’t have PT tomorrow, so they were ready to unwind with some beers and a nice home-cooked meal. That was a treat for a lot the guys, as most were bachelors and didn’t know jack shit about cooking unless it involved a microwave or opening an MRE.
Ace glanced at his watch and frowned. “I’m not sure, but she should’ve been home by now. She called as she was leaving work and said she had an errand to run. But that was like two and a half hours ago.”
Frost watched as Ace pulled his phone from the pocket of his shorts, then walked out of the room. He looked down at his phone that was lying on the table in front of him. He glanced at the blue blinking light on it that indicated he had a voicemail. He knew who the voicemails were from, but he was still too pissed off to listen to them.
For the past couple of weeks, he’d gotten to know Autumn, and he liked everything he’d learned about her. He had made it quite clear he wanted a relationship with her. So, why hadn’t she just said she had a boyfriend instead of making him look like a complete ass.
Before he could think another thought, Ace walked back into the room. And, boy, he did not look happy.
“What’s with the look, Ace?” Stitch asked, walking over to the bar and pouring a beer from the tap.
“Something’s wrong with Alex.” Making that vague statement had all of the guys turning their immediate attention to him. Before any of them could question him further, he was quick to expand on his comment, realizing what he had said. Ever since the whole terrorist debacle with Alex a year ago, the entire team had been very protective of her and went to extreme measures to keep her safe from any harm.
“She’s not in trouble…” He winced as he rubbed the back of his neck. “She sounds pissed off.” Ace glanced at Frost. “She specifically asked if you were here.”
Frost’s eyes widened. “Me?” He pointed to himself.
Stitch laughed. “What’d you do to piss her off?”
“I didn’t do anything. The last time I spoke to her was at dinner the other night. Everything was fine.” Everything was fine until he had to leave.
Ace scrunched his eyebrows together. “She seemed fine then, and she seemed fine this morning when she left for work.”
They all heard the front door slam, followed by the sound of Alex’s heels clicking on the hardwood floor as she marched down the hall toward the room. Frost sat up straight as Alex walked into the room, carrying five pizza boxes and bags that smelled like wings.
She plopped everything down on the bar top and not so gently. It was silent as everyone watched her waiting for her, to make her next move. When she finally looked up and met Frost’s eyes with a hard glare, he knew he was in deep shit. As for why he wasn’t so sure, but apparently, he’d fucked up somewhere, and he was getting ready to get his ass handed to him.
“Babe? Are you okay?” Ace asked in a low, calm voice as he walked over and hugged her.
While Ace had Alex occupied for a moment, Stitch moved next to Frost and nudged his arm and whispered. “What in the hell did you do, man? If looks could kill, you’d be six feet under.”
Frost quickly tried to think back to between dinner the other night and now. He couldn’t come up with anything. He shrugged. “I honestly have no idea.”
Skittles decided to kill the silence as he grabbed himself some pizza and wings. “Man, I was craving a home-cooked meal, but I’ll take it.”
Alex poked her head around Ace. “I’m sorry, Skittles. I had all intentions of coming home and cooking a delicious meal for you guys but, because asshole over there,” she pointed to Frost, “can’t seem to answer his phone, I had to handle something important after work, which kept me occupied longer than I expected, so you guys get pizza and wings tonight instead.”
She shot her daggers back to Frost. Damn, the way the light hit her face, her green eyes almost looked like they were glowing. Frost picked up his phone and scrolled through his calls, making sure he hadn’t missed a call from her. Nope, just the three missed calls from Autumn and a couple from the guys from earlier today.
“Alex, I have no idea why you seem pissed off at me. I didn’t miss any important calls.” Well, that was a total lie because Autumn was important to him, whether she knew it or not. He just needed a few more days to cool off.
Alex crossed her arms as she stood her ground in front of them. Frost had to give her credit. The five-foot-four woman rarely got intimidated. Most people pulling a stunt like she was right now in front of a group of SEALs wouldn’t last long. Hell, he’s killed enemy combatants for less.
“You didn’t miss anything important today?” She said, raising one of her eyebrows. Oh, he knew that look. She did have something on his ass. But what? “How about explaining first why you missed your PT appointment this morning. Don’t you need that to get cleared to take the PRT on Thursday?”
Well, shit…He did cancel the appointment, but he had a perfectly good excuse. He opened his mouth to respond, but Ace intervened. “Alex, he took his PRT this morning.”
Alex seemed surprised by Ace’s confirmation. He owed him a drink for saving his ass from his best friend’s fierce claws, but then the wheels started turning in his head. How in the hell did she even know he was a no show for PT. Had the little wench been spying on him? She’d been on his ass like flies on shit since he was discharged from the hospital.
He looked over at Alex and gave her the evil eye right back. “How did you even know about my appointment?”
Instead of answering his question, she asked. “Have you checked your voicemail today?”
He looked at his phone again, and the indicator said he had two voicemails. He knew they were from Autumn. Wait a minute. How the fuck did she know about the voicemails? Alex was a smart woman, but unless she gained ESP in the last few days, someone was giving her inside information.
“I’ll take your silence as a no. Why don’t you listen to them now?”
“I’ll listen to my voicemail when I’m damn well ready to.” He loved his best friend dearly, but she was really starting to piss him off.
“No, listen to them NOW!”
Jesus, he knew he’d lose this battle, so he might as well get it over with and appease her highness before she blew a gasket, and then they could all get on with the rest of the night.
He hit the button to listen. “No, put it on speaker,” she said.
“What?”
“You heard me. Put the damn phone on speaker.”
What the hell? Was she serious? She narrowed her eyes and raised her eyebrows. Fuck! She was serious.
He mumbled ‘fine’ and hit the speaker button and the first message.
“Hey, Frost…It’s umm Autumn. Listen, please give me a call. I need to explain the other night. It’s not what you think. Bye.”
O-okay…he thought to himself. What was so special about that? It was what he was expecting. He looked up at Alex. “You know I could have listened to that privately without an audience, Alex.” He was a little pissed off
at his friend’s meddling.
Ace looked over at Alex. “Sweetheart, what’s this all about?”
She gave Ace a nasty look, and Frost could have sworn he heard her growl at Ace. He actually wanted to laugh until Alex shot him a look and demanded he listen to the next one. So, once again, he pressed the button to get to the next message. This time, though, he heard a completely different tone in Autumn’s voice, and the panic he heard made his heart stop.
“Frost, it’s Autumn. I’m so sorry to call you, but I didn’t know who else to call.” He heard her sniffling. Was she crying? He glanced up to look at Alex and saw her eyes were a little glassy. What the fuck was going on? “I don’t have my car today, and Cody was involved in an accident at school, and he’s been taken to the hospital by ambulance.” There was a pause for a few seconds, and he could hear her breathing deeply. “God…this is so stupid. You’re not answering your phone, so you obviously can’t help me.” There was another pause, then a click sound, indicating she disconnected the call.
Fuck! Cody was hurt, and she called him when she needed help, and because of his childlike actions, he now felt like a first-class ass.
He stood and looked at Alex. “How did you know?” He put his phone in his pocket and pulled out his car keys. He was going to see her. Jesus, he didn’t know if she was at home or was still at the hospital. How did she get to the hospital? Nathan? No. Don’t even go there. Now is not the time to even think about that prick. Cody was who was most important right now.
Alex sighed. “I know because I’ve been with her and Cody for the past two hours.”
Frost stood speechless as he stared at his best friend. “What?” He asked, clearly confused.
“Remember, you gave her my phone number. The good news is, she follows orders well.”
She smirked at him, and then it dawned on him. “She called you when she couldn’t get hold of me,” he stated.
The guys looked like they were watching a tennis match with all the back and forth he and Alex were doing.
“Yeah, she did. But she didn’t call me until she was trying to find a ride home from the hospital. She ended up taking a cab from the Naval Hospital to the local one.” Frost knew how far of a drive that was, and cabs weren’t cheap. That must have had to cost a fortune. He listened as Alex continued. “She was embarrassed to have to call me, but she was desperate. She didn’t want to have to take the bus since it was getting late.”
Frost mumbled to himself as he started to pace the room. “Is Cody okay? I mean, what happened?”
“He’s okay. He fell at school and hit the side of his head pretty good. Initially, he was knocked out, but he regained consciousness in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. All of the scans were clean. He has a concussion and will probably have a pretty good headache for the next couple of days. When I left their house, he was sleeping. Autumn has to wake him every thirty minutes throughout the night and monitor his symptoms.”
“How is Autumn?”
Alex took a deep breath. “With everything she’s been put through today, I’d say she’s doing pretty damn good. She’s, of course, exhausted plus she’s pissed off about her car.”
“Shit. Her car was acting up last week, but then she told me it was fine.”
“Yeah. Well, it wouldn’t start this morning, not to mention her right front tire was flat.”
Frost walked over to Alex and hugged her and kissed her cheek. “Thank you.”
She tilted her head back to look up at him. “Don’t fuck this up. She’s a keeper.”
“She’s seeing someone, Alex. I already fucked up and waited too long.”
Alex shook her head, her long chestnut brown hair swinging back and forth as she did. “No, she’s not. And, you would’ve known this if you hadn’t acted like a child and ignored her calls. Nathan is just a good friend. Anyway, he’s involved with someone else back in California. He’s in town for business over at the base in Norfolk and stopped by to surprise Autumn and Cody.”
Oh, shit. Did he ruin his chance with Autumn because he was being a stubborn, jealous jerk? “I need to see her, Alex. You’ve been to her place. Where is it?”
“That depends.” Frost arched an eyebrow at her. “Are you done acting like an asshole?”
“Alex!” Ace growled. But the others, including Frost all, chuckled. Alex had a habit of calling out the team members when they were, in fact, being assholes.
Alex looked at Ace and stuck her tongue out at him, then turned back to Frost. “Fine. But I need to warn you; you aren’t going to be happy where she lives. She lives in that complex of duplexes about two miles from the base. You know the one that all of the drug dealers hang out at.”
“Why in the hell would she choose to live there? Surely she had enough money from her husband’s life insurance plus the supplement the government gives her for spousal support.”
He gave Alex a pleading look. “It’s not my story to tell, but I will tell you she opened up to me tonight as a friend. And I am telling you that she is my friend now. Whether or not you two patch things up, there will be times you will see her because there is no way I’m turning my back on her now. Tenley met her as well at the hospital, and she feels the same.”
Was there anything Alex didn’t fix? Frost gave her another hug and kiss. “Thank you. I owe you.”
She grinned and squeezed him back. “Damn straight, you do. I’ll collect later, now go get your girl.”
Chapter Fourteen
Autumn stepped out of the steaming hot shower. She wished she had a bathroom that had a big Jacuzzi tub that she could soak in. That was an amenity she’d wished for all her life but one she’d never had. Her house in California was base housing. Those houses were nothing fancy. Though at least with that house, she had a normal tub that if she needed to soak, she could. Here, all she had was a tiny shower stall in her bathroom. Cody’s bathroom had the same set-up. She was lucky she even found a house she could afford that had two bathrooms.
She toweled off and looked at her reflection in the mirror. Her red hair is what garnered her a lot of attention. She had a decent figure for mom standards. At least that is what she thought. Of course, certain parts of her body were never going to be the way they used to be pre-pregnancy. Cody was worth the stretch marks. He was her life and what had kept her breathing. Anyway, she was never really the type of person who was always worried about how they looked, probably because she had met her husband at such an early age. She tried to get in a few workouts during the week at the gym the hospital had made available to the employees. Most of the time, it was walking and jogging on one of the treadmills.
Her mind floated to Frost. He would probably consider her body chunky and soft compared to the women who normally threw themselves at him. Nope, she wasn’t going to think about him. He’d obviously made his choice since she hadn’t heard from him. She shook those thoughts away, stepped out of the bathroom, strode over to her dresser and pulled out a thin black V-neck t-shirt and grey lounge pants. She was in for a long night with Cody, so she might as well as be comfortable. The cool air from the air conditioner caused goosebumps along her skin.
As she brushed her hair out, she couldn’t get Frost out of her head. She knew damn well that Frost assumed she and Nathan were dating. But if the tables were turned and she had seen Frost out with another woman even though they were just friends, she would probably assume the same. But damn Nathan and his possessiveness. She knew he meant well and felt responsible for looking after her and Cody because her husband had asked him to do so. But she needed to be strong, not only for herself but for Cody as well. That was why she chose to leave California and move across the country in the first place. She needed to gain control of her life and start living again.
She thought back to what Alex had said about Nathan. Was it possible he had feelings for her? But he mentioned he was dating someone back in California. She supposed it was always possible, but why hadn’t he ever said anything to her or act
on those feelings? Not that she would’ve accepted his advances. She just didn’t have those types of feelings toward him. He would always be her husband’s best friend and a close friend of the family.
She glanced at the clock. It was almost ten o’clock. Another couple of minutes and she would need to go and wake Cody again. He had taken about ten years off her life with his accident today. Hearing from a school nurse that her son was knocked unconscious and on his way to the hospital was not a phone call any parent wanted to receive.
She shook off the shiver that traveled through her body. She pulled on her t-shirt and pants. She had just stepped out into the small hallway and was heading into Cody’s room when she heard a knock at the door.
She froze, wondering who would be at her house at this time of the night. She thought about Mrs. Higdon next door. That woman was always looking for someone to talk to, and it didn’t matter what time it was. Mrs. Higdon had lost her husband a few years ago, and neither she nor her husband had any family. Autumn thought that since she and Cody didn’t have any family either, that is why she and Mrs. Higdon became close within the year she and Cody have lived here. The older woman was very motherly and great with Cody. Cody had even stayed with her a few times when she’d had to run out for a quick errand.
Mrs. Higdon knew that Autumn was up if she saw lights on in the house and she would stop by. She probably had been watching the house earlier and saw Alex and now wanted to know who she was. Mrs. Higdon was nosey like that, but Autumn loved the older woman anyway.
She thought back to what Alex had said about getting together this coming Saturday. She hoped it was a start to a friendship. She liked Alex a lot and was looking forward to spending next Saturday with her and Tenley. They were planning a spa day with facials, manicures, and pedicures. Not that she should be spending her well-earned money on something that materialistic, but it had been years since she had done something for herself. So, yeah, she was going to splurge a little.