by Rachel Hanna
He awoke several hours later, the note having fallen off and stuck to the side of his face when he rolled over on it. The others were milling around the offices, trying to be quiet as they shed their dirty gear and tried to put their equipment back in its proper place. Jake sat up, rubbed his eyes, and held out the post-it note, forgetting for a moment what it was even about.
“Oh goody, I’ve got a date tonight,” he grumbled, holding up the note between two fingers so the others could see it.
“A date? How’d you pull that off when you’ve been passed out here with the rest of us?” Michael asked from his cot. Jake filled them in on Veronica’s return, and Knox looked up in alarm.
“Why are we meeting with her? Did she say?”
“Nope, and not you guys. The note says just me,” he answered, turning it over as though there might be more clues on the back. “Well, she can kiss it off, I’m not going.”
“I bet she wants to take you out and make up for the failed blind date. Maybe this time you two could be a little nicer, maybe go duke it out in a cage match,” Angel offered sarcastically.
“Tempting as that sounds, uh, no. I don’t have a death wish, and I’d have to be dying to purposely see her again. Nope, not going.”
“You have to!” Madison said, sitting up. “What if it’s something important? I mean, she just moved here, she can’t know enough about you guys yet to have some crazy girl-crush obsession with you. It must be business related or something, or related to your company…”
“I’ll think about it,” he conceded, dropping his head into his hands. “But there will be food and a much longer nap before I can even do that much.”
Chapter 8
After a good bit of ribbing from the other guys, Jake finally showered and got dressed to go find out what Veronica wanted. He told himself it was a necessary evil in order to get her off his back, but if that’s what it took…
All during the drive to the coffee shop she’d mentioned in her note, his mind reeled with thoughts of this crazy but mysterious woman. She’d blown into all of their lives like a hateful hurricane, but one that even he had to admit was beautiful. There was something about a take-charge kind of woman that appealed to him far more than a giggling, simple-minded girl with no deeper thoughts than what she was going to wear next week.
He pulled into the shop and saw that her car was already there, the one she’d been driving when she pulled up next to him at dinner and hit him in the leg with the door. Of course she was early, he thought with irritation. Just for the heck of it, he made sure to park in the thin space between the front of her car and the painted white line of her parking spot.
“What’s up?” he said by way of greeting when he dropped down into a chair across from her, falling back against the seat and slouching.
“Well, hello to you too,” she answered, looking at him in astonishment. “You’ll have to forgive me, I’m not used to men falling down when they see me.”
“That might be the company you keep,” he answered blandly, waving a hand and signaling to a barista for a coffee. “So let me ask you again…what’s so important that I couldn’t even get a full day’s sleep before you had to meet?”
“I already told you, I’ve been assigned to contact you and the rest of the S&R group—I already know Madison—and get to know you, see how you operate.” Veronica took a sip of her iced tea and waited, as though that was all the explanation he needed.
“You’re not making any sense. Under who’s orders? Who cares enough about a small-time over-glorified lifeguard shack to send…you…to come see it?”
“Just something my boss picked me for.” Veronica smiled briefly, then said, “So how about we get started? Why don’t you tell me a little bit about yourself?”
She pulled a notepad and a pen out of her purse, then waited expectantly. Jake looked at her like he couldn’t believe he was actually sitting there humoring her. Veronica smiled, gesturing with a wave of her hand for Jake to begin.
“What do you want to know,” he asked with an irritated sigh.
“Everything. How did you get into this business, what’s it like saving a life, why do you do what you do, how do you find the motivation to get back out there after it goes bad…everything.” Veronica beamed expectantly, her pen poised over the paper, and waited.
Jake closed his eyes, unable to fathom how he’d ended up in this position with someone he couldn’t stand. A small part of his brain urged him to bolt for the door, but the rest of his mind was occupied with getting through this so Veronica would back off.
He answered her first question with as little information as he could provide. The last thing he needed was for the local paper to print up a story about the fallen heroes, the team of soldiers who got called down for no reason. He kept his answers vague and professional, distancing himself from the questions—and the woman who was asking them—as much as he could.
But something changed. It was slow at first, but after half an hour had passed, the feeling of wanting to flee the premises lifted and he found himself waiting for her next question so he could explain what was on his mind.
“So I know this is going to be a weird question, and I don’t mean it to sound rude or like I’m making light of anything… but do you enjoy what you do?” Veronica asked, cringing slightly as she waited for Jake to blow up. Only this time, he didn’t.
“I guess I do,” he answered after giving it a moment’s thought. “I mean, no one enjoys thinking about what could be waiting for them out there. It could be anything, and we never know what’s waiting for us. It could be really, really bad. But sometimes—most of the time—if I do my job right and I get there in time, the person lives. And they got to live because of me and my team. It makes the few bad outcomes worth it, every single time one person’s life is saved.”
“Have you… hmmmm. Have you had a lot of bad outcomes?” she asked softly, putting down her pen. She watched Jake’s face for any sign that she’d pissed him off, but he stared at his empty coffee cup, lost in thought.
“No more than anyone else in this field. But I’d be lying if I said they didn’t bother me. It’s the kind of thing that you just have to put in the back of your mind. You learn from it, you get better at your job because of it, mostly because you ask yourself, ‘What could we have done differently?’ Like maybe if we’d had the chopper ready to go… that was one of the first changes we made as a group. We made sure that it’s ready to fly every single day, every single moment. Instead of waiting for a call, we get up every single morning and get those vehicles ready to move. Those few minutes could make the difference.”
“But you know it’s not your job to save the whole world. You didn’t put those people on that plane the other night, or put some people out on a sailboat when a storm came up.”
“I know, and that was the very first lesson we had to learn. If we made a judgment call that turned out to be wrong, we look at it and figure out why it was the wrong decision. And every single time we’ve been able to sleep at night because we know it wasn’t a negligent choice or an uncaring choice, it just wasn’t the one to make in that moment. And you’d better make sure you learn from it and adjust.”
“Well, from what I can tell,” Veronica said, sitting up straighter and rolling her shoulders, “you guys haven’t had a lot of learning to do. You’ve got the best save record of any search and rescue operation on the west coast.”
“See?” he answered with a knowing smile. “That kind of thinking right there is what gets people killed. We refuse to believe we’re the best, because no one can ever be the best in this line of work. You can only be as good as the victim needs you to be. When you start thinking about how many saves you’ve got and how big a hero you are, that’s when you screw up. So we go to work every day prepared to do our jobs, but also prepared to learn from it.”
Veronica stopped, unable to think of another question. Instead of the scowl that Jake had worn since literally the moment she f
irst met him, he gave her a friendly smile, almost a look of gratitude that someone had taken the time to understand what it was that kept him going.
“It’s, uh, getting late,” she said in a soft voice, reluctant to leave. “I think I have everything I need. Unless you want to go get that pizza we missed the other night?”
Jake thought it over for a second, then nodded. “That sounds good. And I promise to look for an actual parking spot this time.”
Chapter 9
After dinner and some conversation that thankfully didn’t involve rescuing people, Jake and Veronica left the restaurant by way of the pier that extended out over the beach. They walked along the hard-packed sand at the water’s edge, watching the last stragglers darting in the cold water and running screaming towards the safety of dry land when the waves came.
“Tourists,” Jake muttered, but he couldn’t help laughing slightly to himself.
“Hey, watch it! I’m still technically a tourist!” Veronica said, feigning indignation as she shoved him playfully in the arm.
“Yeah, but you have better sense than to go out in the ocean at night. Did you know that one-third of all drownings happen after dark, and that most drownings happen in less than two meters of water?” he asked, only somewhat teasingly.
“Actually, I did. I knew both of those things. I’m a reporter, remember? Random useless facts is what I do.” Veronica started to smirk at Jake but caught her foot in a slight indentation in the sand. Jake’s hands immediately shot out to catch her, keeping her from ending up on the ground. “Whew! Thanks!”
“No problem,” he answered, but his hands lingered on her arms as he looked at her. “I really am sorry I was rude the other night.”
“You already apologized for that,” she replied in a half-whisper, watching the intense look in his eyes.
“I know. But you didn’t accept my apology, so I must have screwed it up. So… I’m sorry.”
“I accept,” Veronica answered, leaning closer. Before either of them could rationalize it, she rose up on her toes and kissed Jake, the sensation catching both of them off guard. He froze for the blink of an eye, then wrapped his arms tighter around her, holding her closer as she pressed against him.
Against all rational thought, Jake felt his entire being relax under the weight of that kiss. All the rage and uncertainty and frustration he’d carried around with him for weeks—no, make that months, ever since they’d first been informed their SEAL team was dissolved—slowly left him. He could feel even down to the bone that the things he’d unsuccessfully tried to keep bottled up were evaporating as he kissed Veronica.
“I… I shouldn’t have done that,” she said, wide-eyed, as she pushed away from him. The emptiness in Jake’s arms where there had just been calming warmth was the worst kind of jolt. It took him a second to recover, to think through what had happened.
“I don’t know what to say,” he stammered. “What’s wrong?”
“I just… no, I shouldn’t have done that. Not with you.” Veronica turned and sprinted away, her feet kicking up small explosions of sand as she fled towards the restaurant.
“Not with me? What’s that supposed to mean?” he called out. Jake’s confusion gave way to something else, a different kind of determination. He chased after her, but kept some distance between them. The last thing he wanted to do was frighten her when she was already so upset.
Jake reached the parking lot in time to see her car squeal out onto the main road. He wavered for a moment, then jumped on his bike and followed her. The evening traffic was light and he was able to keep up with her despite the odd red light that caught him.
Veronica pulled into her apartment complex and hurried inside, locking the door behind her. Jake reached her door just as he heard the deadbolt turn in the lock.
“Veronica! Open up and talk to me!” he yelled, rapping on the door lightly. “Come on, just tell me what’s wrong.”
“Please go away.” Her voice sounded off somehow, but he couldn’t tell if it was the door or her own tears that muffled her voice. The thought of her blowing him off made him mad, but if she was in there crying for some reason…that image stung.
“I’m not leaving ‘til you talk to me. You owe me that much.”
“I don’t owe you anything!” she shot back, and through the door her indignation sounded almost comical. Jake couldn’t help but laugh to himself. Veronica must have realized how it had sounded because she calmed down enough to ask, “Would you please just go?”
“Nope. Sorry, I’m not going anywhere ‘til you talk to me. I guess I’ll just have to camp out here tonight. Do you think this little bench will hold me if I—”
Veronica opened the door to glare at Jake with red-rimmed eyes. Her expression told him what he’d already suspected, that she’d been crying, probably all the way home from the restaurant.
“See there? That wasn’t so hard,” he said in a kind voice. Veronica continued to glare at him, refusing to be swayed by his soft smile, but she did step back and let him enter the apartment.
Jake looked around at the sparse living room, the bare walls, and the small stack of unpacked boxes. He craned his neck and looked out the window over the kitchen sink, repulsed by the view of the trash dumpsters.
“Man, you sure know how to pick some luxury accommodations, don’t you?” he teased. He turned to look back at her when she didn’t respond. “I’m only kidding. I know you just got here. You wanna tell me what happened back there?”
“Nothing,” she answered curtly, sniffling slightly. “It was just inappropriate for me to kiss you.”
“Because… you’re married?” Jake asked sarcastically.
“Of course not.”
“Then it’s because of our obvious height difference, right?” He wrinkled his brow in confusion, still trying to get her to laugh.
“You're really not nearly as funny as you think you are," she shot back angrily.
“Well, then… I got nothing. I don’t know what the problem is. You’re an adult, you’re not married, you’re the same species as me… nope, not seeing what’s wrong with two unmarried adult humans kissing.”
“You wouldn’t understand,” she said in a huff, walking over to the small kitchen nook and getting a bottle of water out of the fridge. She opened it and drank from it with her back to him, still not explaining. Jake walked up to her and put one gentle hand on her arm, turning her around to face him.
“Then what’s the problem?”
“Nothing, all right? It’s just… nothing.” She dropped her gaze until Jake reached for her chin, lifting her face up to his.
“It’s not nothing.” He hesitated, waiting for her to get angry or get loud or order him out of her apartment. But when she didn’t, he slowly drew closer until his lips brushed hers softly. She returned his kiss with far more fervor than he’d expected, dropping the water bottle in the sink behind her and wrapping her arms around his neck, twisting her fingers slightly in his short hair. The feeling gave him chills and caused him to moan, a sound which excited Veronica immensely.
Jake trailed a line of soft kisses down her neck, pausing to pay close attention to her collarbone where it peeked out from beneath the open collar of her shirt. He heard her soft gasp and grinned in spite of himself. When he felt her reach for the hem of his shirt, he paused; only moments ago she’d been ordering him out of her apartment, telling him this was wrong.
“Are you sure?” he asked, leaning back and looking in her dark brown eyes. She nodded and kissed him again before prying his t-shirt off over his head, taking in the sight of his well-muscled frame with an appreciative look. The intensity of their kisses grew when she reached for Jake’s belt, making quick work of unbuckling it and opening the button on his jeans.
He ran his fingertips down the row of buttons on her shirt one by one as he slipped his tongue into her mouth to ravish her there. His lips melted against hers until he worked his way lower once again, his lips, teeth, and tongue grazing
over her throat as he pulled her shirt down her arms. One of the buttons was still fastened but it tore off, only Veronica didn’t care about that at the moment. She only cared about the heat that was building up inside of her, all because of this angry, hurting, gorgeous man.
Veronica kicked off her shoes and led Jake down the hallway to the bedroom. He struggled to follow her, his mouth connecting with her chest as he reached for the hooks on her bra. He lifted his head to look around the bedroom, glad to see that she’d unpacked sheets and a few pillows.
She quickly shed the rest of her clothes while Jake stepped out of his jeans. She led him by the wrist until they both fell onto the bed, Jake catching himself on his elbow beside her. Her breathing was quick, and Jake was already hard as he stopped to really look at her, relishing in the sight of her amazing curves. His lips found her breasts, hungrily kissing every inch until he reached her nipple, drawing it into his mouth eagerly. She moaned from the onslaught of pleasure snaking through her, crying out again when his hand gripped her other breast.
Jake pushed himself up to kiss Veronica again, tasting her as his hand brushed against her stomach on its way further down. She parted her thighs when he came to her womanhood, gasping slightly when he dipped a finger inside her. She arched her back against the sudden wave of pleasure, raking her nails across Jake’s shoulders as she clung to him.
Veronica had to remind herself to breathe as she spread her legs even wider for him. She groaned, unable to stop herself, as Jake rubbed her sensitive spot, making her even wetter. She whimpered, wanting more.
It was a tempting relief when he finally pulled back and took hold of himself, pressing against her opening. He rubbed himself against her a little, soaking up her slickness along his hard length. They both cried out in ecstasy when he thrust himself inside her, their hips meeting as he hilted her on his full length.
Veronica dug her nails into his back again while Jake held himself up, his hands on either side of her, pulling himself out. She lifted her hips for him, her breath catching when he drove back into her.