Angelo
A Second Chance Navy SEAL Romance
Lisa Carlisle
Lisa Carlisle
Contents
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Also by Lisa Carlisle
Angelo
1. Chapter One
2. Chapter Two
3. Chapter Three
4. Chapter Four
5. Chapter Five
6. Chapter Six
7. Chapter Seven
8. Chapter Eight
9. Chapter Nine
10. Chapter Ten
11. Chapter Eleven
12. Chapter Twelve
13. Chapter Thirteen
14. Chapter Fourteen
15. Chapter Fifteen
16. Chapter Sixteen
17. Chapter Seventeen
18. Chapter Eighteen
Epilogue
Epilogue 2 - a Sneak Peek with Vince
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Acknowledgments
About the Author
Book List
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Angelo
A Navy SEAL on leave. A neuroscientist in danger.
Can one dance lead to a second chance at love?
Catherine: A stranger has been warning me about my research for the government. My coworkers tell me not to worry, but it bothers me. I can't let it show, though. This is my first time as a project lead. At least, a weekend wedding in Newport promises a much needed escape.
But when I come face to face with Angelo DeMarchis, that illusion shatters.
He's the one who got away.
And he's grown even sexier after all these years.
That's when I realize I'm in even more trouble.
And once again, the price might be my heart.
Angelo: I've needed this leave for a long time, but the memories haunt me no matter where I go.
Even at a wedding--a happy occasion--where I run into a woman from my past.
Catherine has become even hotter since high school. I wouldn't mind spending every minute I'm home with her.
There's only one problem.
Her research has gotten her into trouble.
She downplays the warnings, but I'm not buying it.
I have ten days to make sure she's safe.
She's mine and I won't let anyone get to her.
This time I'm playing for keeps.
Meet the DeMarchis family in this series by USA Today bestselling author Lisa Carlisle. Navy SEALs, Marines, and hometown heroes -- each who encounters his most complicated mission yet when a woman from his past challenges his plans for his future.
Angelo: A Second Chance SEAL Romance
Copyright 2020 Lisa Carlisle
Cover by Talia’s Book Covers
The right of Lisa Carlisle to be identified as author of this Work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, copied in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise transmitted without written permission from the publisher. You must not circulate this book in any format.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please do so through your retailer’s “lend” function. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
To obtain permission to excerpt portions of the text, please contact the author at [email protected].
All characters in this book are fiction and figments of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Find out more about the author and upcoming books online at lisacarlislebooks.com, facebook.com/lisacarlisleauthor, or @lisacbooks.
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Chapter One
ANGELO
Airports—full of happy reunions or tear-filled goodbyes. At least this time, Angelo was coming and not going. He scanned the crowd in the Providence airport looking for his family. As he searched for a familiar face, someone grabbed him from behind.
“Hey, Doc!”
Instinct drove Angelo to lift his attacker off the ground and subdue him before he registered the voice and the nickname. Dropping him back to his feet, Angelo peered into the grinning face of his youngest brother. Matty’s hair was longer and his beard had grown in. He wore a Red Sox World Series T-shirt and workout shorts as he often did year-round, claiming he ran hot. And he still had the amused glimmer
in his eye as if conjuring his next prank.
“I almost flipped you, dumbass. You know better than to grab someone from behind like that.” Angelo pulled Matty into a bear hug.
Despite his admonition, a familiar warmth spread throughout Angelo. He’d been counting down the days for this leave for a long time, the first time he and his brothers were all together in two years. Military missions didn’t plan around holidays or family events.
When he pulled back, Matty’s lopsided grin spread even wider. “You should have sensed me coming.” He bounced on light feet like a boxer. “Just trying to keep you on your toes.”
Matty gave off the energetic vibe of a young SEAL unable to stay still, gung-ho for his next mission. Before the toll of multiple missions wore on him, before he lost his teammates, before survivor’s guilt hung behind him like a weighted shadow.
“You mean attracting the attention of airport security?” Angelo groaned. “Just the way I want to start R&R.”
“Being on leave doesn’t mean you get to be all soft.” Matty reached out to poke him in the ribs, but Angelo swatted his arm away.
“The only thing soft around here is your brain,” Angelo teased. “And you’re bouncing around with all the energy of the puppies you train.”
“Ha, good one, Doc.” Matty propped his elbow on Angelo’s shoulder, the way he often did to point out that he was the tallest of the three brothers.
“Still calling me that?” Angelo was a corpsman, not a doctor, but Matty loved nicknames, even if they didn’t fit.
“Of course. You’re stuck with it.” Matty pulled his arm away. “Come on, let’s find Vince. I have a special way to greet him.”
They grabbed their packs and maneuvered through the crowd. A couple in their fifties darted in front of them. The woman shouted “David” and waved to a teenage boy. She then embraced him like she hadn’t seen him in months. The boy hugged her back, but then looked around with a sheepish expression of a teenager worried about what others thought.
“Probably away from home for the first time,” Angelo noted.
He’d shed that self-consciousness at around the same age as that boy, when he’d entered the Navy and had swallowed a giant dose of humility. People didn’t give a damn about you half as much as one thought. They were much more concerned with themselves. And in the ten years since, he’d seen and experienced more than he could have anticipated when he was a wide-eyed youth dreaming of military life.
Now he was at a crossroads. His tour ended next year, and he needed to decide whether to reup. Donovan’s death had rattled Angelo so much that he questioned his future. But what else could he do? The Navy was the only career he’d known. He sucked in a breath. On the exhale, he rolled his shoulders and neck, trying to shake off the tension that coiled into a tight knot at the back of his neck. This wasn’t the time to brood, but to celebrate a long-awaited family reunion.
A man with a high-and-tight haircut and clean-shaven face stepped through a break in foot traffic.
“Is that Vince?” Angelo walked over to get a closer look.
“Ramrod straight, like he has a stick up his ass? Game of Thrones T-shirt. Yup, that’s Vince.” Matty bent down and pulled a cardboard sign out from his pack. He raised it high overhead.
Mike Hawk
Welcome back from prison!
The sheep have been lonely.
Angelo chuckled. “He’s going to kill you.” Typical Matty humor. Vince, the most private of the brothers, would cringe at the attention.
Vince’s eyes widened as he read the sign. He shook his head as he walked over.
“Hey, brother,” Matty quoted Buster in Arrested Development, in the way he often greeted Vince.
Vince grabbed the sign and turned it upside-down, but grinned. “You’re such an ass.”
Matty bowed. “I try.”
“And succeed,” Vince added in a sardonic tone.
Angelo grinned at Vince’s subdued humor. The most introverted and focused of the three of them, his ability to dig deep into his projects gave him keen insight into what made things tick. He was sharp as a scalpel when it came to machines—with people, not so much.
“Typical Matty,” Angelo said. “I almost tossed him when he grabbed me from behind.”
Vince raised his chin in acknowledgment and then nodded at Matty. “You finally grew in that scruff you had last Christmas.”
Angelo’s gut tightened. The reminder of his shitty Christmas returned. The gunfire, the—
“It’s true.” Matty pounded his chest. “I am all that is man!”
“Jackass.” Vince laughed and then gave both his brothers a hug.
Minutes later, Angelo spotted their parents, his mother with not a strand of her dark hair out of place and his father wearing his Navy ship’s baseball cap. With the way they gestured with their hands, they appeared to be bickering, how they often communicated. He smiled to himself. Was that how all couples communicated after thirty years of marriage? Not something he planned on finding out any time soon.
“Ma,” Matty called out.
She turned at his voice. “There you are!” She rushed over with a jubilant smile and bear-hugged them each. “We were wondering if we had the right times and meet up spot.”
His father gave them each a more reserved welcome with a quick hug and pat on the back.
When his mother started a new round of embraces, his father barked, “Come on, come on. Save it for the house, Marissa. Rush hour is about to start.”
Angelo exchanged a glance with Vince and Matty. His father often attempted to outwit traffic with timing and back routes.
They squeezed into their father’s gray SUV and drove south to Newport. Near the sea. Finally out of the desert. Angelo exhaled. He needed this break more than he’d realized.
That feeling continued through the evening when they gathered in the dining room of his parents’ house near the Newport War College. He inhaled the scent of his mother’s lasagna. It had been eons since he’d had a hearty, home-cooked meal. He would definitely enjoy the comforts of home while he could.
“It’s been so long since we ate dinner together.” His mother’s voice caught as she scooped large slices of lasagna oozing with cheese and sauce onto the plates.
“We would have all been here last Christmas if Doc had cooperated.” Matty nudged Angelo’s upper arm.
“Not my decision.” Damn deployment. What a shitty holiday that had been. The only lights he’d seen that night were from weapons fired.
Not now. Shelve it.
“You’ve got us for over a week, Ma,” Matty said. “You sure you can put up with all this testosterone for that long?”
“Don’t jinx it.” His mother touched her silver heart necklace, a gift from their father before he went out to sea decades ago. “I know how this works.”
True. An order could change everything as quick as a rifle shot.
“Smells so good!” Matty grabbed a piece of garlic bread before passing the basket.
“Much better than an MRE,” Vince added.
“Eat,” she commanded. “You’ve all gotten so thin.”
Thin was a stretch. Angelo glanced at his younger brothers. All their baby fat had been trained off, replaced by muscle. He took a bite of the lasagna. The spicy rich sauce and cheese melted in his mouth, he moaned. “I don’t mind putting on ten pounds if you cook like this while we’re home.”
“Good, your father picked up cannoli for dessert,” she replied.
His dad filled their wine glasses. “Made this myself.”
“You’re making wine now, Pop?” Matty asked and took a sip. “Not bad. Must be nice being retired.”
“I’m getting used to it. Your mother insisted I find hobbies, so I don’t drive her crazy.”
“Otherwise, he tells me the weather and traffic reports while I’m trying to get ready for work.” She waved her hand. “Why would I care about the weather in Wyoming or the traffic in LA? I care about the traffic he
re, getting to work at the medical center.”
His father laughed. “Who wouldn’t want to know those things?” He put the wine bottle down on the table. “I’ve been doing more training and consulting at the base when they need me. Even lectured a few times at the War College.”
“He needs some way to burn through all his restless energy,” she said. “Like father—”
“Like Matty,” Vince completed.
“True,” Angelo agreed. Matty had inherited their dad’s restlessness and often sought new projects. It could be a new sport or activity, or the latest video game. Matty had to experience everything.
“Almost a miracle to have all of you home at the same time. Ryan is thrilled you’re going to make it to his wedding.” His dad’s voice took on a wistful edge, one Angelo had rarely heard from the no-nonsense naval captain.
“Not even the Navy could keep me from my cousin’s wedding,” Matty declared with a lopsided grin. Neither was true. The Navy could easily do so, and Ryan wasn’t technically a cousin. They knew their dad’s best friend since they were kids. They’d called him Uncle Steve, making Ryan a “cousin.”
“What time is the wedding tomorrow?” Angelo asked.
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