SEAL on a Mission Page 6

  “It must have been pretty cool getting to spend time with your dad like that.” Wes rested his forearms on the railing, gazing down at the warthogs. She wondered if he was considering their relative position on her favorites list. “Did he get you into computers, too?”

  “Yeah.” Kyla smiled to herself as she remembered how her father would bring home old computers so they could tear them down, then rebuild new computers from scratch. Her mother used to complain that the house looked more like an electronics store than a home. She really wished he could have been around long enough to see her finish her engineering degree. “He taught me hacking, too, though I have no idea where he learned it.”

  Wes straightened up, turning to look at her. “Your dad sounds like he was an amazing person. I’m sorry I never got a chance to meet him.”

  Kyla felt a warmth fill her at Wes’s words. She truly had been lucky to have the time she’d had with her father. “I wish he could have met you, too. I think you and he would have gotten along really well.”

  Wes flashed her a grin. “I’d hope so, since I’m the one who kept his only daughter from going to jail.”

  She laughed. The way he could get her out of her own head faster than anyone—usually by making her laugh—was one of the things that made Wes so special.

  “Come on,” he said, taking her hand and leading her along the path toward the next exhibit. “Let’s check out the rest of the zoo. And while we walk, you can tell me more about the computer stuff you did with your dad. I’ll even act like I understand what you’re talking about.”

  As they left the warthogs, Kyla thought of all the things she wanted to tell Wes about her father and the time they spent together. For the first time in what felt like forever, she could think about her dad without feeling sad. She had no doubt she had Wes to thank for that.

  * * * * *

  SO, YOU’LL BE completely done with your master’s program at the end of this semester, right?” Wes asked as he glanced at the menu. “Are you thinking of getting your PhD next? I personally think Doctor Wells has a nice ring to it.”

  Kyla smiled as she alternated between perusing her own menu and admiring the Gaslamp Quarter’s beautiful Currant Brasserie restaurant, taking in the columns and arched walls that gave the place a cozy feel. Even though she was a San Diego native, she’d never been there before. They even had a pet friendly patio area where people could bring their dogs, which was the coolest thing ever, as far as she was concerned. She couldn’t wait to move out of the dorms so she could adopt her own fur baby from a local shelter.

  She looked up and down the menu again as she considered Wes’s question. Everything sounded so good, but she had to admit the cheeseburger and fries were calling to her.

  “Yeah, it kind of does, doesn’t it. But I think I’m done with school for a while,” she said, absently reaching down to caress the soft fur of the plush seal sitting beside her in the booth. Wes had bought the stuffed animal for her at the zoo and every time she looked at the cute little thing, she wanted to let out a squee. She’d never had a guy buy her something on a date. Well, except for dinner and a maybe movie ticket. The soft, fuzzy seal had made her all gooey inside the moment he’d given it to her. “I’ve been getting recruited by tech firms all over the country, so I’m thinking of working for a little while before going for my doctorate so I can get a little practical experience.”

  Across from her, she could have sworn Wes’s broad shoulders stiffened, but then he smiled and just like that, the tension was gone, making her wonder if it had ever really been there.

  “I can understand wanting to get out and put your education to use before you dive back into college again,” he said. “Have you ever thought about working for the Department of Defense? The Navy would be thrilled to have someone with your skills.”

  “I put in an application for Coronado, but I have to admit the salary and benefit packages some of the tech firms have been offering are hard to say no to.”

  But she’d turn them all down in a heartbeat if her friendship with Wes turned into something more.

  Kyla paid closer attention to his reaction this time to see what he thought of her possibly leaving San Diego to work for Tesla or some other company, but if it bothered him, he didn’t let on. She tried not to be disappointed and was glad when their server interrupted them to take their order.

  They both ended up ordering the cheeseburger. With loads of melty white cheddar, bacon, and garlic aioli, it was impossible to resist. And the fact that it came with a mountain of seasoned fries on the side didn’t hurt, either.

  “How’d you decide on this place?” she asked, sipping her iced tea. “I’ve heard about it, but in all the time I’ve lived in San Diego, I’ve never been here. It’s awesome.”

  Wes gave her a sheepish look. “I wish I could take the credit for picking this place, but to be honest, I’ve never been here, either. Noah suggested it. He said the food is excellent.”

  She smiled a little at the thought of Wes’s Teammates had helped him plan their date. Knowing he’d put this much effort into finding a special place for their first official date made her feel all warm inside.

  Wes took a swallow of iced tea. “In the interest of full disclosure, I should probably tell you that my whole platoon has been on my case for months to get me to ask you out.”

  Kyla chewed on her lip as she considered that. “Why didn’t you?”

  He studied his glass for a moment before giving her an embarrassed, little smile. “I wanted to. From the moment we met, actually.”

  “Then why didn’t you? I would have said yes.”

  Her words seemed to take him by surprise. Had he honestly not realized how hard she’d been crushing on him?

  He shrugged, looking a little bashful again. “With everything going on, I figured you needed a friend more than a boyfriend. I wanted to be there for you, and I thought trying to pursue a romantic relationship would only add more stress to the situation. I didn’t want to do that to you, so I stayed in the friend zone.”

  Kyla took a deep breath, fighting tears—and failing for the most part. If they weren’t in the middle of a crowded restaurant right then, she probably would have started crying like a baby.

  “That is the most mazing and thoughtful thing anyone has ever done for me,” she said. “And as much as I wish you had asked me out, you’re right when you said what I needed back then was a strong shoulder to lean on. So, thank you for being that.”

  Wes reached across the table and took her hand, a smile tugging up the corners of his mouth. “My shoulders are available anytime you need them.”

  Kyla opened her mouth to make a comment about needing more than his shoulders when their server appeared with their cheeseburgers and more iced tea. He’d even remembered to bring extra ketchup in those cute little dishes. Because apparently, having a bottle of the stuff on the table was tacky.

  As Wes added sweetener to his tea, it occurred to Kyla that she didn’t actually know much about him. Sure, they’d known each other for a while, but they’d never talked about anything personal in all that time. Mostly because they were always hanging out with other people all the time. Well, there was no one but the two of them here now.

  She almost hurt herself trying to take a bite of her burger because it was so thick, but oh, was it ever worth it. All that melted cheese, bacon, and Angus beef did not disappoint.

  “Did you grow up in a Navy family?” she asked when she finished chewing.

  He picked up a handful of fries and dunked them in ketchup. “No. I’m from a family of academics back in Oregon. My older brother and sister were all about higher learning. They’d sit around the dinner table talking to my parents about all the classes they wanted to take when they got to college while they were still in middle and high school.”

  She laughed. “Not your thing, huh?”

  “Not really.” He shrugged. “I don’t have anything against college. Unlike my brother and sister seemed
to know what they wanted to do with their lives the moment they popped out of the womb, I had no idea what I wanted to go to school for. And I didn’t want to spend my parents’ money mindlessly by diving into some random college program, then spend all my time complaining about the course load and cramming for finals.”

  Even though her experience with college was closer to his brother and sister than to his, she got where Wes was coming from. “So, where does the Navy come in?”

  He took another bite of burger. “I went to pick up my parents’ dry cleaning, which happened to be right next door to the Navy recruitment center and I decided to check it out. The rest is, as they say, is history. I walked out two hours later with all the paperwork filled out and a reporting date.”

  “Wow.” She couldn’t imagine doing something that extreme without giving it a little more thought. “What’d your mom and dad think?”

  He chuckled, picking up his glass and sipping his iced tea. “I didn’t exactly tell them right away.”

  Her eyes went wide. “Seriously?”

  “Nope. They knew I was keeping a secret from them, though. They thought I was going to tell them I wanted to take a gap year and backpack around Europe. To say they weren’t thrilled with me joining the Navy is an understatement. But after getting them to understand I had no idea what he wanted to do with my life—and pointing out that going in the Navy would give me a lot of money for college instead of a mountain of student loans or having them pay for tuition—they finally, reluctantly, agreed with me.”

  “And what did they say when you told them you were going to be a SEAL?”

  She had a hard time believing they’d be chill with it. Becoming a SEAL wasn’t merely tipping a toe into a life of danger. It was jumping in like a belly flop.

  Wes winced. “Um, I might have fibbed a little to them about that part. I kind of implied I was doing a boring desk job. I was out of BUD/s and already assigned here in San Diego for a month before I got around to mentioning the SEAL thing.”

  Kyla’s jaw dropped. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

  He shook his head. “Yeah, Mom and Dad weren’t thrilled, either. The lying was bad enough, and while they were upset and worried about me doing such a dangerous job, they were also confused about why I wanted to do it.”

  She considered that. “Why do you do it?”

  He hesitated for a moment before answering. “My parents work so hard at their jobs—getting up early, coming home late, working on the weekend—to bring in six-figure incomes. And while I admit I liked all the stuff the money they make bought me when I was a kid, as I got older I realized I wanted my job to mean more than a paycheck. If I was going to bust my butt for something, I wanted it to have meaning.”

  Kyla supposed she could understand that…at least on the theoretical level. But on the real-world level, where doing something with meaning meant Wes could get killed was much harder to accept.

  She turned her attention back to her dinner, trying to focus on the burger and fries so she wouldn’t think about the danger that came along with Wes’s choice of careers or the uncomfortable tightening she got in her stomach whenever she thought of him doing it. Being a SEAL was part of Wes. She’d known that when they’d become friends and before she’d agreed to go out on a date with him. Still, it was scary knowing he willingly put himself at risk every time he went to work.

  But it wasn’t anything she could change, so when Wes asked her about upcoming movies she was looking forward to seeing, she determinedly pushed thoughts of his job to the back of her mind. Besides, she didn’t want to ruin their date by talking about it any more. Soon enough they were carrying on an animated conversation over the relative merits of blockbusters versus indie films, and action-adventures versus rom-coms. They ended up making a monster list of all the movies they wanted to see in the theaters and on Netflix, then arguing about which sequence they’d see them. If they got around to watching two or three movies a week, they already had about a year’s worth stacked up. She could get so used to this!

  When they’d finished every last nibble of burger and fries, the server came back and talked them into dessert. Even though Kyla was already full, she didn’t want the date to end, so she wholeheartedly agreed with the man’s recommendation. Besides, could you ever really go wrong with a cookie sundae made with warm homemade chocolate chip cookie chunks and creamy vanilla ice cream, all smothered in chocolate sauce? She didn’t think so.

  The dessert tasted as good as the waiter made it sound and Kyla didn’t even bother to stifle a moan as she and Wes shared it. But even after they’d finished the ice cream and cookie goodness, they hung around the restaurant sipping coffee and talking about TV shows, books, and video games. And when they’d exhausted those subjects, she told him stories about the crazy things she, Owen, and Andrew had gotten involved in while digging up corruption as part of their hacktivist group, The People. In return, Wes filled her in on some of the cool places he and his SEAL teammates had visited, though she noticed he censored most of the details so she had no idea where any of the places might be or when he and his friends had been there.

  “You want to walk around the area?” Wes asked as they left the restaurant a little while later.

  She smiled and slipped her hand in his. “Sounds like fun.”

  There were so many shops and galleries in the Gaslamp Quarter there was no way they could stop at all of them before closing time, but they browsed half a dozen or so, including a trendy store filled with house-label jeans. As Wes bent down to get a pair off the bottom shelf, his shirt slid up, revealing his lower back. Kyla gasped out loud at the sight of the purplish yellow bruise that covered every inch of skin she could see.

  “What happened to your back?” she asked, reaching out to push his shirt up to see how extensive the bruising was.

  Wes stood up quickly, forgetting about the jeans. Pulling down his shirt, he turned to look at her. “It’s nothing.”

  “It doesn’t look like nothing to me,” she pointed out, noticing the way he looked around as if to make sure no one was close enough to hear what they were saying. “In fact, it looks very serious. Did you get that when you were gone for those few days? Is that where Noah got hurt, too?”

  He frowned. “You know I can’t tell you about any of that. It’s work stuff.”

  Kyla nodded at that, taking his hand as he led her out of the shop and into the next one, continuing the conversation they’d been having before she noticed the bruise. She tried to keep up with what he was saying—something about why jeans with holes already in them shouldn’t cost as much as ones without—but after a few minutes, she realized her mind was somewhere else completely. And that somewhere else was wondering what Wes had been doing to get that messed up, and whether she could handle dating a guy who wouldn’t ever be able to tell her those kinds of secrets.

  CHAPTER SIX

  HOW’D THE DATE go last night?” Sam asked as he and Holden grabbed some seats on the other side of the conference table from Wes. It took a few moments longer for Noah to catch up and join them since the brace around his leg made him move much slower. But other than some obvious stiffness, his knee looked a lot better and almost all the swelling was gone. Noah wouldn’t be out running an obstacle course anytime soon, but he was good enough to at least hobble in for a intel briefing.

  Wes and his Teammates had been in this particular room in the Imperial Beach complex since the ops briefing for the Nigerian mission. Wes seriously hoped this one wouldn’t turn out as bad. It shouldn’t since today was supposed to be little more than a threat update. A low-key get together with the guys from SOG and a few senior CIA analysts to hopefully get everyone calmed down and working on the same page again. The most any of them expected out of this was an idea what their next move might be. Wes hoped everyone kept their cool this morning since neither Chasen nor Commander Hunt were there to calm things down if they went off the rails again.

  “It was good,” Wes said as No
ah finally sat down beside him. “I think.”

  If he was being honest, while the date had been beyond amazing, there were a few things that had him concerned.

  “Not exactly a ringing endorsement.” Sam exchanged looks with Holden and Noah before turning his attention back to Wes. “Where’d you guys go?”

  Wes sat back, smiling a little at the memory of how much Kyla had loved the monkeys and pandas at the zoo. “We went to the zoo and she practically OD’d on all the cuteness, then we had dinner at the restaurant in the Gaslamp Quarter Noah recommended. The food was great and we talked the whole time without any of that weird silence that happens a lot on first dates.”

  Noah frowned in obvious confusion. “Maybe the issue is that you don’t know a good thing when you see it because it sounds like everything went fine.”

  Wes ran his hand through his hair with a sigh. “It did. But then Kyla mentioned that some tech firms have offered her a job.”

  Holden snorted. “What, you’re bent she’s going to have a job that makes ten times more money than you do?”

  Noah and Sam laughed, but Wes didn’t.

  “No, of course not. I’m bent because none of the jobs are in San Diego. Hell, some of them aren’t even in California.”

  “And you’re wondering whether it’s a good idea to start a relationship with her?” Noah surmised.

  “Yeah.” Wes nodded. “If that isn’t enough, she got a look at the bruises on my back and didn’t like that I couldn’t tell her what happened. I don’t think she’s too thrilled about me being a SEAL.”