Hot Pursuit - Denise A. Agnew [23]
Bleary eyed from not sleeping well Friday and Saturday night, Lucy stared at her half-full coffee cup. “Yup.”
“He’s good friends with Jake?”
“Well, he didn’t say friend. I guess they know each other.”
Neena laughed and stretched. Even pregnant and wearing a purple sweater hugging her rounding tummy, Neena had a glow about her, a kind of happiness Lucy feared she’d never know.
“Speaking of rascally men, where’s your husband?” Lucy asked.
“Dunno. He’s always tinkering with this place.” Neena glanced around the old house. “I have a hard time believing that this place is so pretty now. It took a lot of hard work.” The contentment on her face spoke volumes. “But I don’t regret a minute of it.”
“It’s beautiful. And you guys deserve it. You worked hard. Now you’ve got a little one on the way.”
Lucy tasted her coffee again, wishing she’d eaten more for breakfast. Her stomach grumbled and rolled a bit. Maybe it was punishment for New Year’s Eve’s sexual excess.
Neena shook her head again. “So Vic was this geek in high school.”
“A-number one. No glasses, but this big nose, big ears, gangly. Skinny. Dorky as hell. Yet he was the sweetest boy.”
Neena’s inquisitive expression widened to an evil grin. “Never underestimate a geek. Eve did that with Sean, and boy, did I underestimate Mitch.”
Eve had discovered when she saw Sean decked out in military uniform and packing a weapon, that the computer nerd was gorgeous as hell. Mitch had startled Neena by saving her skin during a robbery, while she saved his.
Lucy pushed her coffee away, confusion still twisting her up. “It was a mistake hooking up with Vic.”
Neena’s eyebrows lifted. “Honestly? Are you sure?”
“I’m not doing the military thing anymore.”
Neena nodded. “That’s what Marisa once said,”
True. Jake had come into Marisa’s life during a rescue in the Mexican jungle. Marisa had barely recovered from the death of her fiancé when Jake found a way into her reluctant heart.
“I’m not Marisa.”
Neena threw her a half-smile. “Your record with crappy military men is truly amazing.”
Lucy glanced around, not sure she wanted Mitch to hear this conversation. He’d been outside the isolated house shoveling snow when Lucy had arrived. While Lucy liked Mitch very much and had enjoyed photographing him for the Clarksville charity calendar two years ago, he had that something—whatever it was—that held him apart from other men. A watchfulness. She guessed being in a war could do that to a man. She’d seen it in Freddie’s husband, Keith Wallace, an Army Special Forces man, and fellow Special Ops soldier Jake Sullivan. They all possessed an extraordinary ingredient that made military men different from Joe Blow down the street. She didn’t want to like it, but seemed drawn to it every time. And her friends were very happily married to their big, tough military dudes. She couldn’t fault the guys for making her good buddies happy women.
“You ladies talking about me again?” Mitch sauntered from the utility room into the kitchen. A wide grin on his mouth said he found it amusing rather than irritating.
He was over six feet of tensile strength with piercing brown eyes that never missed anything. His collar-length dark hair and rugged features assured that he’d never be called a pretty boy.
“Of course we are.” Neena went into her husband’s arms and the two shared a short and yet tender kiss.
Mitch kept his arm around his wife’s waist. “Okay, since you weren’t really talking about me, who were you talking about?”
Keeping a straight face, Lucy said, “A friend of Jake’s. Well, a guy he knows anyway.”
“What’s this guy’s name?” Mitch released Neena and came around the counter.
His curiosity surprised her a little, but she answered after she finished a sip of coffee. “I ran into him on New Year’s Eve.”
Mitch threw her an even more curious look, his eyes narrowed. “So that’s where you were. We thought you were with Danny.”
Neena cleared his throat. “Mitch, that’s a long and personal story.”
“What did Danny do?” Mitch asked.
Lucy couldn’t hide her surprise as she swung toward