When Shayla walked into the Navy SEAL’s house to find his living room filled with beautiful people, she knew with a certainty that she was merely the witty neighbor in this story.
Wait, what? Harry, in her head, had been psyched that she was actually going inside Lieutenant Greene’s house, even if only “to see if Maddie had left her Facebook account up and open on her new laptop computer, chicka-chick-bow-bow,” but now he was confused. The witty what…?
The witty neighbor was always the sidekick; the friend. As in not the romance-novel-type heroine.
In truth, Shay hadn’t really thought that she’d take on that type of leading role in the SEAL’s ongoing drama, but part of her—a small part, egged on by Harry’s rampant optimism—had foolishly started to hope. After all, the man was lovely to look at with his pretty eyes and all those muscles—and he really seemed genuinely nice. And yes, okay, nice was the kiss of death when it came to romance novel heroes, so really what she meant was that he was smart, he was funny, he was thoughtful and kind, and he was clearly responsible and reliable, along with intensely, highly skilled. Although, here in the harsh reality of the non-romance-novel world, his incredibly dangerous job was more of a liability than an asset, but still…He really was quite perfect for something short-term, like a fling.
You’re seriously considering having just a fling. Harry was flatly disbelieving. Since when do you do short-term flings?
Well, she had been considering it, but not anymore—not as she looked at the two beautiful young women in the room.
So, what? You’re just going to quit? Now Harry was disgusted.
There was nothing here to quit. Look, you’ve won, she thought back at him. Meeting Peter Greene had made Shayla realize that Harry’d been right for quite some time. She absolutely needed to get out more, and at the very least she was now convinced that she could, in particular, use a good happy ending—in the crassest, most sexual-innuendo-ish way—to finally and fully exorcise both Carter and all of the other angst and emotional pain from her life.
But that wasn’t going to happen any time soon—not with this SEAL. He wasn’t Shay’s Mr. Right or even her Mr. Right Now, because she was his friendly, slightly older neighbor—a variation of the “big sister slash mentor” role. Her job was to dispense wit and wisdom to the man—hold the steamy kisses—and collect his mail while he went galloping off on some crazy, romantic adventure with someone else.
What? Why? Harry still didn’t get it.
Look around the room, Shay silently told him. Because, yeah, she’d written this type of book enough times to recognize that one of the two gorgeous and far more age-appropriate women gathered in Lieutenant Peter Greene’s remarkably neat living room had to be the heroine to his Navy SEAL hero. And whoops, make that three gorgeous and far more age-appropriate people, Shay mentally corrected herself before Harry could yowl, because there was also a very adorable and probably gay young man sitting on the sofa.
Harry actually gasped. Holy shit, that’s not just some random adorable gay man, that’s Hollywood film actor Adam Wyndham!
Holy shit, it was. And the actor was clearly a regular in this house, because Peter greeted him with a casual, “Hey, Adam. Lindsey.” The second name was aimed with a nod at a delicately pretty dark-haired woman sitting on the other end of the sofa.
But then all three of the beautiful people spoke at once.
“Any luck?” asked Lindsey, who was Asian American and—whoa!
Yeah, I didn’t see that coming, Harry agreed. But she’s not leaping to her feet to greet him, so she’s probably just a friend.
Lindsey wasn’t leaping to her feet because she was hugely pregnant.
Or that. But the SEAL did greet her like he didn’t expect to see her in his house, Harry observed.
“Did you find her?” asked the literal movie star as the second woman—slim and ridiculously young, like barely-out-of-college young—chimed in with, “Any sign of her?”
“No,” Peter answered them all at once. “I thought I saw Maddie getting into a car, but…” He shook his head.
“Did you get my text?” demanded the college student. She was as strikingly beautiful as the pregnant woman, with long, shiny, straight brown hair and dark brown eyes in a face that was quite possibly perfect. “I just sent you a screenshot. Maddie texted me.”
“What?” Peter dug for his phone. “She did? When?”
“Just a minute ago.”
“That’s great news,” Shayla exclaimed.
“She says she’s okay, she’s with a friend and basically, you know, Leave me alone. She blocked me again, right after she sent it, so I couldn’t respond.” The young woman turned to Shayla. “I’m Eden Zanella. My husband, Izzy, is one of Grunge’s teammates.”
“Grunge?” Shayla repeated, even as she looked over Peter’s shoulder to read the text that Maddie had sent. And okay, so the gorgeous young woman was the Eden of Zanella-and-Eden that Peter had mentioned earlier, and obviously not his present-or-future soulmate. Not that Shay, as the witty neighbor, should care.
I don’t know why you concluded you’re only the neighbor, Harry complained. And by the way…Yowl? Really?
“Shh,” Shay whispered, but then smiled weakly when Peter glanced over at her. Yup, he’d definitely noticed that she regularly hushed her invisible friend. Although, in her defense, big sisters and witty neighbors were allowed to have a larger amount of quirkiness in their personalities, so he was just going to have to deal with it.
Meanwhile, Maddie’s text to Eden had been brief and to the point. “She was definitely in that car tonight,” Peter concluded after he read it. “She knows I’m looking for her.”
“Either that, or Dingo and Dumber called her,” Shay said. “Grunge?”
The SEAL glanced up again and twinkled his eyes at her as he smiled tightly. Well, he didn’t twinkle them intentionally. It just happened automatically whenever he smiled—and she was just going to have to deal with that. “Nickname. Don’t ask. Everyone, this is Shayla. She lives across the street, and oddly enough, knows me as Peter.”
“Nice to meet you, Shayla. I’m Izzy.” There was another man in the room, lurking over near the front window, but Shay hadn’t noticed him until he spoke—and then she couldn’t believe that she’d missed him. He was even broader and taller than Peter, and darkly, interestingly handsome, with midnight-colored eyes that gleamed with intelligence and amusement as he added, “And yeah, it’s a nickname, too. Izzy for I Z—my initials—Irving Zanella. Nicknames are rampant in the Teams.”
“I’m Adam,” the actor said as if she didn’t recognize him, then gestured to the pregnant woman, “and this is Lindsey Jenkins, with her soon-to-emerge plus one. So you live across the street, hmm?”
Lindsey’s got a different last name and a wedding band, and FYI, your SEAL isn’t gay, Harry noted.