Free SEAL Encounter (SEAL Brotherhood) by Sharon Hamilton Page B

hang out in the City by the Bay. They weren’t exactly friendly to military these days. Presidio was full of movie production offices now. The base was sold off like one of the ghost ships nearby in the Suisun Bay.
    But after his two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan, he found he didn’t want to go to all the trouble just to find someone to have a little fun with. Consequently, he kept his profession and his identify close to the vest. Preferred the company of other team guys.
    Truth was, he was also a little shy around women. His mother had died when he was  in high school. Hanging around a bunch of career Navy and team guys didn’t help him learn how to maneuver around females at all, that is, without making them run in the other direction. But, as the team LPO, he was expected to show confidence in everything he tackled.
    Where is she? Certain she was somewhere ahead, he continued.
    He realized he sucked when it came to women. He fell too fast and scared them off. He was too intense, wanted things too hard, didn’t know how to play the little games of seduction. He would wind up with a string of one-night stands. Feeling unsatisfied. Just as alone as before. At least in Afghanistan he had his buds around him. Men who would die to keep him safe. And he’d do the same. That kind of intensity he could understand.
    Women are different.
    But give him something to blow up, some bad guy to snatch, or a target to hit, and Kyle didn’t have a moment’s hesitation. He knew just how lethal he was. Maybe too lethal. Even for his own good.
    Something sparkly caught his eye. There she was, several yards in front of him, with her carry-on bag slung over her right shoulder. He started following her down the corridor without thinking.
    Like a bull moose.
    Her straight skirt hugged the curves of her sweet derriere in ways that made Kyle jealous. With her long legs, she looked calm and casual, but she was booking it down the granite tiles to another departure gate.  He smiled and sped up to— do what?
    It would be just his luck. She was probably a model, on her way to New York or Paris. No way he’d be lucky enough even if he caught up to her. What the hell do you say to a woman like that? No doubt she was late to meet up with a lover who was whisking her off for a romantic week somewhere. How he wished he could be that guy.
    A luggage cart laden with bags piled four and five deep cut right across Kyle’s focused path and he wound up on the floor, covered in Samsonite. He didn’t want to look down the hall to see if she noticed him. It was bad enough to face the crowd of laughing elementary school kids who had been following behind the cart. Kyle became their distraction of the moment.
    He checked a sting coming from his elbow and found blood. He’d have to explain this to Cooper, who would patch him up if the Team III medic could stop laughing long enough. That wasn’t going to be much fun.  Here he was, doing battle with luggage at the San Francisco airport without a bad guy in sight. On a mission to meet up with a pair of legs. But he’d lost the target.
    It was the same sorry story day in and day out. He picked up the nearest red bag and tossed it as hard as he could throw.
     
    Christy Nelson heard the chirping laughter of the school children. It was funny seeing their bright red Sports Academy bags tumbling over luggage of all colors, like strawberry sauce on top of a sundae. Then, like an erupting volcano, one sports bag spewed from the top of the pile and flew half way across the terminal corridor. That’s when she knew someone had been buried under all the debris. Someone who could throw a thirty-pound bag fifty feet.
    Thank God it’s no child. With several chaperones scurrying to sort out the mess, Christy took her leave, looking for the store her mother had loved.
    Every time her mother visited Christy, she would bring her a little charm from the airport store. Christy was desperate to find it. She intended to