Free Waiting for Him by Samantha Cole Page A

“Take a nap if you want. Jake and I will be next door working on a few things for tomorrow.”
    “Okay.” Kat pulled off the blonde wig she’d donned before getting off the plane and scratched her itchy scalp. Reaching to pull the bedspread down, she kicked off her shoes at the same time. “Don’t let me sleep past three, please. Otherwise I’ll be up all night.”
    “Sure.” Boomer watched as she climbed into the bed fully clothed. She shifted a few times trying to find a comfortable position and finally settled on her side facing away from him. Her long brown tresses fanned across the pillow and his hands ached to run his fingers through the soft strands. The longer he was around her, the more his old feelings for her pounded in his chest. But there were new feelings there too. Feelings he didn’t know what the fuck he was going to do about.
    Sighing, he walked into the other room and left the door ajar in case she needed him. Jake was exiting his bathroom and drying his hands on a towel. He raised an eyebrow at seeing Boomer alone.
    “She’s lying down for a while.”
    “Ah.” They both sat down at the table for two and Jake opened a folder with all the pertinent information they had so far. “So…you want to talk about work or what it’s like to have an old girlfriend come back from the dead?”
    Boomer knew his friend was being sympathetic despite how his words sounded. He ran a hand through his hair and glanced at the partially opened door behind him before turning his attention back to Jake. “How do you know she was a girlfriend?”
    “Ian keeps me around for my sniper skills and powers of observation. If she wasn’t your girlfriend, there was a time you wished she was.”
    He leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table and keeping his voice low so she wouldn’t hear him. It’d been a long time since he’d told anyone about his Kitten. “She was my best friend’s sister and a year younger than us in school. I never thought of her as anything more than a good friend until I took her to my senior prom. One minute she was my friend, the next minute I wanted something more. Hit me from out of the blue, you know?”
    Jake nodded, but didn’t say a word.
    “The night of my going-away party, a week before basic training, I found out she felt the same way. I asked her to be my girl and to wait for me. She agreed and two days later…her entire family was gone.”
    “From what Ian told me, she didn’t have a choice.”
    Boomer leapt from his chair in frustration and began pacing, but kept his voice low. “Damn it, I know it wasn’t her fault. But too much time has gone by. We don’t even fucking know each other anymore. I’m not the same eighteen-year-old kid without a care in the world. I’ve seen and done shit she could never imagine. I’ve changed, and I doubt she’ll like the guy I’ve become.”
    Crossing his arms, Jake narrowed his eyes at his teammate. “Close the door.”
    “What?”
    “Close the damn door and sit the fuck down for a minute.” After Boomer eased the door shut and plopped back down in his seat, the harshness ebbed from his friend’s voice. “I’m a little confused here, Baby Boomer. Are you talking about the Navy and the shit we’ve done, or are you talking about the club and the lifestyle?
    “Both, I guess,” he mumbled, staring at the floor.
    “Well, the SEAL shit is easy. You’ve served your country proud and followed orders like the good frog you are. Yes, you’ve killed more people than anyone will ever know about, but what it boils down to is you killed because you had to. You’re not a murderer. You saved lives—civilians’, your teammates’, and your own. There’s nothing wrong with anything you’ve done in the name of Uncle Sam and apple pie. I don’t think your girl in there would have any problem with that, especially since you can’t tell her most of it.”
    Boomer shrugged and kept his eyes downcast.
    “Now, about the lifestyle.