Two weeks later, Kia was settled in that nice little house with her zoo menagerie. Wes had just vacated his apartment and moved in with her. They had stayed in Reddick while Kia got acquainted with Wes’s family, and she couldn’t have had the best and worst times if she’d tried. Big Red had passed on after a massive heart attack and most town folks speculated it was from the whole terrible fallout of Travis’s murder and his son’s arrest. The news about Red hanging himself in his cell just hours after he was told was the kind of irony that wasn’t lost on any of them. It was the last part of Wes’s past to be resolved.

All her life she’d wanted to experience that sense of home. Now she had it, and she’d been right, it was love.

She wasn’t sure she’d worked through all her abandonment issues because when Wes’s deployment inched closer, she had a lot of anxiety, but that could be because he was going into danger. Being in love with a SEAL came with knowing your man was in danger when he was out in the field, but Kia also knew the passion and dedication that Wes gave to his brothers in arms. He now couldn’t live any other way, and she wanted him to be happy and fulfilled. She would be there when he came home.

His family moved back into their Sweetwater home, and Wes agreed with Kia to keep their excellent foreman to run the property. Wes and Kia would visit when they could, and he would take over ranching once he retired from the SEALs.

They were getting ready for LT’s wedding and as the best man, he would be wearing his full-dress uniform and Kia couldn’t wait to see him in it.

They headed to the venue, Coronado Landing Park with a spectacular view of the San Diego skyline. The day was beautiful, but Kia was beginning to understand that it was idyllic weather here. It was very different from Texas, but she was enjoying her adventure. Triton and BFA were settling in nicely and since BFA had saved her life, she was overindulgent with his tuna snacks. Quicksand had quickly become attached to Wes who rode him with ease where Kia had to fight him every step of the way. He took him to a cattle ranch once a week when he was home and let him haze cattle. It also made Wes happy. Kia was content in switching off on Twilight Star and Saragon, riding Quicksand when Wes would be gone.

A tent had been set up for the wedding party to change in, one for the guys and one for the women. She waited patiently by the opening for him to come out. She wasn’t disappointed.

“Wow,” she breathed. He looked amazing. From his cover, a navy word to describe any uniform hat, to his shoulder boards, to the tips of his very shiny shoes, he wore the dress blues well, his broad shoulders filling out the jacket nicely, his ribbons impressive. He would be standing up with Lieutenant Bowie Cooper.

As the guests assembled filling in the padded chairs, Kia took her seat on the groom’s side up close to the front. After the procession, Dana and Ruckus stood on the gazebo decorated with bright, colorful flowers and exchanged their vows in front of family and friends. All these people were now her family and here in the SEAL community, the girlfriends and the wives made her feel so welcome. She finally felt like she belonged.

Their expressions were full of the kind of love and adoration a person couldn’t help but envy, and as Wes looked over at her, she was caught up in the ceremony, and the genuine emotion between the couple.

Dana’s boss, Sara Campbell stood up with her along with two of her friends from college with Kid Chaos and Blue, whose eyes really stood out against his blue uniform, acting as ushers.

Then the minister was delivering the last line, telling Ruckus he could kiss his new wife. Cowboy moved into line with the rest of his team where they presented their swords. Each two men they came to, dropped their swords barring the way until Ruckus kissed Dana, with the same action until they reached Cowboy. As they were stopped by him, he said, “You can’t pass until you kiss.” Ruckus gave her a quick one and Cowboy said, “Plant one on her.”

And he did, bent her over his arm and gave her a deep kiss. Cowboy let her pass, but as soon as she walked past, Cowboy dropped his sword and swatted her on the butt with the flat of his sword. “Welcome to the navy, Dana.”

She laughed and jumped forward.

After the reception where there was much dancing, drinking, kissing and cake, Kia went home with her SEAL. Tucked against him, she ran her hands over his heavy muscles. “Keep that up and you’re going to start something, darlin’.”

“Maybe I want to start something.”

“Is that so.” He turned toward her and brushed the back of his hands against the fading bruises on her cheekbones. She ran her hand down his chest to his hip and cupped his super fine ass. “Geez, Wes, your butt is like granite.” He followed the same path.

“I like yours better, especially the tat on your taillights.”

She giggled. “Yeah, I was such a fool for you in high school.”

He dragged her hips against his. “We are certainly older and wiser,” he whispered against her mouth. Then he kissed her, and that was the end of the conversation except the purely physical one they fully embraced.

Afterward, Wes said. “Kia, one promise.”

“What?”

“No more illegal hacking.”

“Okay, I think I can handle that.”

He grabbed her chin and she sighed. “I’m going to miss you when you’re gone, Wes.”

“But you can handle it.”

“Yes, there’s no other man for me, not in this lifetime.”

“That’s a good thing, ‘cause I’d have to kill him.”

She said, “Maybe we can run a yellow traffic light every once in a while? You know live on the wild side just a bit.”

He chuckled. “Maybe we could.” She snuggled down with him and drifted off.

* * *

Shortly after that, Cowboy saw less of her as the SEALs began training. Word came down they were joining a NATO joint task force to take down the Kirikhan Rebels and apprehend Boris and Natasha Golovkin. Retrieving the warheads was the secondary task.

Three teams of eight were being mobilized: Team One was going to take point and go in to try to get to the Golovkin’s and capture them. Dragon’s Team a badass sniper who had filled in for Kid Chaos on an op into North Korea when Kid had been in Bolivia, was secondary with Ruckus’s team acting as back up. They all trained together and Cowboy could see that Ryuu “Dragon” Shannon was well-respected amongst his teammates. No surprise there. They often worked with other members of Team Seven and there were some tough guys working with Dragon. A set of triplets, Errol “Pitbull” Ballentine, Flynn “Pirate” Ballentine, and Robin “Hood” Ballentine, their corpsman, then a smart aleck, former Royal Marine and elite member of the Special Boat Service, the British equivalent of the SEALs, Oliver “Artful Dodger” Graham. Their leader, a gearhead that Tank got along with very well as they talked a lot about muscle cars and motorcycles was aptly named Ford “Fast Lane” Nixon. Milo “Professor” Prescott, a Rhodes Scholar with an encyclopedic knowledge and photographic memory and lastly, Justin “Speed” Myerson, a quiet guy who did his job well, but kept to himself mostly.

He came home tense and Kia picked up on it and insisted that they go riding. That always relaxed him. She was right.

“You doing all right?” she asked.

“Yeah, just a lot on my mind. I wanted to ask you. What happened to Sunshine—Sunny?”

Her face went a little sad. “He was despondent after you didn’t return. I took him home with me and he lived a happy life until he passed about five years ago. He was a sweet guy and after I got Twilight Star, they bonded. He perked up quite a bit after that and had a serene life.”

Cowboy nodded. One more thing he could add to his growing list of why he loved this woman. His heart tightened a bit at the fond memory of that excellent horse, but knowing that he was happy and well-cared for tempered his ache some.

As they clopped along, she said. “I know you can’t talk about it, but know that whatever it is that you’re going to be doing, remember that I love you, support you and want you back.”

He reached out and clasped her hand. “That means everything, darlin’”

He sat in the quiet of the meadow in the peaceful afternoon and said, “This…this is what I’m fighting for. I’ll keep you safe, Kia. Every illegal, gorgeous, sassy inch of you,” he whispered. “The last breath I breathe will be for you.”

She tightened her hold on him. “Every single American should be thankful for that. I love you, Wes.”

“I love you, too, darlin’.”

He pulled her out of the saddle and she went with a squeak. Settling her solidly against him, he bent down and took her mouth. “This isn’t going to be a garden party,” she murmured.

He threw his head back and laughed. “It’s going to be one hell of a blast party.”

And, in the end, the score was: Stupid Girl Crush—ha! A measly four/Kia—infinity. She rather liked being a starry-eyed fool for Wes. “Hoo-yah, rodeo, hoo-yah.”

Book 4 in the SEAL Team Alpha series, Tank, is next. A mission gone wrong, a missing team member and heartbreaking changes knock Thorn “Tank” Hunt off his game. He’ll need the help of a caring, dedicated woman, someone like veterinarian Dr. Alyssa St. James. But she’s the kind of woman who would demand picket fences, cause fraternization issues, was bossy, and drove him crazy. For a hell raiser like Tank, it might just all be too much out of his comfort zone.