CHAPTER 7
A day off was probably the last thing Will needed at the moment. In past, it had been a treasured commodity. Now, not so much.
Then, when he had no training, no missions and no meetings, Sara would have stayed overnight. He would have happily slept late and woken to the aroma of her brewing coffee.
Will consciously shook that thought from his head. No more thoughts of Sara. She didn’t deserve the place she continued to occupy in the forefront of his mind.
Brody’s girl was visiting him this weekend so he couldn’t call him to do something. He still hadn’t told the rest of the guys on his own team yet about the break-up and he didn’t feel like opening up that discussion today.
No doubt they’d ask him why he was suddenly interested in hanging out since he usually ignored his teammates on his days off because he’d been with Sara.
He could go home for a visit. He hadn’t seen his family in too long and Grandpa wasn’t getting any younger even if he did seem as indestructible as the battleship he’d served on during his stint in the Marines. But traveling that far from base would require approval for official leave.
Will would have to talk to the commander about that possibility on Monday, which did him no good this weekend. The question remained, what could he do today to keep himself busy?
No. He needed to change the way he thought. With that in mind, Will altered his question to himself to what should he do to take advantage of a day off and his newfound freedom?
Better. But he still had no answer to the question.
Or did he?
He grabbed his cell and navigated to Jessa’s number.
She worked full time, at what he wasn’t exactly sure. It had to do with advertising or marketing or something. But he did know that she always seemed to have weekends off. And today was the weekend.
He’d done the bare minimum by installing the deadbolt she’d purchased. There was more he could do to secure her apartment for her.
Today would be the perfect time to get to it. It would give them both peace of mind, by keeping him busy and her safe and it didn’t hurt that he enjoyed Jessa’s company.
Will punched in the text.
Hey! How’s that lock working out for you?
A few seconds passed but instead of a text reply, his cell rang and Jessa’s name appeared on the display.
Frowning that she’d called instead of texted, Will answered. “Hey. Everything okay?”
“Yeah. Fine. I just hate texting.”
Will smiled. “Old school. I like it.”
She let out a laugh. “Yup. That’s me. Old and out of touch, I guess.”
“Um, no. I meant talking on the phone is on the way to becoming a lost art like letter writing and I appreciate your effort.”
“You really are a charmer, Will Weber.”
“Am I?” Now it was his turn to laugh.
“Yeah, you are.” She drew in an audible breath. “Anyway. Your lock is doing fine. Thank you. I slept better last night knowing it was there.”
“Good. I’m glad.”
“Me too. I was getting tired of waking up and listening for burglars.”
“Jeez, Jessa. If you felt that way, you should have asked me to come over sooner to put it in.” Realizing that sounded inadvertently dirty, at least to him, Will added, “The lock, I mean.”
Unaware of his juvenile enjoyment of a good double entendre, Jessa answered, “It’s fine. I didn’t realize how badly I needed a better lock until I heard about the break-in.”
“Break-in?” He blew out a breath. “Jessa, you didn’t mention a robbery.”
“Sorry. I guess I didn’t think to tell you.”
“Well, tell me now. What happened?”
“Somebody kicked in the front door of my neighbor’s place in the middle of the night while they were away. Nobody was home, but they lost some valuables. So that’s why I bought the deadbolt.”
A lock that probably wouldn’t withstand being kicked in any more than the one that was there originally. Not with her flimsy doorframe. The wood would splinter and give way, lock or no.
As the only boy in a family of girls, Will had a protective streak a mild wide. He would never forgive himself if anything happened to Jessa in an apartment he could have made more secure and hadn’t.
He had to correct this situation immediately. “I’m coming over.”
“Um, okay . . .”
“Sorry. I mean are you going to be around this morning and not busy? I had some ideas for a few more things to ramp up your security.” And now that he knew about the burglary, he had even more plans than before.
“I don’t really have the money to install an expensive system. Or even pay for monthly monitoring. Covering all the bills alone is kind of stretching my budget. I didn’t realize how much Sara’s leaving would hurt.”
That made two of them.
“No worries. I’ll pick up everything at the store and put it in myself.”
“I can’t let you do that.”
What was with this woman and telling him he couldn’t do things for her? If her independence weren’t so impressive, it would be really annoying. But as it was, it only made him want to do more.
“I’m doing it.”
She sighed. “Fine. Thank you. I appreciate your taking the time. But I’m paying you for whatever you pick up.”
“We’ll see.”
“Will!”
He laughed, enjoying teasing her. “Okay. I’ll be over in an hour.”
“Um, all right. See you.”
He disconnected the call and realized he felt better already. Being busy was good. Getting out. Doing stuff.
Will grabbed his keys and headed out the door. It probably wouldn’t even take him an hour to swing by the store and grab what he needed.
A short time later, while standing in the aisle of the home improvement store, he realized he’d underestimated the time this would take. But that was only because his progress was slowed by his comparison-shopping as he searched for the best quality at the lowest prices, all because he knew Jessa was going to insist on paying him back and she was worried about money because of Sara moving out.
Metal door reinforcer in hand Will paused when he realized that was the first time he’d come even close to thinking about Sara since he’d made the decision to head to Jessa’s this morning.
Definite progress. Of course the next step would be to stop noticing that he wasn’t thinking about her.
Drawing in a breath, he tossed the box into the shopping cart.
It wasn’t too long before he stood on Jessa’s doorstep, eyeing the door construction critically. With the two heavy bags from the store in one hand and his tool box in the other, he rang the doorbell with one elbow. SEALs were nothing if not adaptable and inventive.
She opened the door, her hazel eyes widening when she took in all that he held. “What did you buy?”
Will sidled past her and drew in a deep breath as he got a whiff of her—a combination of a light floral perfume and laundry dryer sheets.
He moved away from her and into the kitchen, saying, “Nothing much. Just the necessities. And it barely cost thirty bucks so don’t worry about it.”
He was lying about the cost, but she didn’t need to know that. Will plunked his burden down on the kitchen counter and turned toward her.
How did she manage to make a ponytail, yoga pants and a T-shirt look so damn sexy? Frowning at his own thoughts and at himself for noticing, he yanked his gaze back up to her face. “Ready to get started?”
“Sure. Not that I know what to do to help you, but I’m willing to give it a try if you tell me what to do.”
He smiled at her willingness to help. “You can pour me some of that coffee I see in the pot and I’ll handle the rest. Sound good?”
“That I can do.” She spun toward the coffee maker on the counter, sending her brunette ponytail swinging.
He chastised himself one more time when his gaze dropped to take in how her waist flared out into the rounded curves of her hips and ass.
She turned back to him and he yanked his eyes back up. “Ooo, I just remembered. I have some of those cinnamon buns in a tube. I can bake those to go with the coffee.”
Fresh baked cinnamon buns, hot coffee and an even hotter woman. That was a hell of a combination. Damn near impossible to resist . . . and those were thoughts he didn’t need in his head right now.
Swallowing hard, he nodded. “Sounds good.”
Why hadn’t he noticed how cute Jessa was before today? And why the hell was he noticing now?
It had to be his month of celibacy. That’s all it was. Any woman he came across would pique his interest. He just happened to come across very few females in his line of work.
Yeah. That was it.
Will made a vow to get out more. Maybe take the guys up on their invitation and hang with them one night. Not that he was all that keen on going out.
The thought of trolling for women at the local bar left him cold. Still, he needed to do something about this sudden awareness of Jessa as a woman so he could get back to normal and just be friends with her.
How to do that, he didn’t know. For now, the best thing he could do was get to work.
Will managed to do exactly that for the next hour, whipping through the indoor and outdoor tasks he’d set for himself. He only stopped to take a short break to sit down and eat the very tasty sticky buns she’d baked.
Then he was done and hovering by the front door, toolbox in hand and the thirty dollars she’d insisted he take in his pocket.
Hesitating leaving and not in any hurry to say goodbye he said, “So, tomorrow is Sunday.”
“It is.” She nodded.
“You’re off?”
“Yup. Are you?” Jessa asked.
“I am.” As long as the commander didn’t call the team in. He kept that slim possibility to himself and against his better judgment said, “Maybe we should go shopping.”
“Shopping?” She lifted her brows.
His lips twitched with a smile. “Not like purse shopping. That is definitely not on my list of fun things to do on a Sunday. I’m talking dog shopping.”
“Dog shopping?” Her eyes widened.
“Yeah. You told me you were thinking about maybe getting one.”
“Yes.”
“I think you should. And the shelter is open on weekends. I thought I could go with you.” He shrugged, ignoring that he liked the idea of seeing her again tomorrow too much for his own good.
“Oh. Okay. Sure. We can go see what kind are there.” She’d looked surprised by the suggestion. Will didn’t blame her. It had surprised him too.
“And no tiny foo-foo dogs either. I want it to be a decent sized breed,” he continued.
“Oh you do, do you?” She laughed, the action making her even prettier than usual.
Enjoying the sound of her laughter and that he’d inspired it, he cocked his head to one side. “Yes. And the reason is, if you’re going to be outside, alone and in the dark walking the damn thing, I want it to be able to scare away anyone who gets any ideas. And to be able to defend both you and itself.”
More serious now, she nodded. “Okay. So I guess no Papillion for me then.”
“I don’t even know what that is, but it sounds foo-foo so yeah, I agree. None of those. A Rottie would be good. But I’d approve of a Shepherd mix.”
“You’d approve?” She smiled. “Okay. We’ll see.”
“Yes, we will.” He smiled. “You know, I have friends who are security experts. If you ever decide you want a system installed—”
She shook her head, stopping him mid sentence.
“I know what you’re going to say,” he continued. “But it doesn’t have to be a lot of money. There are some good basic systems. Just think about it and let me know if you want to talk more. Okay?”
“Okay.” She nodded.
“Good. I’ll see you tomorrow.” He grasped her arm with one hand, leaned in and pressed a kiss to her cheek.
He didn’t know what possessed him to do it. He just felt so comfortable with her. Or at least he had until that damn kiss.
Now the whole thing seemed very uncomfortable, for both of them. Will saw that when he pulled back and she looked as surprised by his action as he was himself.
Clearing his throat he regrouped. “I’ll, uh, call you in the morning and we’ll set up a time.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
He pulled open the door and took a step out, happy to leave so he could consider what the hell had gotten into him.
Glancing over his shoulder, he said, “Lock the door behind me.”
“Yes, sir.”
Laughing at her poorly executed salute, Will shook his head and pulled the door closed behind him before he decided it might be a good idea to stay—for an hour, or for a night.
That would be an epically bad idea.
Even with as much as he liked her, Jessa was still Sara’s sister. If sleeping with his ex’s sister didn’t have bad juju written all over it, he didn’t know what did.
He was just about to pull away from her curb when his cell rang. Smiling, he figured it was Jessa, then he mentally slapped himself down for that hope and glanced at the display.
It read Mom—the other person in his life besides Jessa who preferred calling over texting.
“Hey, Mom.”
“William.” She drew in and let out a shaky breath.
Something was wrong. She didn’t sound like her usual cheerful talkative self.
Dropping his hand from the gearshift, he frowned. It seemed his good mood, as well as the good day he’d been having, was destined to be short lived.
“What’s happening?” he asked.
“It’s your grandpa.”
Closing his eyes Will leaned his head against the steering wheel and braced himself for the worst.