Page 19 of Forged By Sacrifice

“Ladies.”

They turned their eyes on me, and the blonde’s smile widened. “Hey.”

“I’m not sure if you know this or not, but my man, Eli…he’s pretty much got a ring on his finger.” That turned both their smiles down a notch as they both glanced to his hand that didn’t hold a ring yet. “I know, to a lot of people, that might not mean all that much—a ring—but I can tell you for a fact that his getting a ring isn’t just some societal mark to him. It’s part of his soul, so getting his attention in that way is pretty much going to be like removing a Kraken from the sea, if you get my drift.”

“What’s a Kraken?” the brunette asked.

I fought back a snide comment and just smiled wider. The blonde returned the smile, her eyes darting to my left hand, which was ring free. I didn’t intend it to be ring free forever, but it was at the moment. That had my brain and my body going back to the kiss with Georgie on my boat that afternoon, and my body’s reaction to that memory pretty much halted any other thought going in or out of my brain.

I didn’t hear a word the blonde said. Eli had to actually nudge me out of the way to put their drinks down. I just turned and walked back to the other end of the bar and the tap. It was the rudest I’d been to a woman in my whole life. Eli followed.

“What the hell was that about?” Eli asked. “You don’t normally walk away from that kind of flirting unless you have to report to duty.”

My brain was still trying to kick my body out of the kiss.

The life-altering, seared-on-my-mind-for-the-rest-of-my-life kiss. The kiss that I had promised would be just one. Except, now that I’d had the one, my body and soul were calling for more. Many more. Lifetimes worth of more. Because I had known, just like I knew I would, that Georgie could be the rest-of-my-days kind of woman.

But she couldn’t be. Not at all for the reason she’d given about Ava and Eli and the potential awkwardness if things went south between us, but because she’d opened up and told me something about herself that was a death sentence to any political career I’d ever want. She’d said the words Russia and prison in almost the same sentence. I hadn’t spent my entire life keeping my nose clean for nothing. I’d partied with alcohol and no drugs. I’d never driven drunk. I’d kept my dick covered every single time I’d had sex.

I’d done everything for one purpose: to make a run for a political office. To change our world for the better in a way I couldn’t have done, even in the office at the DoD where I had proposed and nixed black ops. But to have a chance at a political career, you didn’t marry a woman with Russian ties by choice. No way in hell.

“Mac?” Eli nudged me again, bringing me back from kisses, and careers, and heartbreak that hadn’t even had a chance to happen.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m good.”

Eli laughed. “I didn’t ask if you were good, asswipe. What gives?”

But I wasn’t able to say any of what had been in my head to Eli, to the man who—even if his knee hadn’t forced it on him—would have given up his career in a heartbeat to spend the rest of his life with Ava.

I tried to reason with myself that I didn’t know for sure what could happen with Georgie and me. That what I felt could have been wrong. But getting out before I was in too deep was the better choice so I wouldn’t have to decide between love or my career. It made me feel like a chickenshit, and that made me do two things I’d never done. It made me lie to my best friend, and it made me run.

“I have to head back to D.C. earlier than I thought. Dani is up in my rear end about the workload she’s shouldering while I’m here gallivanting with you.”

“Gallivanting? I doubt Dani ever used that word. Besides, Dani loves me.”

“Not enough to allow me to stay as long as I’d hoped.”

He took me in, as if assessing my level of honesty. I didn’t budge. I had a good poker face. Not only because my family ate you alive at poker if you didn’t have one, but also because I had to have one at the DoD. It was good training for a political career where you sure as sin didn’t show what you had in your hand.

“You’re still waiting to see Truck, though, right?” he finally asked.

I nodded. No way I was taking off before the three of us got to clink beer bottles together. It had been way too long as it was. Thank God Truck was getting his sorry ass into town the next day. I’d stay through the Fourth and then head out. That was just a couple of days. I could handle a couple days.

After helping Eli close up the bar and driving back to the beach house, I lay awake in my bed, thinking about the woman in the bedroom next door who seemed to fit in every perfect way with me except one. That had me tossing and turning and waking with the sea gulls.

I went for a run on the beach, trying to chase away the haze of sleeplessness, beating my body up and down the sand before the heat hit the day. When I came back in, Ava was at the kitchen counter, still looking gray.

“You still look like he?heck,” I told her as I pulled a water bottle from the fridge. When I looked back at her, she was eyeing me in the way Eli had the night before.

“You don’t look so great yourself. One night at the bar do you in that bad? I thought you were Mister Party-man?” she teased, but it was with only about half her normal snark.

“Time to throw aside the wild oats and settle down,” I told her, sitting on the barstool at the other end of the counter. “You going back to bed?”

She shook her head. “No, I need to go into the bar and make sure we’re stocked up for tomorrow. Brady called this morning and said he’s coming to do a surprise performance on the Fourth before flying on to Phoenix.”

That would be a huge moneymaker for the bar. Brady O’Neil had had four number one hits in the last two years singing Ava’s songs. His showing up would draw a much bigger crowd than their normal tourist Fourth of July drew. I wasn’t sure the tiny bar could handle it.

“Let me shower; I’ll go with you. I can be your brawn while Eli is at work.”

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