Page 26 of Protecting Jess

“Um...a dancer with the Baxter Company. I caught their final show last night.”

That sounded even worse. It sounded like he’d picked Jess up and had a one-night-stand with her.

“Hey, Jess. I’m Flash.” His buddy held a hand toward her.

When she placed her small hand into his large one, jealousy speared Finn’s gut, and he wanted to slap Flash’s hand away. And, as if his fellow SEAL could tell he was getting under Finn’s skin, he held onto Jess’s hand a little longer than was polite.

“Hi, Flash.” She smiled up at him.

“Nice to meet you, ma’am.”

“I’m Smiley.” Like Flash, the guy held out his hand for Jess, but he didn’t keep hold of it like Flash had.

Finn appreciated it.

Both men lounged on the sand, appearing not bothered that they were going to get covered in the fine granules. Like him, they’d gotten used to relaxing just about anywhere, so a few grains of sand weren’t going to bother them.

“How long have you been a dancer, Jess?” Flash asked.

“Since I could walk. My dad enrolled me in classes when I was two,” Jess said.

Finn smiled as he recalled some of the earlier videos Slick had shown him one of the times he came to visit them. Jess had been at a class, and Slick had a fit of nostalgia and brought out the old footage he’d taken of her at her first recital. “And you were such a cute dancer back then. Twirling and jumping around in your glittery costume,” he teased and bopped her nose.

“If you want to continue breathing, you won’t say anymore.” Jess glared, but there was no heat in the look.

Finn laughed and made the motion of zipping his mouth shut.

“You’ve known each other for a while then?” Smiley asked.

He nodded. “Yep, we have.” He reached over, grabbed her hand, and brought it up to his lips, kissing her fingers.

The action had staked his claim in front of his fellow SEALs.

Finn didn’t care. He wanted the world to know he was with this beautiful woman beside him.

“Right, well I think that’s our cue to bug out.” Flash stood, and Smiley followed suit. “See you at PT in a couple of days?”

“Yep, it’s good to have you guys back,” Finn said. His team and theirs often met up to do their morning PT.

“Glad to be back, too.” Smiley saluted as they headed for the water.

“I take it they’re SEALs, too?” Jess gave his fingers a squeeze.

“Yeah, they’re on a different team, but we’ve gone on missions together, and as you heard, we do our morning PT together sometimes.”

“PT?”

“Physical training. We come down here every morning. Do exercise drills. Go for a run and then a swim. It helps to keep us in top physical condition so that we can do what we do,” Finn said.

“Oh, that makes sense. It’s kind of like me rehearsing daily and keeping myself fit, even when I’m on a break. Although I don’t imagine you’ll be kicked off the team for a bad performance, unlike me. If I make too many mistakes, I’m either demoted or off the team.”

Finn had been unaware dance was such a cutthroat industry, but then again, he shouldn’t be surprised. He’d seen some of the dance moms at Jess’s recitals.

“You said something about this being the last stop on your tour. How long are you on a break for?” he asked. If she had a long break, could he convince her to come back out here after she’d visited her parents?

Or maybe Finn could take a long weekend and visit them with her.

“Could be indefinitely,” she murmured.

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