Page 35 of Protecting Jess

“Good morning, sir,” he answered the phone.

“Morning, Hive. I hear you’ve had an eventful couple of days.”

Finn wasn’t the least bit surprised Commander Rixson knew everything. Tex had probably informed him. Or House had. He didn’t mind; he would’ve spoken to his commander when he got back on base.

“It has been interesting, sir.” Clearly, they weren’t about to be called up to go on a mission. If they were, Rixson would’ve already told him to get to base to be wheels up in a few hours.

“Is Ms. Killian okay?” the commander asked.

Finn’s internal radar perked up at the question. Why would he be asking about Jess? “She’s fine. Thanks for asking.”

As much as he wanted to demand the reason for this call, Finn kept the questions buried. Whatever the commander wanted, he’d get to it eventually. Maybe this was also a test for Finn. A test to see if he’d be demanding or willing to wait.

Regardless of him finishing BUD/S and finally being assigned to a team, Finn had floated for a bit, and there was still a sense that he didn’t quite belong.

“I suppose you’re wondering why I’m calling?” Commander Rixson asked.

“I am, sir.”

Rixson chuckled. “I’m ringing to let you know if you require leave to sort out this situation, I’ll grant it. Your team’s going to be grounded for the next few weeks. Tenor came off his motorcycle and broke his leg. I’ve called everyone to let them know if they put in for leave, it will be granted. You’ve been on back-to-back missions recently, so you all deserve to have a little break.”

Finn couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing. It almost seemed too good to be true, but while he’d been talking to Rixson, his phone had vibrated with incoming messages.

Looked like one of the other guys had received the same call, and messaged the group chat about it.

“Is Tenor okay, sir?”

“Yeah, it’s a clean break. He got lucky. It could’ve been far worse. I think the woman who hit him is more distressed than Tenor. Then again, it could’ve been the drugs he’d been given for the pain that had made him sound so happy when he called me to let me know.” Rixson chuckled.

Finn could picture his teammate on the phone with a goofy smile. The guy was always happy and cheerful, even when things were going south on a mission.

“I’ll get back to you if I need some time off.”

“Don’t take too long. I can always think of something you guys need to be doing.”

He didn’t doubt the commander could come up with something that was probably very unpleasant. “I won’t, sir.”

“I let House know the hospital Tenor is in if you all wanted to go see him,” Commander Rixson said.

“Okay. I’ll check in with him.”

“Take care, Hive.”

The call ended, and Finn flipped his phone over and over in his hand. Was it wrong to be glad that Tenor was hurt, which meant he could go with Jess to San Antonio? He’d be able to make that visit to his parents he’d been thinking about before the call had come through.

It really was a no-brainer; he should’ve just told Rixson he wanted to take some leave and be done with it.

“Everything okay? Did you get some good news?”

Finn startled at the sound of Jess’s voice. Some SEAL he was, allowing someone to sneak up on him. However, this situation was different from when he was on a mission. He was in a hotel room with the woman who’d owned part of his soul since he was eleven and she was eight.

She looked adorably rumpled and he wanted to haul her close. He’d given her some space the previous night and had slept in the other room in the suite. He’d wanted to be with her but hadn’t wanted to assume and Jess hadn’t given any indication she wanted him to sleep next to her anyway. “Depends on how you look at it.”

She took a seat next to him. “What do you mean?”

“Well, one of my teammates is in the hospital, because he got hit on his motorcycle last night. He broke his leg.”

“Oh my God. That’s awful. Of course, nothing is okay. Do you need to go see him?” Jess’s eyes were wide, her expression concerned.

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