Page 57 of Cowboy SEAL Homecoming

“So take the reins, Jack.”

He closed one eye again and stared at her as if seeing her for the first time. His mouth curved and he gestured his bottle at her. “You first.”

She turned around and leaned against the bar, looking out over the patrons. She glanced over at Mac. Mac would be the sensible choice. To go over there and let him buy her a drink, have a nice conversation. It could be…not easy exactly. She’d still be her nervous self, and she wouldn’t have the first clue how to flirt back, but he wouldn’t be complicated. Alex was nothing but complicated. Everything complicated.

And wasn’t she tired of taking the simple, easy way out? Wasn’t that the point of her whole life right now? That she wasn’t a coward? That she could stand up for the things she wanted? Regardless of what anyone else wanted for her.

But she just wanted experience. She didn’t need it to be difficult. Hard didn’t mean good or worth it.

Did it?

She swallowed at the discomfort in her throat, took a breath against the jittery, tight feeling in her chest, and gave one last glance at Jack. “If I do this, you’re up on the whole reins-taking thing.”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” he said with a salute, and there was something about the way he looked like he didn’t believe her that spurred her on.

She made a beeline for Mac’s table. Certain and sure and positive those were the reins she should take—until she got about two feet away, and then she paused.

Mac wasn’t what she wanted. She wanted experience, yes, but Mac himself, as a person, wasn’t the experience she wanted to have.

And this was about going after what she wanted. Or who.

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