Page 3 of Found Forever

Good beer. Good whiskey. Good scotch. Good bourbon.

There was no Wild Turkey or Bud Light touching his lips. Never.

He wasn’t a snob—or maybe he was—but he knew what he liked and since he didn’t drink very often, why waste the moment on the cheap swill that he used to drink like water when he was a teenager?

He was forty-five years old. Life was precious. Too precious to spend choking back the fermented monkey piss they sold for peanuts in the liquor store.

He snagged his brother’s gaze across the tent. Decker's twin was busy chatting it up with a couple of Mieka’s other cruise ship dancer friends. Ryker’s smile was telling. He was probably going to take one—or both—of the dancers back to his room in the bunkhouse.

Lovely. Decker shared a wall with Ryker and his brother wasloud.

The Harris brothers had built a big bunk house over the last year for their ranch hands. But they still had a few vacant rooms available for guests. Some of the guests were staying in the main house with Mieka and Nate, while others were in Triss and Asher’s new house on the other side of the field. Then therewere some RVs parked in the fields, and ATVs for people to take the cabins in the woods.

The bride and groom wanted to make sure that all their guests had places to stay, and since the ranch was in the middle of farm country, hotels and motels were miles away.

Some guests—like Barnes and his wife, Aaron and his brood, and Rob and his brood—opted to drive out with RVs which they parked on the field far enough away that they wouldn’t be disturbed by music. Then Nate and Mieka rented a few more RVs for other guests who were traveling from far away.

It wasn’t a big wedding, but it felt big given the energy of the guests and how much love filled the tent.

It was second nature to scan the area of danger. You could take the SEAL out of the field, but you couldn’t keep him from being a SEAL. In fact, Decker noticed all of his brothers scanning the tent and field for anything nefarious more than once. Even though they were all relaxed and enjoying themselves, they were still aware of their surroundings and on high alert.

Not that there was really anything to worry about all the way out in the field in the middle of rural Colorado. But you could never be too complacent.

His eyes were on the darkness that was endless through the gap in the tent flaps when a breathless huff and waft of something sweet with just a tang of sweat drifted toward him. He glanced to the right and his throat grew tight.

It was Joanna.

“A water, please,” she said to the bartender before shaking her head to get her light curls off her face.

The bartender nodded and poured her a glass from the pitcher. She chugged it. So fast that several drops landed on her chest and slid down into her cleavage.

Decker, like the red-blooded man that he was, couldn’t look away.

He envied those water droplets.

She let out a satisfied, “Ah.” Then placed the glass on the bar top. “One more,please.”

The bartender filled her up.

“Thanks, love,” she said, grabbing the full glass again and chugging it.

More water fell onto her chest and slid below the neckline of her dress.

She turned to Decker, her smile brilliant and beautiful. “Which twin are you again?”

His lip twitched. “Decker.”

“Right. The serious one.”

His brows barely lifted. “Who told you that?”

“Mieka. She said hot twin SEALs were coming to the wedding. One was a party animal and one was serious, stern and broody. I should have known, though, since your brother is probably going to be spending the night with Melissa and Jillian, and he’s been dancing like mad on the dance floor. Meanwhile, you’ve been sitting in your chair with your whiskey, silently judging everyone.”

“Is that what I’ve been doing?” he asked, the corner of his mouth tugging up.

She lifted one slender shoulder. “Isn’t it?”

“Maybe I’m just watching people. No judgment. Maybe I just don’t like dancing.”

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