Page 37 of SEAL Mates

Alec

It had been one of those weird days. Another case solved, the matter of Tim and who had been breaking in and messing up with his stock had been solved. It’d taken a lot longer than I thought it would, I assumed it was an ex. I assumed the wrong type of ex. Not a woman, but a former employee. Anyway, it was resolved, while the case would go to trial to see a way to move forward with it.

It left me feeling relieved and frustrated at the same time. I’d solved something which was right in front of me, but I was so distracted lately that I’d been thinking of anything but work, which wasn’t like me at all.

I picked her up from the hotel, and usually I would be talking and making small talk. This time there was nothing but silence, I felt as if I had a big lump down my throat stopping any words from leaving it. My focus was to drive and get back to the house safely and nothing more.

Derek was meeting a friend for lunch, and Blake was working, he had so many cars to see too. Something he seemed to be doing all the time lately. Working seemed to be his vodka. It stopped him from thinking and even feeling at times, all he did was work to get rid of the pain and maybe forget his loneliness.

He told me that running a business takes dedication, one that I would never understand. He was right about that, I loved my job and had no intention of giving it up to do it alone.

I had this great idea for her to move in. The guys were on board and now it was happening, I was as nervous as shit. It was a case of a George Michael song, Freedom. One I’d played so many times, the line, Sometimes the clothes do not make the man.

I put on the radio, and then it started to play, it was as if God had heard my thoughts and knew I wanted confidence and this song was all about confidence, it was about moving on and taking a huge leap in my life. I knew from the moment I asked Paula to move in with us, that I wasn’t asking her for the week, like I’d said to the guys. No. I wanted her to live with us a lot longer than a week. This would be a new beginning for us.

Not only us, but her too.

“I love George Michael. I still haven’t got over his death.”

She’d broken the silence, and I was happy to talk to her about George Michael and get away from the awkwardness that I’d created between the two of us.

“Yeah. It just goes to show that you can have all the money in the world and you’re not happy.”

“Uh-huh. I tell my kids that all the time. Money doesn’t buy happiness. I mean it makes life easier, but it isn’t everything. You know.”

She nodded as her hands started tapping and I joined her doing the same. I loved this song, and as much as I’d listened to it I could never get tired of it.

“Oh turn it off. Turn it off, please!” She screamed startling me, as she tried to figure out which one was the off switch.

“What happened?”

“Adele! God I can’t stand that woman. I’m a victim. I was big, and now I’m small. I just don’t want to hear her, or even know anything about her.”

I chuckled, and I agreed completely about her observation of Adele, I didn’t confess that at times I’d listened and enjoyed some of her songs. Sure, I wasn’t her biggest fan, but I didn’t have a hatred for her, not like Paula which I found amusing.

“Here we are!” I declared as we stopped at the driveway.

“You said your place was quite big, but nothing like this.” I was looking at it from the outside. As we drove up the driveway, she started to explain a bit more.

“I was shocked to see this two story house, which was so wide and looked like a modern day luxury raised ranch. It was so modern on the outside with the dark wooden frame and enough trees surrounding the drive to keep it hidden from a distance.”

“It’s a bit big for the three of us. We had this crazy idea when we were refurbishing it that we would have the extra rooms for guests. Yet, we never invite anyone to come and stay. It has 5 beds and 6 baths. We completely refurbished the house from the top to the bottom. The whole house has spotlights especially in the hallways so when you Walnut flooring, it had a custom chef’s island and top of the line Viking appliances, as we got all excited and went overboard.”

She opened up her arms in amazement as she got out of the jeep and stood by the door. I walked up to her wondering why her excitement was stopping her from going inside and making her stop outside.

“It’s as if I’ll be walking into my dream home. I may not move out, if I walk in.”

I chuckled, thinking that she was acting like a little kid, as her eyes lit up and she was nervously walking slowly towards the house.

“The idea of you not wanting to move out, maybe not be a bad thing.”

“For someone who is so uptight, you can be funny at times.”

The thing was she found me uptight, she wasn’t the first person to accuse me of that, but the idea of her talking about staying forever didn’t scare me, if anything the idea of it, excited me.

She ran up the stairs and then glared back at me for a split second. I nodded, encouraging her to go in, then I headed to the back to get her bags. As I got her two cases from the back, I began to laugh. Typical women. Something I missed being around, she was only supposed to be here two weeks, yet she’d packed as if she was coming indefinitely, or for at least a lot longer.

Once, I headed in and managed to put her cases in the entrance. I decided I would wait for her to join me to let me know which one of the three rooms she wanted to be hers. I could hear her heels clicking on the floor, but then they stopped. I ran in the direction, as I thought maybe she fell or something and all I wanted to do was rescue her.

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