Page 55 of SEAL Mates

“Tell, me that I’m out of line?”

I shook my head.

“I thought not. NO one gets in a car, comes here and stays for two weeks without a good reason. Just like my husband, Ed. He wants me to stay at home with him. For us both to retire and we both just sit and watch Tv all day. The problem is that if we did that, we wouldn’t be married anymore,” she chuckled and I joined her, thinking I knew where this conversation was leading.

“We would get sick and tired of each other. But it works. I know what works. I’ve seen so many of my friend divorce, because of their expectations and not appreciating the bad and good things about their relationship.”

I could hear it in her tone, the direction of the conversation and the way that she was looking at me. Her blonde bob tilted to the side, as she put a reassuring arm around my shoulder.

“My dear, take this opportunity after all this shit is over, to enjoy being with your men.”

“They’re not my men. We’re just doing an interview.”

Again, she chuckled as I tried to defend myself and I knew that my eyes shifting to the side and my face which grew red was a dead giveaway.

“I’ve seen the way those three men look at you. Especially Blake, he looks as if he wants to eat you at times. No man looks at a woman like that, unless something’s going on.”

She waved a finger at me, as if to say, you can try lying, but to me it’s a waste of time.

I sighed. “Okay, it’s true. But I really don’t want everyone talking about it. I don’t want to be the center of gossip.”

“And why not? I mean you’re a writer. It’s not as if you have a quiet boring profession that no one would know who you are.”

I choked, “I’m not exactly EL James. None of my books are in the top 10 of Amazon.”

She waved a finger. “But you told me that they were in the top 30 once.”

I nodded as I thought about the past. I had no idea how I did it, but I had my moment of fame and since then I’d been trying to get it back.

“You’ll get it again. You just have to have faith and I have a feeling the next one will be number one.”

“Rose!” One of the Stepford wives shouted as she was close enough not to need to shout, because she was obviously trying to eavesdrop on the conversation.

“Yes.”

Rose said it so coldly that I sensed, I wasn’t the only one that didn’t like her, but Rose never said a bad word about anyone. They spoke for a second, my mind drifted to what Rose had said about the guys. About their lives changing too. I could have asked her more about what she meant about the guys, but then some things were explained in the few words that she’d said. As we headed to the front, and as the crowds started to pour in, I could see why she wanted Rose at the front. There were double the number of people that there were yesterday. Here there was this real community spirit, I loved the way that everyone was pulling together to find this little girl and once they found her (already the positive attitude of Rose had started to work on me). I had a decision to make. One which involved staying here a lot longer than I’d planned.

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