his battered knees—that’s Jim. He reluctantly takes medical leave, but he’s a SEAL, so he spends his “vacation” as an instructor, helping out a former senior chief who runs a camp for SEAL wannabes. But to Jim’s shock, he finds himself falling for the one woman attending the camp session—an obviously brilliant but seemingly timid lawyer who is determined to do everything her way, no matter how wrong.
Ashley DeWitt’s got a problem, too. She’s a kickass lawyer, but when it comes to her personal life, she’s a total pushover. When she finds herself hiding behind her condo Dumpster to avoid a confrontation with an ex, she decides enough is enough and signs up for a session at a camp called SEAL World, in hopes she’ll discover how to be more assertive outside of the courtroom. And then she’s assigned to Jim’s team...
When an alpha male—smart, funny, strong, but terrified of a future trapped behind a desk—collides with a smart, funny, and quietly strong woman with a troubled past, sparks fly hot and fast.
The tall, dark, and dangerous Navy SEALs of Team Ten are back, with reader favorites like Lucky, Joe Cat, Bobby Taylor and his wife Colleen, Thomas King, Rio Rosetti—and with Suzanne Brockmann’s signature blend of love, laughter, and a hint of danger in SEAL Camp.
Setting the scene: Attorney Ashley DeWitt is a “Team Leader” (and the only woman) at a camp that teaches leadership skills, the Navy SEAL way. LT Jim “Spaceman” Slade is her team’s instructor. Early in the camp session, all of the Team Leaders or TLs go on a night hike with their SEAL instructor. Last TL back to the camp “wins” their team the job of emptying all of the camp RV’s black tanks...
We’re in Jim’s point of view.
“Put on your hat,” Jim ordered as he handed Ashley some bug repellent wipes as the van’s taillights faded into the night.
“Um,” she said.
He held his flashlight overhead so that it lit both of their faces. And yes, the resigned look she was giving him was heavily tinged with No, I didn’t bring my hat.
“Seriously?” he said. It was going to rain—at night, in this part of Florida, that was inevitable. And that was going to suck even worse for anyone without a hat brim to shield their face.
“My lack of hat isn’t our biggest problem,” she told him as she used the light to read the directions on the packet before tearing one open and rubbing the wipe down the sleeves of her shirt and the legs of her jeans. “It’s the five miles—more than that, if we go in the wrong direction.”
“I don’t know why you think that’s a problem,” Jim answered. “You can walk ten miles, easily, if you have to.”
“I can run ten miles,” she responded with a tartness that was refreshing. “In fact, I call that Tuesday evening after work. It’s not me I’m worried about—it’s you.”
Jim was surprised. “Me?”
“Yes, Mr. Braces-on-Both-Knees,” Ashley said. “I’m worried about you.”
“Well, don’t be,” Jim said brusquely. “Five miles is nothing.”
“More if we go the wrong way,” she reminded him.
“Then don’t go the wrong way,” he countered.
“No map,” she reminded him. “No compass.” She looked up at the sky, which tended to be hazy in the humid tropics, even at the best of times. Now, however, thunder rumbled ominously in the distance. “No stars to follow, assuming I could even find the north star with all these trees. Assuming I also knew if we were north—or south or whatever—of the camp.”
The narrow sand-and-gravel road they were standing on was surrounded by a mix of pines, palms, and banyan trees, the latter with their vast collection of trunks that started out as curling vines snaking down from broadly-spread branches to take root in the earth below.
This would’ve been a relatively pleasant place to hike—in the daylight. Assuming the overpowering smell of dead-fish-hiding-somewhere-in-a-damp-locker-room faded in the sunshine.
Ashley turned to look down the road in the direction they’d approached while still in the van. “If we follow the road back that way, we’ll eventually get to the camp,” she said, obviously thinking out loud. “Except we made so many turns and stops and… I’m pretty sure we went in a big circle. And the van left going that way.” She pointed down the road where the van had vanished. “So there must be something down there…”
Jim waited as she looked back down the road in the other direction, clearly undecided.
“Do you have another flashlight?” she finally asked, turning