Night Maneuvers - By Jillian Burns Page 0,54
Great. Here came the lecture about love being painful, but worth it. Well, they could take their lecture and—”
“I thought you handled losing the bet pretty well, other than Hughes’s prank.” Jackson nudged Grady and winked. “Remember those women showing up on base? Hughes got you good arranging for all your exes to visit you.”
“Maybe I handled it too well,” Mitch mumbled, and then grimaced. Why had he said that?
Jackson frowned, scrutinizing him like he was a perp in an interrogation room. “What does that mean?”
“Nothing.” Mitch took a sip of his beer.
Grady and Jackson exchanged another look between them, which was getting irritating.
Then Jackson grimaced and folded his arms across his chest. “I can’t believe I’m about to say this, except that I’ve found it to be true with my wife, but you might feel better if you talk about it.”
Mitch raised his brows. He couldn’t believe his friend the cop had said that, either. But what did it matter?
“It means I wasn’t that miserable that first time. Things had become…routine. I tried getting back to normal when my thirty days were up, but it just wasn’t the same. I didn’t enjoy it anymore.”
“And this last time?” Jackson prompted.
Mitch remembered that first night after Jackson’s wedding. His smug confidence that this time it would be even easier. Then he’d seen Alex in that red dress and his world had shifted. Nothing was the same after that. Unwilling to discuss Alex and that entire situation, he just shrugged.
“It was Hughes, wasn’t it?” Grady asked.
Mitch studied the foam in his beer. “I liked her better when she wasn’t a woman.”
Jackson frowned. “Wasn’t a woman?”
“You know, before she changed. When she was one of us.”
Grady sputtered, “McCabe. She’s always been female.”
“Well, ever since she started acting like one, she’s been messing with my head.”
Jackson nodded. “A woman will do that to you.”
Grady leaned his elbows on the bar. “Isn’t that the truth.”
All three nodded, taking sips of their drinks, turning their attention to the game until the next commercial.
Mitch turned to face his buddies. “So you guys know what I’m talking about. One minute she acts like she wants to crawl into my shorts, and the next she’s punching me in the gut.”
Jackson nodded again. “Logic isn’t their strong suit.”
“Logic?” Grady retorted. “Lily wouldn’t know logical if it bit her very fine ass.”
Jackson grinned. “Jordan thinks me being logical is a bad habit she’d like me to lose.”
Mitch chuckled. “Now that I think back on it, Hughes never has been real logical either.” Damn. He had a revelation. “She never was just one of the guys, was she?”
“Hughes?” Grady sounded incredulous. “She’s like any other woman. Strong, independent and opinionated.”
“And don’t forget compassionate, stubborn and sometimes unreasonable,” Jackson added.
“By God, I wouldn’t have Lily any other way.” Grady stared into space, a wistful look in his eyes.
“Same here with Jordan. If I wanted a bromance, I’d have married you, McCabe.” Jackson slapped him on the back.
“You both forgot the most important female adjective.” Mitch narrowed his eyes at his beer. “Unfaithful.”
Grady grunted. “Not Lily.”
Jackson shrugged. “Hey, man, I get it. Your exscrewed you over. But she’s one woman. Doesn’t mean you should paint every female with the same brush.”
His jaw set, Mitch faced Jackson. “It wasn’t just Luanne.”
Jackson held his gaze, maybe waiting for Mitch to elaborate, but hell if he would air his dirty laundry to his buddies.
“Okay, so you’ve been screwed more than once. Same thing happened to Jordan. Her dad abandoned her and her mom when she was a baby. Then some jerk lured her here and ran off with all their money. She no more believed I’d hang around than one of the FBI’s Most Wanted. What if she hadn’t decided to take a chance and trust me?”
Mitch shook his head in disgust. “Don’t talked to me about trust, Jackson.” He stood, grabbing a twenty from his wallet and tossing it on the bar. “Yesterday I found Hughes kissing some other guy.” As he stalked off, Jackson called after him.
From the corner of his eye, Mitch saw Grady catch Jackson and pull him back with a shake of his head.
On his way to the parking garage, Mitch stepped outside the double glass doors and saw a tall, dark-haired man headed his way. Mitch did a double take as he recognized Neil-the-SEAL.
Without stopping, he charged ahead and came nose to nose with the jerk. “What the hell were you doing at Alex’s yesterday?”
The guy narrowed his eyes and his