Redeeming Her SEAL (ASSIGNMENT Caribbean Nights #9) - Kat Cantrell Page 0,18
her grasp?
“I’m not asking you to. The only thing I want is another shot at the goods you gave up to Anderson.”
The cruel twist of his mouth almost hurt worse than his derision, and that stopped the anguish and uncertainty cold. He’d come sniffing back around for a reason, all right, but not because he wanted to start over or soothe soul-deep injuries. It was yet another round of obnoxious, arrogant male pandering. Like she’d always assumed. How dare he cheapen what she’d had with him and what she’d had with Jared in the same vulgar sentiment?
She nodded, smoothing out her expression to hide the complete and utter devastation going on inside. “Yeah. Seems like that is all you want. You can hold your breath until I make that booty call.”
If he wanted something other than to rub his scent all over her and stamp out the stink of another man, that would be an entirely different story. But the Charlie and Audra ship had sailed, and he could go to hell before she’d regret missing that boat ever again.
It took Charlie four days, a fifth of Jack Daniels, and a call from Jace’s mom to pull him out of the black hole his alleyway confessional with Audra had put him in. Walking away had been the right thing to do, and he’d hated every step. But Audra made him insane, stole his ability to think, and definitely tested his sainthood.
Yeah, he was angrier than he’d been willing to admit. It had walloped him out of nowhere, and he didn’t know how to deal with it when, in reality, he was being forced to lie in the bed he’d made.
“Charles St. Croix, you get over yourself.” Sheila Custer’s clucking came through the phone’s speaker loud and clear, as if she was next door instead of two-thirds of the way to the Pacific in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Charlie almost hung up, but he respected Jace’s mom too much. “Yes, ma’am.”
“Don’t you yes ma’am me. That’s what my kids say when they’re planning to ignore me. It’s placating, plain and simple. I raised two boys, so don’t think I was born yesterday.”
“No, ma’am.”
Both Jace and his twin brother Blake had been under Charlie’s command in Iraq. Mrs. Custer’s care packages and frequent phone calls had grown to be one of the best things about the Custer boys. They were hell-raisers of the highest order, but both were fierce, loyal, and fast with a joke. He’d have welcomed Blake as a partner in Aqueous Adventures, but he’d stayed in the teams when the others left.
“Jace tells me that you’re having trouble with your company. You listen to me. You’re a smart, determined boy, and you will figure this out. I have faith in you.”
The sentiment warmed him where nothing else had.
Mrs. Custer had long been Charlie’s surrogate mom once she’d found out his own mom had committed suicide when he was nineteen. It wasn’t a secret. Everyone knew Montgomery St. Croix’s wife had killed herself after finding out her husband had been banging an eighteen-year-old girl. No one knew Naomi had been Charlie’s girlfriend. Or that he’d loved her.
It had been a one-two punch that solidified the most important thing he could learn about women: those closest to him cared about themselves and themselves only, scarcely seeming to even notice that their actions affected others around them. Like Charlie, who’d been naïve enough to let himself love selfish women.
As a result, trust and forgiveness were two words Charlie scarcely knew how to spell. Survive and evade. Do the right thing—those were the concepts he lived by.
Obviously he’d forgotten his lesson, or he wouldn’t currently be in the impossible position of having his heart handed to him, still bleeding, while trying to balance the fact that he’d hurt Audra too.
Meanwhile, Aqueous Adventure, the only love of his life he should be concerned about, was still in trouble and he’d thus far done nothing to save it.
Mrs. Custer, as always, had enviable insight. “Thanks, Mama C. I’m getting over myself as we speak.”
Or at least he should be. It was disgraceful how much time he’d spent aching for Audra while nursing himself through sleepless nights that had featured some lovely flashbacks. Paradox should be his middle name.
He could pretend that he was headed in the direction of “over it.” Enough to make an honest appointment with Dr. Reed to talk through how she could help undo the damage her boyfriend—sorry, ex-boyfriend—had done to Aqueous Adventures. Emotional