Redeeming Her SEAL (ASSIGNMENT Caribbean Nights #9) - Kat Cantrell Page 0,40

difficult the longer she had to live each day without the other half of her pod. She missed Isaac, and it was almost as if he’d never existed. She had no one to mourn with, and it was taking a toll.

Audra spent Sunday night in her apartment with her hand on her phone in case Charlie called since he knew her sisters had left. She craved his voice murmuring to her in the dark. But the phone never lit up, and she eventually drifted into a fitful sleep laced with weird dreams that she forgot as soon as she woke up.

Monday dragged by until just after lunch when Rachel Blume called to see if Audra was free to talk. Instead of having Rachel come to FARC, Audra asked Charlie’s lawyer if she’d like to have dinner instead. Probably it wouldn’t matter—if a man could put his tongue between her legs without anyone in the next office cluing in, a conversation with Rachel about Ilhota Rosa would likely go completely unnoticed. But she didn’t want to take chances. Jared was a donor of epic proportions, and she would not be shocked to discover he had spies all over the building.

Rachel was waiting for her at the front of the restaurant Audra had named overlooking the Freeport marina.

“Thanks for taking the time, hon.” Rachel gave Audra a one-armed hug.

Mystified, Audra hugged her back. Was this something women did that she’d never been privy to because she’d never had female friends? If so, it was… nice. “Sure. I hope this is okay. It’s hard to find a local restaurant that’s not seafood in the Bahamas, and the chains are horrific.”

Smiling, Rachel linked arms with her as they followed the host through the crowd of tables populated by islanders. You could always tell the difference between tourists and locals in a heartbeat. An absence of large straw bags, cameras, and T-shirts with resort logos usually was a dead giveaway.

Rachel leaned forward the moment she plunked down on the wicker-backed wooden chair. “Tell me about you and Charlie.”

“Um, what?” Audra bobbled the menu, nearly letting the plastic-coated page slide to the floor.

“Come on. Don’t be stingy.” Rachel twirled a finger with a grin, her face animated, which seemed to be her natural expression. “It’s obvious he’s gaga over you. I’ve never seen him look at a woman the way he does you.”

“Does he not date?” Smooth. Why not just hold up a shame sign? I pump other women for information about Charlie St. Croix because he won’t tell me why he dumped me.

Where was the waiter? A margarita was in order, stat, if this was the way the conversation was headed.

Rachel shook her head with a sad quirk of her lips. “Evan mentioned that he was seeing someone on and off a while back but Charlie never brought her around. She had a young daughter, and if I understand correctly, there was something about a pet rabbit someone passed off to her that put the whole thing in a tailspin.”

That sounded like a story that would likely go untold. The concept of “talking” before jumping into bed hadn’t gone over so well. But this was the kind of interaction she’d been looking for from Charlie. What happened to put them where they were now? Why couldn’t they just be honest with each other about stuff, forgive and find a way to be together like they’d planned?

She was willing to do so if he’d just engage. But she was afraid he’d checked out because he’d already figured out that sex was the only thing they had in common. The only thing that made sense when you put them together. Audra, on the other hand, was slow and stupid and had taken the one thing out of the equation that had the slightest potential to get her closer to where she wanted to be.

Intimacy had worked to bind them together before. And like an idiot, she’d taken it off the table. Maybe she should just call him and tell him how she felt instead of waiting for him to figure out what he wanted the next steps to be.

They ordered dinner, and Rachel immediately jumped back on the Charlie bandwagon. “So there is a thing. With you and Charlie and Jared. Right? That’s why this whole mess snowballed.”

Ugh. Not Rachel too with this subject. Audra would tell her to stick it where the sun didn’t shine, but the woman had only asked because she had a job