SEAL's Embrace - Makenna Jameison Page 0,53
his face. “I just mean if none of this were happening, I’m not ready to drive just yet.”
Ethan nodded. “I’ll give you my number, too. I know Ghost can handle it, but just in case, I’d feel better if you had the numbers of the rest of the team.”
“Yeah, Grayson did mention that.”
“Tell me your cell number, and I’ll text you right now.”
He thumbed it into his phone, then grabbed hers and handed it back to her. It buzzed with his text, and she added him to her contacts. “If you need anything, I want you to call me,” Ethan said seriously. “If you can’t get a hold of Ghost for whatever reason, one of us will be there.”
“Okay. Are you guys all like this?” Hailey asked.
“Like what?”
“This intense,” she said with a small laugh.
“When someone’s in danger? Absolutely. I know you haven’t met her yet, but we were all there in Colombia when Raptor met Clarissa. She’s one of us now. The guys on our team are like brothers—we’d literally die for one another. As soon as Raptor and Clarissa got together, she became one of us. Just like you are now, too.”
“Grayson and I aren’t even dating,” she protested.
Ethan raised his eyebrows.
“I mean, not really. He told me I could stay with him and we’ll date eventually, but….”
Ethan chuckled. “I think you’ve been his since the moment he met you, sweetheart. And that’s a good thing. I don’t know you well yet, but I’ve seen the way the two of you look at one another.”
She flushed, knowing he was right, even if she didn’t want to admit to it. She wasn’t staying with one of the other men on the team; she wasn’t curled up beside Ethan like she had been with Grayson. They were together, whether they called it such or not.
The key in the lock had them both turning their heads, and then Grayson was moving inside the apartment. He dropped the grocery bags on the floor and immediately crossed over to her, sitting beside her on the sofa. “Hey, are you okay?” he asked urgently, totally ignoring Ethan sitting there.
“See what I mean?” Ethan quipped, grinning as he stretched out his legs.
Grayson shot him a look but turned back toward Hailey.
“I’m okay,” she assured him. “I was a little freaked out, but I was fine here with Ethan.”
“I shouldn’t have left you alone,” Grayson said, looking tense.
She reached out, putting her hand on his forearm, and he visibly calmed. “I’m fine. It was just another text. I admit I don’t like getting them, but nothing happened. Ethan was with me the entire time. I wasn’t here alone.”
Grayson nodded, reached a hand out and running it down her hair. She felt comforted by his touch, but he seemed to need to touch her as much as she needed him.
“So, are you feeding the rest of us or what?” Ethan asked, glancing at the bags by the door.
“We’ll order pizza. I was picking up a few things for Hailey,” Grayson said. “Speaking of which, I got four different kinds of tea.”
She giggled and stood up. “Four?”
“Damn, man,” Ethan said. “How much tea do you think your woman drinks?”
Grayson muttered a curse, but Hailey had already crossed the apartment and picked up a plastic bag full of tea boxes. “Wow. You did go a little overboard, but I appreciate the gesture.”
Grayson went to grab the rest of the bags and followed her into the kitchen. “I’ll admit I don’t have a tea kettle or anything, but hopefully you can warm up some hot water in the microwave?”
“Works for me,” she said. “What time are the rest of your teammates coming over?”
“Twenty minutes,” Ethan said. “I told them to come now because of the new text.”
“Appreciate it,” Grayson said, exchanging a glance with Ethan. Hailey wasn’t sure what that was about but didn’t question it. Those guys worked together so well, it was like they could read each other’s minds or something. She’d never been close in that sense to her coworkers. They’d have dinner together or go out for drinks when she lived back in Arlington, but it wasn’t a close bond like this though. She kept in touch with a few people, but Kim was the only one she’d truly befriended.
“You okay?” Grayson asked her quietly. She realized she’d stopped at his sink with an empty mug, ready to fill it with water.
“Yeah,” she said softly. “I was just thinking about Kim.”
He snaked an arm around her