begin with. I mean, I just got home. I just needed to get away from everything back home and clear my head though. Right now, it feels like I’m on vacation and can just ignore the rest of my life for a while.”
“You definitely need to come visit when the weather is warm so we can hit the beach,” Hailey said. “Of course, I’ll be majorly pregnant by the summer waddling around, but….”
Kim smiled, shaking her head. “I don’t even know what I’m doing next week, let alone next summer.”
“That’s okay,” Ethan said easily. “You’ll come out here again. You two can relax on the beach while Ghost surfs.”
“Do you surf?” Kim asked, looking over at him curiously.
“Nope. Troy does. He grew up here in California. And although I’m from Florida, I never got into surfing. I do love scuba diving. We dive now as SEALs, but even when I was a teenager, I was into it.”
“Wow, that’s pretty cool,” Kimberly said. “I’ve been snorkeling but never scuba diving.”
“California’s not the greatest for snorkeling, obviously. Florida of course has awesome spots both with and without a boat.”
“Huh,” she said, looking interested. For a brief flash, Ethan pictured taking Kimberly back home with him to Florida—introducing her to his parents, enjoying the beaches together, and showing her where he grew up. It was such a vivid image in his mind, he blinked, trying to clear his head.
He wasn’t about to take her home with him. Was he? They weren’t officially dating. And yet with the looks his friends were giving him, he knew Kimberly was special. He wasn’t about to let her fly home in a few days and ignore whatever was brewing between them. He cared about her. And he sure as hell never had felt the instant connection and chemistry they had before.
Grayson was telling the women about the time he’d tried to teach some of the guys to surf, and Ethan smirked, getting up to take the burgers off the grill. For a bunch of guys who loved the water, they hadn’t been great at surfing. Jackson was massive and hadn’t been able to balance long on the surfboard. Logan had been more interested in flirting with some pretty women watching them on the beach. And Ethan and Blake had done okay for beginners but were more content tossing a football around on the sand.
Damn.
Now that Hailey was pregnant, he wondered if Ghost would keep surfing. Maybe this summer, but next year they’d have a toddler running around. Troy might be out there surfing alone.
It was crazy how fast life had changed.
“I want to learn to surf,” Kim suddenly said, surprising him. She was adventurous, so he supposed that shouldn’t have caught him off guard.
“As soon as it’s warm enough,” Ghost promised. “You can come back and stay with us or hang with this knucklehead again.”
Ethan watched the pink spread across her cheeks. Hell. He liked the idea of her coming back. Could he do a long-distance relationship? It was hard enough for most women to be dating a guy in the Special Forces when they lived in the same zip code. Then again, if she had her own life on the East Coast—at least for now—she wouldn’t miss him as much. He’d deploy on his ops, and she’d still be living her life back in Virginia.
Why that bothered him so much, he wasn’t sure. Did he really want her to move out here? That was nuts. A woman wouldn’t just move cross country for a man she barely knew.
“Food’s ready,” he said.
“Oh, I should get the side dishes,” Kim said, standing up and going back into the house. Clarissa followed after her to help.
Ghost smirked. “She seems comfortable here.”
Hailey lightly swatted him. “Don’t tease them.”
He chuckled. “I like her. I’m just not used to seeing Ethan with a woman at his place. I’m pretty sure that’s happened all of never.”
“Maybe she’ll move out here, we’ll have a double wedding, and all raise our kids together. We’ll put you two on daddy duty while we go to the beach and watch all the BUD/S trainees.”
Grayson nearly choked on the beer he was drinking. “Hey now. Those guys might be younger, but experience counts for something.” He winked as Hailey flushed, and Ethan shook his head. Damn. At the rate they were going, in a couple of years, his teammates would be raising kids. He knew Jackson and Taryn wanted them. Not that they were engaged yet. But if