Spying Under the Mistletoe (Love Undercover #2) - Stina Lindenblatt Page 0,45

want to impose.”

“You wouldn’t be.” A mischievous smile spreads on her face. “In fact, you don’t have a choice in the matter. We’ve been hired to keep you safe, which means you have to do what we tell you. And that includes joining us for Thanksgiving dinner. Isn’t that right, sweetheart?” The smile this time is directed at Jayden.

Grinning at her, he shakes his head as though trying not to laugh out loud. To me, he says, “That’s right. You don’t want to make our job harder than it already is, do you?”

Landon chuckles. “I don’t think she’s giving you a choice,” he tells me.

“He’s right about that,” she says.

I laugh. “How can I say no then? I’m helping at the senior home with their Thanksgiving lunch, but I’m free after that.”

Landon lightly squeezes my hand. “You really like that place, don’t you?”

“That’s because they’re like family to me.”

The best kind of family. The family who’s always there for you.

16

Landon

Thanksgiving Day, I find myself at the seniors’ residence with Chloe.

“You know what would make me truly thankful?” a man whom she introduced as Samuel says. His sorrowful gaze is directed at the glass of milk she set in front of him.

“What’s that?” I ask.

“A scotch neat.”

Chloe smiles sweetly at him. “Unfortunately, that isn’t on today’s menu.”

“Or any day,” Frank grumbles. “I miss the good old days when we got to drink whatever we wanted. Even when I was a kid, I managed to get some of the good stuff.”

“Kid?” I park the glass of milk in front of him. “How young are we talking?”

“Twenty.”

“That’s hardly a kid.”

Frank guffaws. “It is when you’re my age. Anything under forty makes you a kid, kid.”

That has all six men at the table laughing heartily.

Once their laughter dies down, Frank looks me over. “So you’re our Chloe’s new man, are ya?”

I nod.

“What makes you so sure you’re worthy of such a fine young lady?”

They all regard me with the same look a lion gives an antelope before toying with it.

Christ. I’ve had all kinds of expressions leveled in my direction over the years, both on this job and while in the SEALs. Many were enough to strike fear in the hearts of plenty of men, myself included.

But all that pales compared to how I feel about the way these six men are scrutinizing me.

“Because I care about her and couldn’t imagine not spending a single day without her in my life. Because she makes me laugh and makes me want to make her laugh. And because I want to be the man who’s there for her, protecting her.”

All right, I’ll admit some of that comes from a cheesy romance Mom made me watch with her and Dad a few years ago. He and I got into trouble after we burst out laughing when the love interest said it.

I have no doubt she busted Dad’s balls after that.

I got away with the standard line of how one day a girl will break my heart, and I’ll be too much of an idiot to realize those cheesy lines I was making fun of were the ones that would’ve saved the relationship.

I highly doubt that.

But right now, those same corny lines appear to be working wonders with the six elderly men.

And Chloe. Her eyes have adopted a dreamy look, which works perfectly for our cover.

“If my dear Sophie were here,” Samuel says, “she’d be tearing up something fierce. She always was a romantic.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being romantic.” Lawrence narrows his eyes at me. “That’s the problem with the young men these days. They don’t know the first thing about romance.”

I laugh. “I’m not too sure about that. I’ve got plenty of male friends who have no problem in that department.”

By plenty, I mean two: Liam and Jayden.

And maybe a few guys on my hockey team.

“What do you do for a living?” Samuel asks me.

“I’m a substitute teacher right now. That’s how Chloe and I met. I’m currently on assignment at her school.”

“You don’t look like no elementary school teacher,” Frank says.

The man’s more perceptive than he realizes.

I study him for a second. “What did you do before you retired?” I ask in a casual, shooting-the-breeze tone.

“Spent my whole life in the Navy.”

That would explain it.

“We’ll be right back with your meals, gentlemen,” Chloe says in what seems like an attempt to rescue me from the interrogation.

Not that I mind. The fact that they are interrogating me means they’re buying my cover. It also means they care