Hot SEAL, Confirmed Bachelor- Cynthia D'Alba Page 0,51

through exercises. We’ll have only one chance at Popov and that will be in September. He will be taking a break at a vacation location on a small island for one week. That will be our chance. Expect multiple patrols during that time.”

Benjamin’s heart sank at the mention of September. He’d promised Holly he’d be there as her date for her brother’s wedding. This could put a big bomb in the middle of those plans, but his first commitment was to his team, and if he was called during that time, he would go. However, he also knew she’d understand without an iota of guilt tossed his way because that’s the type of person she was.

For the next three weeks, the team studied the island retreat, photographed and measured landmarks, recorded the ebbs and flows of the ocean along the coast. Every day, they reviewed the previous night’s findings, refilled SCUBA tanks, and prepared to do it all again that night. They planned INFIL ops, practiced different landing options, developed, and discarded capture plans for the Russian. Every plan showed heavy casualties for the hostage, his North Korean guards, and the team.

As their CO had said, the team’s contacts with loved ones were closely monitored with either the CO or Ensign Davis in the room listening in. Additionally, all calls were recorded.

Benjamin didn’t call Holly. He wanted to. He missed her like crazy. Missed her laugh. Missed her snark. Missed her jabs at what she called his inflated ego. But what he wanted to say to her was for her ears only, nothing he wanted to share with his commanding officer or anyone else.

Time passed at a snail’s pace. He wondered how the latest bachelorette party/ladies’ night out went. He hoped one of her brothers got Holly home safely. He felt certain they did, but there was a part of him that wanted to be the one she looked to when she needed that extra hand.

Finally, they were told to pack up and load up. The next team was coming in and they were on their way out.

They lifted off after midnight. The guys hung hammocks in the C-30 to try to catch some shuteye on the long flight back.

“What’s the date?” Benjamin asked Jacob.

“Umm...around June twenty-fifth, I think. But to honest, I’ve lost track of the days.”

“Me, too.”

“It’s June twenty-sixth,” Cowboy said. “I’ve been marking off the days ’til I get home.”

“Thanks,” Benjamin said.

“Got somewhere you got to be?” Cowboy asked with a laugh.

“Maybe I do,” Benjamin said.

Chapter Ten

Holly had met Bethany McQuiston when her brother brought her for a Friday night family dinner. That’d been a couple of years ago. She’d never seen her brother so love-struck.

Lawrence had been a BMOC—Big Man on Campus—through high school and the years he’d spent in college. Star running back for their high school team, he’d never been without a girl, or girls, hanging onto his every word. He’d been a vain, ego-inflated, hormone-raging teenager. Then he became a vain, ego-inflated man during his twenties. He’d loved the ladies and they’d loved him back. Holly had questioned whether any woman could hold his attention for longer than thirty days.

And then Bethany McQuiston had appeared, and her vain, ego-inflated brother had fallen like a hot air balloon when the fire was extinguished. The way he looked at his fiancée with such a lovesick expression had been hysterical, at first. Now, the family was mostly accustomed to it.

Bethany had fit into their decidedly middle-class family like she’d been with them since birth. Hints over the past couple years suggested she came from money, but she never flaunted it, like tossing around hundred-dollar bills as though they were ones. She drove a current model car, but nothing fancy. Her clothes were always nice, but nothing that appeared to be expensive…more like items from an everyday department store.

And then they’d gotten engaged.

Bethany remained the wonderful, sweet person they’d always known. However, her mother was cut from different cloth. Mrs. McQuiston was determined that her only daughter would have a wedding that would rival British royalty. Part of that determination to mark her daughter’s momentous wedding occasion was tonight’s engagement gala, as Mrs. McQ called it.

Held at the prestigious—and ridiculously expensive—la Spiaggia Country Club, invitations to the party were highly restricted since the club’s event room held only three hundred.

Holly pulled her car into the valet parking circle, almost embarrassed to ask the red-coated valets to park her dusty, used four-door sedan. She was sure the Lotuses,