had been quite stressful. Her rule could be broken that night.
“You should definitely own what you’ve done. It’s impressive and not a lot of people have your drive.” He stopped and reached for her hand across the table. She let him have it. “I’m very glad I’ve met you.” She was locked in his gaze for several moments before he grabbed his glass with his other hand and held it up. “Here’s to the start of . . . something.”
Her fingers trembled as she lifted her glass. She wasn’t able to utter a word as she clicked hers against his, their eyes never parting, their fingers clasping together a bit tighter.
She felt as if she’d just entered a contract, or somehow entered a . . . relationship.
The waiter came with their appetizers, and the spell was broken. Avery let out a relieved breath as she reached for anything on the table to occupy her. She shook her head, trying to clear the cobwebs. She wasn’t sure what in the hell was going on. She did know for sure though, that she wasn’t in a hurry to make it stop.
Chapter Eleven
It was three in the morning when Chad’s phone jolted him from a deep sleep. He’d been a soldier for years. He went from sound asleep to fully alert in one second flat. He looked at the phone number and didn’t recognize it, so his urgency slowed as he gazed at the glow from his nightstand.
Now a bit irritated at a possible sales call at approximately 3:00 a.m., he pushed against his covers, his feet tangling, making him nearly tear the bed apart. The phone stopped and in less than a heartbeat it began to ring again, making him growl as he finally managed to untangle himself from the heavy blankets his wife insisted be on the bed.
The things a man did for the woman he loved, he thought, before a smile appeared on his lips. He’d do anything for Brianne. She was his world. His wife, the niece of Joseph Anderson and cousin of his best friend, was stubborn, spoiled, bratty . . . and perfectly amazing. She was truly a gem in a sea of rocks. If she wanted a pile of blankets on their bed, then a pile of blankets was what she’d not only get, but she’d get them with a smile.
It also helped that Chad was a former SEAL and he’d learned to embrace sleeping in all types of austere environments, whether it was on rocks, dirt, water, ice, or scalding hot asphalt. Hell, he’d slept in it all, even in a sandstorm that had nearly suffocated him as he’d been practically buried alive.
It had taken him quite a while to adjust when he’d returned to civilian life and sleeping on a real bed night after night. When he’d married Brianne, he’d felt a bit claustrophobic for a while with her ten thousand pillows and blankets. But his love for her had easily overruled his discomfort — and like he’d always been able to do, he’d adjusted.
Chad grabbed his phone and silenced it as he looked at his wife who could sleep through a damn tornado. She hadn’t so much as stirred in all of his struggles. He loved that she was so secure and comfortable with him that nothing interrupted her sleep.
He clicked his phone. “This better be damn good,” he grumbled in a fierce whisper.
“Chad.” It was just his name, but in that one syllable he was on alert. It was Mark, his best friend of many decades, and the fear and pain in his best friend’s voice had every instinct in Chad ready to do battle.
He quickly moved to a room where he could talk freely without waking his wife.
“What’s wrong?” Chad asked.
“I’m sorry to wake you,” Mark said. “But I need your help.”
“Where are you? I’ll get there as fast as I can,” Chad said. He was already mapping out the inside of his closet, where a hidden false wall contained a safe bigger than an average room. It held tactical equipment to do any job that needed done.
“Let me slow down and explain. Take a seat,” Mark demanded. Those words stopped the thundering in Chad’s chest. If he had time to sit, the situation wasn’t life or death. He could get out of fight mode for at least a few minutes.
“Talk to me,” Chad said as he made it to his large living room where a fire was still burning behind