Page 16 of Loved by a SEAL

“No, thank you. I’ll help myself in a few minutes.”

“Wise choice,” Patrick said as he walked away, calling out to the rest of the group that more food was on the table.

“Don’t say it,” Sarah said as she saw Ryan eyeing her plate.

“I didn’t say anything.”

“You were about to. More people should be vegetarians. Aside from the fact that meat comes from innocent animals, if everyone in the U.S. didn’t eat meat for one day, we’d save 70 million gallons of gasoline.”

Ryan raised his eyebrows. “It’d be damn near impossible to convince the entire country to do that. And I’ll admit, after years of eating MREs deployed with the Navy, I enjoy a juicy steak or burger.”

“Everyone can make small changes,” Sarah said with a shrug. “People just choose not to.” She took a bite of her tofu burger and grimaced at the overly dry taste, forcing herself to swallow.

“That good, huh?”

Sarah nodded, choking down another bite. “Wow, Patrick really overcooked this.”

“I’ll get you a drink,” Ryan said, turning toward the cooler and grabbing two bottles of beer. He popped the cap off each of the beers and handed her one. She took a long pull, enjoying the cold summer brew. Usually she wasn’t much of a beer drinker, but after the way Patrick had turned her tofu burger to cardboard, it tasted pretty damn spectacular.

“You want me to toss that out?” Ryan asked, skeptically eyeing her plate. “I hate to say it, but some of the MREs I’ve eaten look more appetizing.”

She grimaced. “Yeah. Remind me never to let Patrick cook for me again.”

Ryan took the plate from her, dumping the entire contents in the trash. “The rest of the food looks decent,” he said.

“No thanks.”

“You don’t ever eat meat?”

“Never. And don’t even try to talk me into it.”

Ryan cleared his throat. “I wasn’t about to, I just thought you might be hungry.”

“Nope,” she said, drawing another pull of beer. Ryan’s eyes were drawn to her mouth around the longneck of the bottle, and she innocently took another sip as he watched her. “I already had some ice cream with my nephew. And I brought a huge platter of veggies and hummus.”

“Sounds like a balanced diet,” he quipped.

“I didn’t realize you’d be so concerned about my eating habits.”

“Just like I didn’t realize you’d been keeping such close tabs on my whereabouts.”

Sarah smirked. “I know all the men on the team. I’ve probably met more of their ex-girlfriends than you have—and I’ll tell you what, you’re lucky you didn’t suffer through conversations with some of those women.”

Ryan pressed his lips together, looking amused.

“Thankfully all the women they’re with now are great. I’m convinced my IQ dropped a couple of points after talking with some of their past flings.”

“Then I’m glad to have been spared.”

“Seriously. I’ve spent more than enough time with the guys on the team and the random women they were always with. It’s like having six brothers instead of one.”

“So you never dated any of them?”

“Have you met my brother?” she asked sarcastically.

“My bad,” he commented dryly. “I’d probably be overprotective if I had a sister, too. A lot of men out there are jerks—case in point, the group you were with last night.”

“Interesting that you’d notice such a thing.”

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