Page 12 of SEAL Ever After

“This morning,” Sarah admitted. “It still hasn’t totally sunk in yet.”

“This morning?” Dawn asked, raising her eyebrows. “And you’re here?” she teased.

Sarah laughed. “Ryan had to go into base, and I had patients. We’ll celebrate more this weekend or something when stuff settles down. His team just got back from a mission. And there’s a million things to figure out—moving here, leaving my old job for good, planning the wedding.”

“So you’ll be working here five days a week now?”

“Probably so,” Sarah said. “I need to look into adjusting my schedule and wrapping up stuff with my old office in Norfolk. It’ll be a bummer to not see my patients there on Fridays anymore, but I’ve been slowly cutting back.” She shrugged. “I knew it wasn’t forever, seeing patients in both offices, and it’s time to move forward, you know?”

“God, that will be awesome for you to be here all week.”

“For real. It’ll be good for me—I’ll be closer to my brother, too. When he gets sent out, sometimes Rebecca could use help with the kids. And since Ryan is busy at the same time Patrick is when those guys have missions, it works.”

“Yeah, it’s good to have family close by. I really miss that.”

“Honestly, I got closer to Patrick after Logan, his son, was born. Now I’m the crazy aunt who’s a bad influence on the kids.”

“Yep, I can totally see that,” Dawn said with a grin.

“Hey, I’ll catch up with you later, all right?” Sarah said, grabbing a chart for her first patient. “I’m running late thanks to that surprise proposal, and, ahem, mini-celebration this morning.”

“Girl, you have the life! See you later.”

Sarah smiled as she headed off down the hall. Life was pretty damn perfect at the moment. Nothing could bring her down.

Chapter 6

Ryan sat down at the desk in his home office later that afternoon, frowning. He pulled up the surveillance footage from yesterday afternoon on his computer and scrolled through, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

There was the usual traffic on his suburban street as neighbors came and went. His lips quirked as he watched Sarah pull in the driveway when she arrived home and hop out of her Mini Cooper in her scrubs. She blew a kiss at the camera and sashayed inside.

Hell.

Even when he wasn’t around, she was thinking of him.

He didn’t like that she was alone in the house for days on end when he was stuck on base during an op, but that was life. Having her here was a hell of a lot better than worrying about her in Norfolk. And his men dealt with far worse when they deployed on dangerous missions, leaving their families behind.

He certainly should be able to handle his girlfriend—no, fiancée, he thought with a smile—safe in his own home. He had surveillance cameras. Locks on his doors. He lived in a safe area.

Hell. He had no right to complain when his men literally put their lives on the line.

Ryan sped up the footage, eager to put whatever was bothering him to rest. The only thing appearing out of the ordinary was a dark gray car slowing in front of his house at around eighteen hundred. The vehicle didn’t stop, just slowed enough to make him notice.

Pausing the footage, Ryan zoomed in to see if he could get the license plate. It was most likely nothing, but he couldn’t dodge the feeling that he was being watched when he first got home yesterday.

His phone buzzed on his desk, and he saw Patrick’s name flash on the screen.

“Captain Mitchell,” Ryan said as he answered.

“Sir, sorry to bother you.”

“Is everything all right, Ice?” Ryan asked, frowning.

“When I got home earlier, I mentioned to Rebecca that we all need to be more cautious right now. I didn’t go into much detail, of course, but she mentioned she noticed a car driving around the neighborhood yesterday.”

Ryan’s senses heightened. “A car?”

“It’s probably unrelated to any of what we were briefed on earlier, but I wanted to update you. She’s more aware than most after her stalker incident.”

---