Page 84 of My Fiancé's Brother 2

Jackson stared without blinking. He didn't move, he just stared.

Mark cleared his throat and took a step back. “Nice running into you again, Mrs. Hunter.”

“You too.”

Jackson watched as Mark walked away before he sat down across from me. He lifted his beer and took a long sip. There was a mild expression on his face, but his actions were too deliberate. My husband was pissed.

“Bad phone call?”

“I turn my back for one minute.”

I crossed my arms. Jackson was completely unreasonable. “Why this sudden concern about Mark?”

His response was the look.

I picked up my virgin mocktail. “Pretty hypocritical if you ask me.”

“Excuse me?”

“You spent three years with Harper, and you guys make googly eyes at each other, but since you tell me nothing is going on, I’m just supposed to believe you. I spent ten minutes talking to one person at the BBQ, and you go all Navy SEAL on his ass. Even after I told you nothing was going on.”

He looked away from me and took a sip of his beer. “That’s different.”

“What? No, it’s not!”

He looked back at me. “Fine. Let’s drop it.”

“What was your phone call about?”

“I have to report to work tonight.”

I felt my face fall. “Again? You just got here.”

“I knew this turn around would be short.”

“How long will you be gone for?”

“Just a couple of weeks.”

I leaned back in my chair, the breeze blowing the hair off my face. This was what I had signed up for. He had warned me, but I was only just starting to understand what it meant to be the wife of a SEAL. I already felt lonely. “I get it.”

“What do you get?”

“I need to make some friends.”

CHAPTER 29

My husband wasfull of surprises. It took me most of the morning to discover it, but when I was in New York, he had painted Alien’s room without telling me. It was a beautiful cream color, and I cried when I saw it.

I worried about Jackson. Where was he? Was he in a gunfight? Fighting off monster snakes with his bare hands? I looked up HALO jumping and wished I hadn’t. Jumping from a plane that flew as high as a commercial jet, jumpers needed to breathe pure oxygen and faced temperatures that would freeze their skin in seconds. Falling at a rate of over 120 mph, jumpers free fell for almost two minutes before deploying their chutes at the last possible moment. The thought of Jackson hurtling to earth from so far up made me feel sick to my stomach. I tried not to think about it, but sometimes thoughts of his safety overwhelmed me to the point of tears.

To my complete horror, twice more I found cooked chicken in our backyard. I brought the chicken to the vet who confirmed it was laced with rat poison. I watched Chloe like a hawk, terrified that she would eat something bad.

Sunday morning, unable to sleep, I got up early. I looked out mybedroom window, and in the dusky shadows, I saw a figure come around the front of my house and jog lightly down the street. It was a tall, slender woman. Her hoodie obscured her face, but I saw a bit of wheat blonde hair sticking out. It instantly reminded me of Harper.

After my shower, I took Chloe out to the backyard. There in the middle of the lawn was a small pile of cooked chicken. In tears, I cleaned it up.

Usually,I preferred to go into Newport to grocery shop, but it was raining, and I just needed a couple of things, so despite my trepidation, I made my way to the military grocery store. The place was mostly empty. I grabbed a cart and started to push my way around the store quickly. I was almost at the front when someone aggressively stepped in front of my cart.

---