Page 74 of Hot SEAL, Under Pressure

Eric shook his head. “Hey, we’re not allowed to call him Pierogi anymore. Remember? You wanna get punched?”

“Or be forced into a rematch on the O-course?” Danny added. “I for one am tired of running that thing when I don’t have to.”

After all that had happened recently, that bet on the O-course felt like years ago. And given the task ahead, and the dangers that lay between them and going home, what name they called him seemed inconsequential in the larger scheme of things.

He shrugged, shaking his head. “Whatever. I don’t care anymore.”

The team stared at him.

Why was that? Just for not caring about a stupid nickname?

What they didn’t realize was that he cared very much. Just not about what they called him.

They’d asked what he wanted to do when he got home. There was only one thing.

He wanted to be with Shelly.

ChapterTwenty-Nine

“Good morning,” Jonas said with a smirk that had become part of his usual look around her since about the fast-roping challenge. “Website numbers,” he added as he tossed a stack of papers onto her desk.

“Good morning and thank you,” she returned without further comment.

She wasn’t about to stir that pot.

Yes, she was starting to wonder exactly how much of her and Stefan had been caught on camera and microphone. No, she wasn’t going to ask. It would be easier to pretend her private life was private if she didn’t know.

They were going to edit the footage to make her and Stefan appear how they wanted anyway. God, she hoped they hadn’t actually wired her room to catch them having sex. Her parents were going to see that show. Her friends. Her pastor back home.

This could be bad. Very bad…

“Where is Stefan?”

Shelly was startled out of her misery by Joanne’s sudden appearance, not to mention her question.

“Why isn’t he in any of the obstacle course footage?” Joanne continued as she filled the doorway, blocking Shelly’s exit should she choose to run rather than answer the question.

So Joanne had gotten a chance to review the footage. Shelly had been holding her breath, waiting for the axe to fall, for days. It seemed it finally had.

“Um, Stefan? We were eliminated. In the sharpshooting challenge,” she said, avoiding directly answering the question.

“Yes. I realize that. But you knew I wanted him back as a coach for the obstacle course challenge.”

Time to come clean. At least partially. “He got called in. He’s away on a mission.”

She drew her brows low. “Command agreed I had him for the full time. No matter what.”

“Yes, but since we’d been eliminated…I told him he could go.” She braced herself for the explosion.

“So he isn’t in the finale episode either?” Joanne asked, her tone suspiciously even and calm.

“Oh, he is,” Shelly rushed to say, before adding, “In the blooper and highlight reel.”

She dared to glance up and saw the unhappy line of Joanne’s lips.

“I know it’s an inconvenience. And not what we planned. But it was important he go.” It might cost her this job, but she had to say it.

The time it took Joanne to draw in a breath and then let it out felt like an eternity. Finally, Joanne said, “Jacob was just called up too.”

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