Page 11 of Luck Be Mine
“I can see that.” The red velvet sofa rocked in the doorway. Doogie, on the other side, shoved it past the doorstop.
Hunt slipped to her side. She seemed stable for the moment, but he’d spent weeks covering her shaky movements. He wasn’t ready to let go. He crossed his arms and stood ready. “Um, it’s Doogie’s spare sofa from his game room.”
Wide-eyed, Cait innocently smiled. “Oh, I bet there were games on that thing. He shouldn’t have.” Said with all sweetness, Hunt rubbed a hand over his mouth to cover his snort.
Baxter didn’t cover anything. His deep laugh rolled through the empty room. “That’ll teach you not to have a sofa, LT.”
Tommy and Carter hovered in the doorway helping Doogie tip the sofa into the apartment. With a bit of maneuvering, they got the heavy furniture through the doorway. Tommy turned to the two of them. “Where would you like it, ma’am?”
“Ma’am? Seriously, Tommy.” Disgusted Cait was an improvement over struggling Cait.
Tommy grinned, his eyes sparking like a demon on Halloween. “Still Army, ma’am. But I’ll switch. Lucky Charm, where do you want it?”
She pointed at the one long wall in the apartment. “That’s one huge piece of furniture for a tiny room, isn’t it?”
Hunt moved behind her to wrap an easy arm around her waist and rested his chin on her head. “It’s comfortable, so I guess it could be worse.”
She chewed her bottom lip. “I have nothing that matches this, but it’s an excuse to shop.”
Doogie was the last in the door. “Don’t just stand there, you slackers, the rest is in the truck’s backseat, and the table still needs brought up.” Doogie shifted and shoved the big furniture every direction until he was satisfied with where it was.
Baxter, Tommy, and K-Rock shuffled out.
“The table?” Cait’s whisper wiped all attempts to maintain decorum out of his mind. He laughed.
She stared at him over her shoulder. “This is funny?”
He raised a hand to put himself in the innocent category. “I didn’t do this.”
Carter stopped in front of her and studied her eyes and stance like the medic he was. “Gotta let family do. We thought you were dead.” He paused for a moment, then nodded as if satisfied. He went out the door, following the charge to the truck.
She sobered and twisted in Hunt’s arms. “Please don’t tell me the table is red, too.”
“Nope.” He held his silence for as long as he could. For a spec ops warrior who knew how to keep secrets, he caved too fast.
“It’s green.”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh Lord, help us.”
He kissed her hair, grinning. “Don’t worry. It gets worse. Doogie brought pillows.”
Chapter Two
February 10, 2020
◊ Back in Uniform – Day One ◊
Hunt felt comfortable on the Coronado base from the beginning before he’d even passed BUD/S. Walking into the Operations building on his first day back at work should have been a no-sweat moment. Instead, nerves rolled his stomach like he’d eaten a batch of bad shrimp.
He wanted to run through a checklist with Cait before he left, but she’d been sound asleep. Five a.m. was not her time of the morning.
“Welcome back, Lieutenant.” Hunt snapped to awareness and waved at one of the supply enlisted. Following the hallway, he went to Commander Scott’s door and knocked. As usual, Scott sat behind his desk doing a rapid fire read of the overnight events. The man’s uniform was pressed to neat perfection, and his gray hair had been trimmed to allow quick maintenance.
Hunt cleared his throat. “Good morning, sir.”
Scott indicated the seat on the other side of his desk. “Are you caught up?”
“Doogie briefed me last night. He’s been keeping me current all along. I only need to review the night’s events.” He pointed at the iPad on Scott’s desk. “Anything I need to know?”
