Page 16 of SEAL's Harmony
“That’s because you’re a sweetheart. But it’s not your fault. You need to remember that.”
“It feels like my fault.”
“Okay, let me ask you this. If you hadn’t helped with the loan, what would have happened?”
“I’m not sure. Mrs. Ericson probably wouldn’t have gotten any of the treatments she needed.”
“Right. I’m sure they are both thankful for the extra time they have. You helped them get that.”
Harmony hadn’t thought about it that way, and that was good, but they were losing everything else. The house, the business. What were they going to do?
“You’re right, but now what do they do? Anyway, I know you didn’t call to talk about this. How was the rest of your day?”
“Whiskey and I ran errands and just got home a little while ago. The guys called to see if I wanted to meet them at the Ready Room.”
“Cool, are you going to go?” Harmony missed having a group of friends. The women she’d met through Chrissy were great, but they were all in relationships, and she only saw them when the guys were on a mission.
“I think so. Would you like to come too? We can get dinner there. Unless you’ve already eaten.”
“But this is your post-mission unwind time, isn’t it? Chrissy and Meghan said their guys do it every time.” The last thing Harmony wanted to do was screw up their time. She wanted them to like her.
“Didn’t Chrissy tell you that the women all come, too? Because they do.”
“Yeah, but they’re all in relationships. Unless something changed, you were all sitting together without women at the wedding.”
“You’re correct, but they all like you. It will be fine, I promise. And you’ll get to see Whiskey too. Jan allows our K-9s in the Ready Room. She even added a special menu for them after they reopened.”
“That’s so cool. But I don’t know. I have work tomorrow…” She wanted to see Ry and liked his teammates, but she really didn’t want to be an interloper. All she needed was to be the Yoko Ono of the Red Falcon team. Were they even a couple yet? It seemed like they were heading there, but she wasn’t sure if she was ready for that either, although she couldn’t deny her attraction to Ry.
“Just say yes and give me your address, and I’ll be right over. I promise I won’t keep you out too late. All you have to do is tell me and I’ll take you home.”
“I can drive over myself,” she answered, realizing that she’d just agreed to go.
“No way. This is our first date, sort of, kind of, even if we’re not alone for dinner. My mother would beat me with her broom if I let you drive yourself.”
“Well, then I guess you can pick me up.” Harmony gave him her address.
“Great, I’ll be there in about fifteen minutes. See you soon.”
“See you.”
Harmony put the jelly back in the fridge. No PB&J tonight. But now she had to figure out what to wear.A date. Holy shit. It had been a while since she’d had a real one unless you counted earlier when they had coffee.
Ry was coming to her house.Oh. My. God. And then he’d bring her home later. Would he expect to come in? Chrissy had warned her about dating any of the guys she’d met at the Ready Room. Most of them were one and done. Ry didn’t seem that way to her, but it didn’t mean he wouldn’t expect to have sex.
Did she want to have sex? The dampness in her panties said one thing, but her brain said it was way too soon. She’d only ever been with Jim and after that fiasco, was she ready to try again?
She’d drive herself crazy if she didn’t stop worrying about everything. What she needed to do was get dressed and quickly before Ry and Whiskey got there. Heading into her room, she stripped out of her work outfit and stood in front of the closet. There weren’t a lot of options and she decided on her favorite pair of jeans and a lavender T-shirt.
When they had coffee, Ry said how he loved the color of her eyes, so she might as well do what she could to highlight them. Then she remembered the new magnetic eyelashes she bought after seeing them all over social media. The package came last week, but she hadn’t tried them yet. It seemed like the perfect time to try them, or not, depending on how they looked.
Ry would be there soon. If they were as easy to apply as all the ads said, it should be easy. First, she touched up her blush and powder. The dark circles under her eyes needed something, but she wasn’t good enough at concealer to make it look natural.
Quickly skimming through the application instructions, it didn’t look too bad. Then she rolled her eyes. This was her. Disaster Lass. Nothing ever went as expected. There were a few styles in the package, and she went for the ones that looked the most natural. Following the instructions, she added the magnet eyeliner. Except she had to do it three times before she got it along her lash line. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.
Shit. I need to hurry. He’d be there any minute. Her hands shook as she tried to add the lash. It was supposed to attach to her lid, except it wasn’t working. Harmony pushed it onto the eyeliner, it slipped and hung off the edge of her eye like a furry black caterpillar.Holy cow. They said this was easy. In whose world?
The second try was worse. The lash adhered to the inner part of her eyelid, but not the rest of the liner. When she blinked, it flapped around like a wing. This was beyond ridiculous. With each attempt, Harmony grew more frustrated. A sheen of perspiration dampened her forehead.Just great. Even her hands were shaking as she grabbed the powder compact to fix the damage.
