Code Name: Nanny (SEAL and Code Name #5)(104)

Most of all, she had Gabe’s key. Things were definitely serious between them.

Another drill went down into Summer’s heart.

The woman—Nickie?—looked from Gabe to Summer. “Sorry, Gabe. I didn’t know you had company.” She smiled at Summer. “Are you from the Navy?”

“No.” It hurt to breathe, hurt even more to smile, but Summer managed it.

“Well, don’t let me rush you. I’ll just put these things in the kitchen.”

Summer watched her walk away. She was young and nice and looked very competent. “I’d better go, Gabe. You’re busy.”

“Summer, I’m sorry.”

“No problem. I just wanted to see for myself that you were okay. Hey, one minute you’re crashing in an out-of-control truck, and the next minute you’re on the beach. Life manages to go on, doesn’t it?”

Whether you wanted it to or not.

“Summer, I—”

“Great to see you, Gabe.” She didn’t wait, couldn’t bear another second. She fumbled her way out to the hall, moving blindly, desperate to escape. Only outside on the street did Summer jam a hand to her mouth. Unshed tears burned at her eyes as she flagged down the first taxi that passed. When she rode away into the fading sunset, she didn’t look back.

Some risks hurt more than others.



Gabe watched her from the window, watched her without moving.

“Why did you do that?”

He didn’t answer. His whole body felt numb.

“Gabe, that woman loves you, damn it.”

“Her loss.”

Dr. Nickie Evangeline was his downstairs neighbor. Though still a medical resident, she had become his unofficial rehabilitation mentor. She stared at him impatiently. “You love her, too.”

“Now that’s downright delusional, Doc.” When Gabe turned, his face was hard. “How about we get to work?”

Her lips pressed into a hard line. “Your rehab can wait. Right now I’m more concerned with your ass-backward mental state.”

“Hey, I’m fine. All systems go. I could bench-press three hundred fifty pounds.”

“I get it now.” Her eyes narrowed. “You told me to dress this way. You told me when to come. You knew that she was going to be here, didn’t you?”

Gabe didn’t answer.

“What happens next?”

“Not a single damned thing.”

“You won’t be this way forever, Lieutenant. You should tell her.”

Tell her what? Gabe stared at his leg. There was more reconstructive surgery the next day. Maybe he’d come out of it with a brace and two pins, and a knee strong enough to run on again.

Or maybe not.

He was doing the right thing, Gabe thought grimly. Life went on, as Summer had said. In the grand scheme of things, what could have been carried no weight. At least she had recovered beautifully. He’d never seen her more calm and confident, although for a moment there had been something uncertain in her face, something wistful in her voice.

Just your imagination, fool.

Gabe heard the door close behind him. Nickie was disgusted with him, but of course she didn’t understand.

Frowning, Gabe took something out of his pocket and turned it slowly in his palm. It was the simple blue rubber band he’d taken from Summer’s hair back on that night she’d been caught in the cactus. He took it out sometimes and looked at it, touched it, slipped it over his fingers.

In the last months he had carried it everywhere. Even into surgery.

Down on the street the taxi began moving. Gabe couldn’t pull his eyes away.

He had read once what it felt like to walk on the moon. One astronaut had said that you felt rootless, unspeakably alone, cut off from Earth with its blue seas and all you knew and loved. Gabe felt that way now as the lights of Summer’s taxi flickered, then vanished into the twilight.





wyoming





[page]chapter 41

The Laramie Airport was quiet at this late hour. A few tired travelers waited for their baggage, glancing out at skies that promised snow.

Didn’t it just figure that they had lost her bag, Summer thought. After two delayed flights and ten hours of nonstop traveling, she was dead on her feet, and now her bag was gone.

She shouldered her backpack and headed to the information desk to file an inquiry. With her luck, they wouldn’t find the bag until she was back in Philadelphia on Monday.

What was she doing here, anyway?

Frowning, she backtracked through the last month, beginning with the news that Cara was completely recovered and she and Senator Winslow were finally tying the knot. But Summer was in the middle of a tough case and she still had five rehabilitation classes to complete. She didn’t have time to fly out to a ranch in the middle of nowhere. Despite her protests, Summer soon found out that San Francisco’s assistant DA was a hard person to refuse—and her two winsome girls were even harder to refuse than their mother.

Audra wanted to show Summer how her kickboxing moves were coming along.

Sophy needed to display her latest ballet technique.

Despite her exhaustion, Summer smiled at the memory of that last, hectic phone call. The deciding point had come when Cara mentioned that Gabe wouldn’t be attending because of his Navy duties. Summer still remembered the sharp, stabbing pain of hearing his name again.