Finding Kenna (SEAL Team Hawaii #3)(48)

“Life isn’t about money. It’s about relationships. Connections with people. And you’ve got the unique ability to connect with just about everyone you meet. It’s a beautiful thing, Kenna. And Sunday, when I picked you up, you were utterly adorable. So excited about crashing the private beach. I had no idea you’d picked my condo’s beach to sneak onto until we pulled into the lot. There was no good way to just blurt out that I lived there. I mean, I could’ve, and should’ve, but the truth is…I was nervous. You made your opinion of rich people more than clear, and the kind of people you assumed lived in my complex. The very last thing I wanted was for you to paint me with the same brush, or break things off because of where I lived.”

He sighed. “For what it’s worth, I felt guilty all day, and since Sunday, I’ve felt even more like shit for deceiving you. I was going to tell you this weekend. And I know that’s a convenient thing for me to say now…but I hope you remember that I invited you to my place for dinner. I’d hoped even if you were pissed at me, I could woo you with a delicious meal.”

Aleck stopped and took a deep breath. When Kenna still didn’t say anything, he tentatively said, “Kenna?”

He heard her sigh. “You embarrassed me,” she said quietly. “I can’t help but think that you were laughing at me internally the whole time.”

“Never,” Aleck said emphatically. Then he decided to tell her something he’d never told anyone else—not even his teammates. Something that had played a huge part in keeping the details of his finances close to the vest. “When I was twenty-five…I met this woman at a bar. She seemed different, not like the other Frog Hogs.”

“Frog Hogs?” Kenna asked.

“Yeah. The generic term is ‘tag chaser,’ women who go after any man in the military. But a Frog Hog is someone who only wants to date the best of the best…a Navy SEAL.”

“Conceited,” Kenna muttered.

But Aleck caught the humor in her tone, and he much preferred that than the humiliation he’d heard earlier. “We prefer the word ‘confident,’” Aleck said. He took another deep breath and continued his story. “Anyway, she was tall, blonde, had a master’s degree, and she was pretty, so I felt proud that she’d singled me out. I knew about Frog Hogs, of course, but she seemed so different that I ignored the warning signs. We dated for a few months, and I thought things were going pretty great. My team hated her though. They didn’t come out and say it, but I could tell.

“We were all out together one night, and she went to the restroom. She was gone a really long time, and I got worried, so I went to check on her. She was drunk, and laughing and talking to a girlfriend really loud in the bathroom. I could hear every word through the door.”

Aleck paused. He hated remembering how he’d felt when he’d stood in the dim hallway in that bar.

“What’d she say?” Kenna asked quietly.

Deciding to treat the conversation like a bandage and just rip it off to get it over with, Aleck continued. “She was talking about me, and how she was sure I was on the verge of asking her to marry me. Basically said she’d encourage me to go to Vegas and get it done quickly, then it would only be a matter of time before I was killed on some mission. And as my wife, she’d get not only my life insurance from the Navy, but my trust fund too. She and her friend actually laughed over that, agreeing that I was a sure thing. That she wouldn’t have to—in her words—put up with me for long because of my dangerous job.”

“Holy shit, what a cunt!” Kenna exclaimed.

Aleck couldn’t help but chuckle, more because of Kenna saying “cunt” than anything else.

“I hope you dumped her right then and there,” she continued.

“I did,” Aleck said. “I turned around and left the bar. Didn’t even tell my friends why I was leaving. I had brought the bitch to the bar, so she had to get a ride home with her friend. She called me several times but I never spoke to her again. I texted her that we were done…and that’s it. It was juvenile, and I should’ve been the bigger person and broken up in person rather than ghosting her, but I just couldn’t.”

“No, you should not have. She didn’t give a shit about you, so why would you give her the decency of breaking up in person? Fucking bitch.”

As much as Aleck was enjoying her support, he still wanted to make sure she understood why he was telling her the story. “She got under my skin—in the worst way. I didn’t date for over a year after that because I couldn’t trust anyone, and when I finally started, I was much more careful when it came to telling anyone about my wealth. Hell, I might’ve even been able to handle the bitch wanting to be with me because of my money; at least that wouldn’t be very surprising. But the fact that she wanted to marry me because my job is dangerous, and she was counting on me getting killed in action so she could get her hands on my money sooner…that was nearly impossible to wrap my head around.”

Kenna took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I understand. I’d probably be just as wary as you are if I was in your shoes.”

Aleck couldn’t believe she was letting him off the hook so easily. “I should’ve said something,” Aleck told her. “It was cowardly of me.”

“I didn’t really give you a chance,” Kenna offered. “And I was pretty judgmental about rich people. I’m sorry for that.”