Edge of Chaos | Dad's best friend | 20 Squad BOOK #1

Seven | Deacon

"Mya?"

I dart my gaze to the left than to the right than out into the ocean, having lost sight of her and the girls ten minutes ago.

Where did they go?

The team had a day off and Street suggested we hit the beach and we all agreed to go. So when I got home I told Mya, we got dressed, packed our bags and hopped in my SUV and headed for Junipero Beach.

But once she went to find seashells with the girls, I lost her.

I finally find her a few feet behind where we set up, she's on her knees in the sand, her head lowered as she counts the seashells they found. Putting the sunglasses over my eyes, I walk towards them, bracing myself.

She looks sexy today, and shit keeps happening to my body every time I look at her. White bikini with the sides cut out, minimal makeup, wavy hair. It's simple, but I love it.

"There you guys are." I say, looking down at the three of them.

"Hey, look who decided to actually live a little." She teases. I've been sitting in my lounger surveying the beach for any kind of threat. It was unintentional but I'm having a hard time turning off cop mode.

"I came looking for you." I answer.

"Lilah wanted to count how many shells we got."

"Daddy look! They're so pretty!" Lilah exclaims.

"They're very pretty honey." I agree.

"Hey Lie, you ready to go in the water now?" Mya asks.

"Yeah!" Lilah jumps up.

I pick up Victoria who sat in the sand and lifted her up before she could think of putting a shell in her mouth.

"You gonna come in?" Mya asks, raising a brow at me.

"Nah, I think I'm gonna hang here with Vicky." I tell her.

"Oh come on, We'll have fun. I bet Luca can watch her for a few minutes. Besides, when's the last time you got a girl wet?"

My eyebrows shoot up. What?

Get a girl wet?

Her eyes suddenly go round. "I meant like with- with water from the ocean and splashing." She quickly explains. "Not the other kind of wet. You probably don't even know what that means." She shakes her head, looking mortified. "I mean obviously you do, you have two kids." She pauses and wipes her hands on her thighs, trying to get the sand off. "I'm gonna go see if I can drown myself in the ocean now, bye." She walks off with her heading looking down and I can't help but smile as I watch her walk away, her hips swaying seductively and her bottom on full display.

"You better not let Hondo see you looking at her like that."

I turn my head to see Luca watching me.

"Looking at her like what?"

"Like you like what you see." Luca tells me before jogging down to the water where everyone else was.

Shit.  If Luca saw me, there was a chance Hondo saw me staring and that would be bad. I'm supposed to be looking after his daughter, not staring at her ass like a creep.

I shake off the paranoia, clear my throat and head down to the water to be with my family.

Street suggested a game of shoulder wars and next thing I know Street has Chris on his shoulder and I have Mya on mine. The object of the game is to knock the person on the opponent's team down. I grip Mya's ankles tighter as she tries to push Chris off of Street's shoulder. I gotta give it to a Chris though; she's taking it easy on Mya and I wonder if Mya realizes that if Chris really wanted to, she could knock Mya down in the water in a second flat.

I'm kinda happy she doesn't though for reasons I'm not willing to admit yet.

Chris eventually knocks Mya down, causing Mya to fall backwards into the water. Chris and Street shout victoriously while I turn to help Mya stand back on her feet.

I reach down and pull her to an upright position before Mya wipes water from her face. The water has made her hair damp and curly and damn, she looks beautiful. Her face looks so youthful and glowing and in that I moment I wanted to pull her into my arms and kiss her, and show her just how wet I could get a woman.

"What do you say we switch partners?" Street suggest, snapping me back to the present.

I blink before turning around to face Street. I try my best now to glare at him. He obviously has a thing for Mya and it's really starting to piss me off. But it would be the lamest thing I ever did in life if I told her dad about it.

I don't want to switch partners. I don't want Mya's leg over his shoulders or any part of her body touching another man. But it's not like I can say any of that and I don't want to offend Chris.

"Alright, let's do this. We got this, right Chris?" I try to sound enthusiastic.

"Let's take them down." Chris says before giving me a high-five.

Quickly. I think to myself.

Chris mounts my shoulders and I watch while biting the inside of my cheek as Mya mounts Street.

"Don't let me fall." Mya giggles as Street pretends to lose his balance with her.

"Never." Chris says as he tightens his hold on her.

"You guys ready to start?" I snap.

Mya's eye flash open wide at the tone of my voice and I tell myself to calm down.

"What, your shoulders starting to hurt Deac? You're showing your age man." Street teases and normally I don't let his jokes bother me; it's a running joke for me and Hondo to be called out since we're the oldest on the team, but the fact that he's doing it in front of Mya pisses me off more than I should.

"Do I need to remind you who has the best stats and who won the T.L.I competition two years in a row?"

"That's because I wasn't on the team yet. We'll see about that this year."

"Are you guys gonna play or you gonna keep running your mouths?" Hondo speaks up as her comes into the water. Lilah is on his back in a piggy back position and I glance towards the sand to see Victoria is now with Luca.

Without another word, we start the game and because I can't stand the sight of Mya's legs around Street, Chris knocks her down in seconds. Mya squeals as she falls into the water and Street lifts her up into his arms bridal style before he's spinning her around, making her laugh harder.

Another guy making her laugh shouldn't bother me. But it does. Street is good man and I trust him with my life. He's closer to her age and I know Hondo wouldn't be completely against them being together and that's what bothered me the most. And that's what it came down to at the end of the day: I was jealous of every guy who would get the chance to be with her because I knew it would never be me.