Soft Place to Fall (Navy Book 4)

Chapter 25

Will pushed open the door to the bar, he had agreed to meet the guys for a drink that evening, but he had to talk himself into actually going. He had no interest in visiting with them or watching them be happy with their beautiful wives. He knew there would be some joking on his behalf about his time spent babysitting the supermodel, and he saw nothing to joke about.

The fact was that he had fallen hard, and he wanted Carmen just as much, if not more than he had before he had met her. She had to be one of the strongest women he knew to have survived her young life. His youth hadn't been the best but it had at least been stable compared to hers, he couldn't imagine what a life like hers would have done to him. She was also extremely stubborn, and he knew that there was no reasoning with her when she had sent him away.

She had made up her mind that he thought poorly of her, and there was nothing that he could say or do to relieve her of that thought, so he had left. He had left because he knew that she didn't need his baggage to carry along with her own.

But he hadn't walked away completely, he had worked with a vengeance on making sure that Xavier was no longer a threat in any way. He had managed to get his hands on all of the copies of the photos that he could and he had destroyed them, and he had promised to destroy Xavier if he ever tried to attempt to contact Carmen again. While he had handled the back end, Josh had taken care of dealing directly with Carmen, and Will had told him to keep his name out of it, which meant that as far as Carmen knew he had truly left that day she had asked him to.

He hadn't wanted to leave and he had to fight himself to keep away. He had never been so glad to return to California and active duty because it meant he no longer had the choice. There had been no problem passing his physical and he had sailed through the psych evaluation, but his desire to be a SEAL wasn't what it once was. He thought of Carmen most of the time the time, and when he wasn't thinking about her, or whatever job was at hand, he was giving serious consideration to retiring. Kellan and Josh had managed to find their way in civilian life and he figured he could as well. But at least while he was on the teams he had enough hard work to keep him from thinking too much about Carmen.

Will scanned the room and his gaze landed on Lee who was placing an order at the bar before he found the other five in their group, who had somehow managed to snag a corner booth. He moved through the crowd with his usual carless grin, while saying hi to a few familiar faces, until he reached Lee who had been watching him at the bar.

"Still know how to make an entrance, don't you?" Lee returned his grin with a smile and a slap on the back.

"They don't call me Rounder for nothing," was his quick reply.

The bartender, a pretty perky blond, asked for his order with a smile and a look that said she was interested if he was; he wasn't. Unfortunately, this was something that Lee noticed right away with a frown.

Will kept his smile plastered on his face as he turned back towards Lee.

"So, is it good to be back?" Lee asked, watching him closely.

"Sure," he replied.

"That's a lie and you know it Pruitt. You wanna tell me what's going on?"

Will was tight with all of his brothers on the Teams, but he and Lee had gone through training together, just as Kellan and Josh had, and it had formed a bond that he didn't share with anyone else on the Teams, including Josh and Kellan.

Will smiled at the bartender as she delivered his beer. "No," he said before taking a sip.

"Is this about Carmen Morales?"

Will appreciated that he used her name and didn't refer to her as the supermodel. He shook his head distracting Lee from the lie with his other dilemma. "I've been thinking about retiring."