Code Name: Nina's Choice (Warrior's Challenge) (31 page)

Mace gave her a weak
smile. “All right, I guess
.”

“I saw the op reports.
You’re heading out in a few days for a recon mission.”

He nodded.

“Mace, you’re not
going to get hurt this time, right?” Gabbs asked.

“I’ll try my best,” he
said and knelt down. “Go say hi to Kelsey. I’ll make ya a hamburger, okay
?”

Gabbs slowly let go of
him, then scampered across the sand to find Kelsey.

“Talk to you later,”
Nina said, and tried for a quick escape.

“Why
not now?”

She rallied up a
boatload of courage and shrugged. “Sure.”

“Take a walk?” he
suggested.

“Hey, Mace, don’t run
off, dinner’s ready.
If you call
charbroiled to black hamburgers dinner.”
Sheila snuggled up to Mace’s side and
smiled. “Hiya, Nina, how are you? I haven’t seen you in a while.”

Who pulled the plug on
her courage and added vinegar to
the bath water?
Anger or more likely jealousy began to bubble in her veins. So this was the
reason he hadn’t given a shit the last time they’d seen each other. Great, he’d
hooked up with his old roll in the hay, while she pined away painting! “Busy,”
she s
aid. “I’m renovating the house I bought for my
daughter and me. With work and being chief cook, bottle washer, and limousine
service for Gabbs’ softball, there’s not time for much else.” She flicked her
foot behind her, ready to do an about face. “Nice see
ing
you two. Take care.” Stomping in the sand didn’t really have the same effect
because everyone did it just to move around. She headed straight for the wives
of Alpha Squad and made herself useful, meanwhile keeping Gabbs in sight.

Two hands grasped her
arms.
“Hi,
Nina.”
Tony leaned over and kissed her cheek.

“Hey,
Tinman, ready to fill your belly?”
There was no way she could eat anything or she’d hurl it
back up. She might as well feed everyone else. “I’ll make a plate if you want.”

“Come here,” he said,
jerking his head, and pulling her away from the crowd of
female ears. The sun was setting on the horizon, and with the chilly winter
breeze, at least chilly for San Diego, she tightened her jacket around her.
Tony stopped at the water’s edge.

“Are you goi
ng to look at me or avoid eye contact the whole time?”

She plastered on a
fake smile. “What’s up?”

Tony shook his head at
her and grinned. “He hasn’t been seeing Sheila, she latched onto him when she
got here, but they’re not together. He’s been a fucking
mess for a month and a half. He loves you, and although I and everyone
else have tried to convince him he’s being an idiot, he’s toughing it out.”

“For
what?”
She felt the first ping of tears in her eyes and looked into the wind so it
could take the blame
in case they leached out.

“You know he talks to
Gabbs every day.”

“I just found out
tonight. I can’t believe she managed to hide that from me.”

“She wasn’t hiding.
They miss each other. Mace thinks you and Wade are together. Gabbs says he’s
over every day,
and Mace is jumping to conclusions.
He’s wrong, isn’t he?”

She rubbed the tears
from her cheeks. “M—Mace walked away from us, not the other way around.”
Instead of letting her shaky legs cave, she sat down on the sand and picked up
a handful, chucking it
at the sea. “Is this a
dangerous mission you’re going on?”

“All of our missions
have a level of danger. This one is pretty low, but anything can happen. Try
not to worry. I’ll be watching his back. It shouldn’t be more than two weeks.
We’ll be back for Sno
w White and Ghost’s wedding.
Maybe sooner.”

She stared as the sun
turned a brilliant fiery orange; its last rays swallowed up by the night,
feeding the rising full moon. “I miss him,” she finally said. “I paddle through
each day, tired as hell when I lay d
own to sleep. I
close my eyes and all I think about is Mace.” She sniffed and swallowed the
lump in her throat. “I’d like to know the time limit he set on my future.
A month?
A year?
How long will it take before he realizes I’m never going
to allow Wade in
to my bed?” She kept her face turned
away so Tony couldn’t see the tears streaming openly down her face. An arm
wrapped around her shoulder, and she was glad for the comfort. “I don’t know,
Tinman, I think it was just an excuse. He saw my crazy life, and h
ow much work Gabbs is, and he decided to extract himself
before he got in too deep.” She grabbed another handful of sand and cupped it,
turning it over and mounding it. “This is why I never allowed anyone in my life
after Wade got me pregnant. I’m a sap, a
nd I knew my
heart would get broken. Now I get to pick up the pieces, and I’m pissed at
myself for falling in love with Mace.”

“That’s not true,
Nina. There’s no excuse. I love you more now than I ever did before.”

She jumped. It wasn’t
Tony’s arm around h
er it was Mace’s. She crab walked
a few paces,
then
rolled to her knees. “Whatever.”

He kneed up to her and
fingered a tear from her cheek. “I didn’t walk away to hurt you. I did it to
give you and Gabbs a chance at having a future with Wade if that’s what
you wanted. Be a family. Gabbs told me he was coming over
every day. I assumed you and he—”

“I know what you
assumed.” She swiped his hand from her face. “I don’t know why you think I can
flick a switch in my heart and stop loving you and start loving
Wade. That’s idiotic. I want you to stop talking to Gabbs.
I’ll tell her not to call you. You’re just leading her on, like you led me on.”
She rose to her feet.

Mace jerked his head
and then lowered it.

Tears started to roll
down her cheeks. “You left us.
You left me to fend
for myself against Wade,” she choked out. “That’s not brave. That’s gutless.”

She ran along the sand
and got lost in the myriad of people cloistering around the fires.

Gabbs balanced a plate
with three hamburgers on it. “Mommy, I made y
ou, me,
and Mace a hamburger.”

Jesus
. “I don’t know where Mace is, Gabbs.”

“He’s down there,” she
said, pointing where they had been together.

“Take him the
hamburger. Here.” She tucked a Coke in Gabbs’ hand.

“Aren’t you coming?”

“No, I’m not very
hungry,
sweetheart.”

Her daughter stopped a
couple times to rebalance the plate,
then
plopped down in the sand next to Mace. They talked for a
second before Gabbs crawled into his lap. They stared up at the stars for a
long time. She could see them talking. Nina r
esisted
the urge to retrieve Gabbs. This would be their last time together. It might as
well be a good memory for her daughter.

“You okay?” Kayla
asked, staring down at the water where Mace sat back with Gabbs laying against
him.

She nodded then shook
her
head. She buried her face in her hands and rubbed
the tears away with the heel of her palm.

Kayla twined her arm
through hers. “What are you waiting for? The man you love and your daughter are
down there, and they want you with them.”

“I’m not going to beg
Mace to come back to me. Gabbs and I are okay. We’re going
to make it. We don’t need a man around.” She pulled a band from her pocket and
fingered her hair into a ponytail to stop it from flying in her face. “I’m a
mom, an analyst and apparently Suzie ren
ovator. I
don’t need anything else.”

“No, you don’t, but
you love Mace and he loves you.” Kayla stepped in front of her and she held
fast preparing for one of Kayla’s speeches. “Listen, it’s simple. Love is
simple. It took me a really, really long time to
figure
that out. And to think a man like Thane would be the one to teach me that is
some kind of miracle. Give Mace one more chance. I think him giving you this
time was his honest attempt at showing you how much he truly could sacrifice
for you.”

Nina ble
w her nose.

“Kayla,” Naomi called
out. “The Admiral’s son needs feeding—”

All the women said in
unison, “Again.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re
all a bunch of comedians.” Before she stepped away
,
she leaned in and gave Nina a hug. “What’s the rule?”

Nina rolled her e
yes. “No analyst makes a move until she’s thought three
steps ahead.”

“That’s right, but
love doesn’t have any predetermined steps. It makes its own path. Eventually
two hearts travel along the same road. Your other half is down there, and he’s
lost his wa
y. At least turn on the porch light so he
can find his way back to you.”

That wasn’t so bad,
she thought. Kayla had just ripped her heart out and shoved it up her ass.
Flipping the lid on a nearby cooler, Nina grabbed two more Cokes and trudged
down to the
water. She was not going to buckle. She
and Mace would always be friends. It was time to act like it. “Here.” Mace’s
eyes shined up at her, the moonlight casting shadow across the sharp ridge of
his jaw. Her breath stuck in her throat, reminded of their f
irst night on the beach together.

“Thanks.”

“Mom, I just invited
Mace for dinner tomorrow night. Can we make his favorite? I’ll help.”

“
It’s
okay, Gabbs,” he said. “I—have to get ready for the
mission.”

Gabbs’ bright smile
dimmed. Her little mind hummed so
loud, Nina could
almost hear it. Gabbs’ little brows shot together; tears welled from her eyes
and wet her lashes. “Don’t you like us anymore, Mace?”

Mace vaulted to his
feet, his expression crumbled with pain. He picked Gabbs up and hugged her.
“Gabbs.”
He paused,
his gaze shifting to Nina. “I made a terrible mistake and I don’t know if your
mom is going to forgive me.”

Gabbs lifted her
shoulders. “I make mistakes all the time, but Mom forgives me.” She wiggled to
be let down, and although Mace hesitated
,
he set her on the sand. “I always tell Mommy I love her,
then
she isn’t angry anymore.”

Nina held her breath
as they stared at each other.

Mace gazed at her, the
question in his eyes obvious. “Forgive me.
Again.
I’m always saying that to you, aren’t I?” H
e shortened the distance between them, and all her
stubbornness disintegrated into a pile of ash with his step. Mace was the man
of her dreams, any woman’s dreams. “Nina, I’ll be gone a lot, but I promise
I’ll love you every minute we’re together. I want i
t
to be you I come home to, both of you. I’ve always wanted that from the day I
met you.”

Gabbs wrapped her arms
around Mace’s hips and squeezed him
hard,
tipping her head back she gave him her
big, toothy smile. His strong hand immediately slipped to her little shoulder.

His broad chest
expanded with a deep breath. “Gabbs, I really need to kiss your mom.”

Gabbs stepped back and
Nina’s body went on high ale
rt with the scorching
look in his eyes. Mace brushed against her body. His hand pulled the band from
her hair and he buried his fingers. “I’ll never let you fend for yourself
again. It didn’t even cross my mind. I want to love you and Gabbs until my last
b
reath, but if you had doubts, I wanted to give you
space to figure that out.”

Relief seeped through
her like a cold body slipping into warm bathwater. She wasn’t angry with Mace.
She was so full of shit. Mace made her feel safe and secure, and she couldn’t
come up with one reason why that was bad. “Will you stop
running away now?”