Page 58 of Protecting Kelli
“Thank God the guys were sent to find you so quickly,” Josie added.
“Did they find the asshole who kidnapped you?” Maggie asked.
“I can’t believe he had the balls to call and demand a ransom from the Navy. What an idiot,” Addison murmured.
“Where are your kids?” Flash asked her. “You didn’t leave them home alone, did you?”
Addison rolled her eyes and smiled. “Of course not. Caroline came over.”
Flash nodded. Caroline was the wife of Wolf Steel, an infamous former SEAL who was a kind of mentor to Flash and the rest of his team. They’d become close to the man’s former team, and their families.
“Are you going to introduce us?” Remi demanded, smiling at Kelli.
“Right. Sorry. This is Kelli Colbert. Kelli, this is Remi, Josie, Maggie, Wren, and Addison,” Flash said, nodding to each woman as he introduced them.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Kelli said politely.
“It’s probably not,” Josie said wryly. “We debated if we should come. The last thing we wanted was to freak you out. But we all love Flash, and we wanted to make sure he knew how relieved we are that he’s all right. And you too. We’ve all kind of been in your shoes…you know, in shitty situations where someone feels as if they can make you do things you don’t want to…so we thought you could use the support.”
“Yes, and with that being said,” Remi added, “I hope you’ll come back to Safe and Wren’s place with us.”
“Wait—what?” Flash asked.
“Um…we kind of have a welcome-home, glad-you-got-away party going on,” Wren said, with a sheepish grin. “We didn’t actually plan on it, but one thing led to another and before we knew it, all Caroline’s friends and your SEAL buds were wanting to come, because they needed to see for themselves that you were all right, and now everyone is waiting back at the house.”
Flash stared at Wren for a beat, then moved his gaze to Safe. “Did you know about this?”
“Uh-uh. Don’t look at me like that. I had no part in this,” Safe said with a shake of his head.
“Come on, Flash. Please? You’ll come, right? We don’t really need a reason to get together and hang out, but it would be weird if you weren’t there, since Addison made a huge cake that says ‘welcome home.’ And Alabama got a bunch of balloons, and Jessyka is in charge of the kids, who’re making signs to put up all over the house to welcome you back.”
“And you have to come too, Kelli,” Remi pleaded. “We’re so glad you’re okay. I mean, we don’t know you, but if Flash likes you, we will too. We’re a rambunctious lot, but we mean well. I promise.”
Flash glanced at Kelli, who tilted her head up to look at him. He couldn’t tell what she was thinking.
“Can you give us a minute?” he asked his friends.
“Sure.”
“Of course.”
“Take all the time you want.”
“But not too much, we have food waiting at home!”
The others began to walk toward baggage claim, but Flash stayed where he was. He turned to face Kelli.
“Talk to me. Are you freaking out? I swear I didn’t know they’d all be here, otherwise I would’ve warned you. Don’t feel obligated to do anything. What are you thinking?”
She squeezed the hand he was still holding and said, “I’m thinking you’re a very lucky man.”
That wasn’t what Flash expected to hear. “What?”
“You were gone, like, one extra day, and everyone came here to the airport to see you because they didn’t want to wait a moment longer than they had to. Your six best friends dropped everything to come to Jamaica to find you, and not only that, they did it literally inhours. And everyone’s so happy that you’re all right, an impromptu party formed because all yourotherfriends wantedtheirchance to tell you how happy they are that you’re back.”
She was right. Flash was very lucky. But just because he had good friends didn’t mean his life was perfect. It was missing something huge.
A partner.
