Page 26 of Finding Kenna
Neither of them moved.
Aleck wanted to lean down and kiss the intriguing woman in front of him, but knew it was too soon. He settled for squeezing her hand. “Drive safe. Would it be presumptuous of me to ask you to let me know when you get home?”
“Only if you’ll do the same,” Kenna said.
“Deal.” Weirdly enough, no one had ever asked him to let them know when he arrived back at his place safely. Maybe it was because he was a guy. Maybe it was because he was a SEAL. But he couldn’t deny her concern felt good.
He forced himself to let go of her hand and reached for the door handle of her car. He opened it and, once she was seated, leaned over. “Be safe, ladies. Carly, I’m glad you’re okay tonight. And for the record…you will always be one hundred percent safe with Jag. He’s one of the good guys.”
“I just don’t want him to get the wrong idea,” she replied quietly.
“He’ll follow your lead,” Aleck assured her. And he would. That didn’t mean he wouldn’t do whatever he could to change her mind about being just friends. His teammate definitely couldn’t take his eyes off Carly tonight, making his interest loud and clear to his friends.
It was a good thing he’d taken Carly away and kept her safe, because if Jag had stayed to deal with Shawn, things would’ve gotten ugly. Aleck had no doubt about that.
“Thanks for walking us to the car,” Kenna said.
“My pleasure. I’ll talk to you later.”
Kenna nodded, and once more Aleck had to force himself not to lean over and take her lips with his own. He shut the door and stuffed his hands in his pockets. He gave the women a small chin lift and headed for the elevators.
Shit. He was a goner.
He’d seen it happen with Mustang. Then Midas. And now he was acting the same way his friends had after they’d met Elodie and Lexie, respectively. But instead of being freaked out about it, contentment filled him.
It was hard to believe twenty-four hours ago, he didn’t know Kenna existed. It felt as if the entire trajectory of his life had changed since meeting her. That sounded nuts, and he knew it, but he also didn’t care.
Maybe he and Kenna wouldn’t work out. There was a lot they needed to learn about each other. But Aleck had a feeling he could be in it for the long haul…and he was one hundred percent all right with that.
Smiling, he greeted Jag with a grin and they headed down the sidewalk toward another parking garage, where Aleck had left his Jeep. Neither spoke, both lost in their heads. Things had changed for both of them that night, and it was a lot to process.
Chapter Six
One week.
That’s how long it had been since Kenna last saw Marshall, and she was almost giddy with the thought of getting together with him later that morning.
While she may not have seen him, they’d talked every day. She’d texted him when she’d gotten home from the work shift from hell and ten minutes later had received a note back. He’d let her know he was also home. Even though it was late, they’d talked back and forth via text for another thirty minutes before she called it a night.
When she’d woken up the next morning, Marshall had already left her a good morning message.
She hadn’t lied, she liked texting. Liked using emojis. And so far, he hadn’t seemed annoyed with how often she shot him messages. Kenna thought back to the parking garage, where he’d admitted that he liked the thought of getting texts from her because it meant she was thinking about him.
He wasn’t wrong.
But then again, Kenna found herself thinking about Marshall all the time. He intrigued her. She’d met her fair share of military men and women at Duke’s, but something about Marshall, and his friends for that matter, seemed different. More intense. It was probably because they were Navy SEALs, but she didn’t think that was the only reason.
They were definitely protective—look at how fast Mustang had gotten to her and pulled her away from Shawn, how quickly Jag had gotten Carly out of Shawn’s grasp, and how easily Marshall and Midas had subdued him. But it was more than that.
They were good men. Kenna would bet her life on it. She was a fairly good judge of character. She’d learned from years of waitressing to sum up patrons at a glance. She could tell who were tourists, who would probably be stingy with tips, and which customers were going to be a pain in her butt. And she was rarely wrong.
Marshall could’ve been an ass about her interrupting his training session. He could’ve yelled at her, told her to get the hell away from him. He could’ve been pissed that he’d gone all the way down to Duke’s with the expectation of a date, and instead she was working. He could’ve wanted nothing to do with her and Carly after what happened, deciding the entire situation was simply too much drama. But that didn’t seem the case.
Carly knew men in general were good at hiding their crazy from others. Heck, serial killers didn’t exactly wear a sign warning people away from them. She’d seen enough murder shows to know most people acquainted with a killer said something to the effect that they “seemed so normal.”
While Marshall might not be perfect, he was certainly the most interesting man she’d met in a very long time. And for some crazy reason, he seemed to like her. Not that Kenna thought she wasn’t likable. She was. But her dating life had been pretty pathetic recently, so it was nice—really nice—to find Marshall so into her.
She was excited about meeting him near the Naval base today, where he’d give her a tour. They didn’t have long, since it was Friday and she had to work later, but he’d gotten permission from his commander to take a few hours off.
