Hot SEALs: Discarded Heart (Kindle Worlds; Danger Incorporated Book 2.5) by Olivia Jaymes Page B

were eyeing in that catalog? I thought you wanted to be something scary.”
    “No way,” Alex scoffed, giving her that look again that said she was as dumb as a stump. She distinctly remembered giving it to her parents as well. It was a rite of passage for a child to think they were much smarter than their parent. “I want to be a hero. I want to be someone who saves people.”
    “You’ve got time to figure it out. Maybe we can drive into Virginia Beach and you can look at the costumes there.”
    A quick knock on her front door told her Charlotte and Kenny had arrived. They’d long since dispatched with any ceremony so Charlotte pushed open the door with a wave. Alex scrambled down from his chair and the two boys scampered off into the backyard.
    Mika sighed in resignation. The toys could be picked up later.
    “Please tell me you have a full pot of coffee.”
    Charlotte sniffed the air appreciatively and reached into the cabinet, pulling down a mug.
    “I do but you may have to wrestle me for it.”
    Charlotte poured herself a cup and settled in the chair Alex had just vacated. “You look like hell. Did you walk with the undead last night or something?”
    Mika groaned and gulped down more of her coffee, the scorching liquid burning her tongue. “Thank you very much. I sure know where to go when I need a pick me up.”
    “I’m just calling it like I see it. Are you coming down with the flu?”
    Mika’s gaze flickered to the windows overlooking the backyard where the two boys were happily playing with a blue and red soccer ball. “I kissed Cal Friday night after you left.”
    Charlotte’s eyes bugged and her mouth fell open, the coffee cup paused halfway to her lips. The expression would have been comical if anything else about the situation was in the least funny.
    “Oh. My. God. Is that all you did? Are you back together? How was it? Did he tell you he still has feelings? Do you still have feelings? What a stupid question…of course you still have feelings. This is Cal we’re talking about. He’s a man among men. Oh my God, Mika.”
    Charlotte had said all that in one single breath and it showed. She gasped and sucked in air as if starved of oxygen, almost dropping her mug and spilling scalding hot coffee down her clothes.
    “Just calm down.” Mika held up her hands in surrender. She needed to talk about what had happened but clearly Charlotte had already made up her mind as to what Mika should do. “It was a kiss. Afterwards I told him he shouldn’t do it again.”
    Charlotte looked scandalized. “Why the heck not? If a man like Cal wanted to kiss me I’d drape myself across his lap and let him have his wicked way with me.”
    Mika didn’t want to think about all the times she’d done pretty much that very thing.
    “There’s too much…history between us. We talked Friday night and pretty much had it out. Finally after all this time. He blamed himself. I blamed myself. We both realized we’d done stupid shit and then he kissed me. It probably didn’t mean anything. He was probably just caught up in the nostalgia or something.”
    Except the kiss hadn’t felt like before. There had been something new there. Cal was different now. More commanding. More in control. Someone she could trust and depend on. She could feel that he’d changed these last years, especially when he’d talked about losing his career. It had meant so much to him and her heart ached for his shattered dreams.
    “Sure. Yeah. Nostalgia.” Charlotte rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue. “That’s why I go around kissing people. Why, just the other day I laid a big one right on David Brown’s lips just because he used to bring me potato chips when we were in junior high. I just felt so…nostalgic.”
    “Are you done now? Can we get back to my problem?”
    Charlotte filched a piece of bacon off the tray on the counter. “Okay, I’ll be serious. And seriously I don’t see that you have a problem, my friend. Unless of