Redeeming Her SEAL (ASSIGNMENT: Caribbean Nights Book 9) by Kat Cantrell Page A

step. But Audra made him insane, stole his ability to think, and definitely tested his sainthood.
    Yeah, he was angrier than he’d been willing to admit. It had walloped him out of nowhere, and he didn’t know how to deal with it when, in reality, he was being forced to lie in the bed he’d made.
    “Charles St. Croix, you get over yourself.” Sheila Custer’s clucking came through the phone’s speaker loud and clear, as if she was next door instead of two-thirds of the way to the Pacific in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
    Charlie almost hung up, but he respected Jace’s mom too much. “Yes, ma’am.”
    “Don’t you yes ma’am me. That’s what my kids say when they’re planning to ignore me. It’s placating, plain and simple. I raised two boys, so don’t think I was born yesterday.”
    “No, ma’am.”
    Both Jace and his twin brother Blake had been under Charlie’s command in Iraq. Mrs. Custer’s care packages and frequent phone calls had grown to be one of the best things about the Custer boys. They were hell-raisers of the highest order, but both were fierce, loyal, and fast with a joke. He’d have welcomed Blake as a partner in Aqueous Adventures, but he’d stayed in the teams when the others left.
    “Jace tells me that you’re having trouble with your company. You listen to me. You’re a smart, determined boy, and you will figure this out. I have faith in you.”
    The sentiment warmed him where nothing else had.
    Mrs. Custer had long been Charlie’s surrogate mom once she’d found out his own mom had committed suicide when he was nineteen. It wasn’t a secret. Everyone knew Montgomery St. Croix’s wife had killed herself after finding out her husband had been banging an eighteen-year-old girl. No one knew Naomi had been Charlie’s girlfriend. Or that he’d loved her.
    It had been a one-two punch that solidified the most important thing he could learn about women: those closest to him cared about themselves and themselves only, scarcely seeming to even notice that their actions affected others around them. Like Charlie, who’d been naïve enough to let himself love selfish women.
    As a result, trust and forgiveness were two words Charlie scarcely knew how to spell. Survive and evade. Do the right thing—those were the concepts he lived by.
    Obviously he’d forgotten his lesson, or he wouldn’t currently be in the impossible position of having his heart handed to him, still bleeding, while trying to balance the fact that he’d hurt Audra too.
    Meanwhile, Aqueous Adventure, the only love of his life he should be concerned about, was still in trouble and he’d thus far done nothing to save it.
    Mrs. Custer, as always, had enviable insight. “Thanks, Mama C. I’m getting over myself as we speak.”
    Or at least he should be. It was disgraceful how much time he’d spent aching for Audra while nursing himself through sleepless nights that had featured some lovely flashbacks. Paradox should be his middle name.
    He could pretend that he was headed in the direction of “over it.” Enough to make an honest appointment with Dr. Reed to talk through how she could help undo the damage her boyfriend—sorry, ex -boyfriend—had done to Aqueous Adventures. Emotional outbursts over things that couldn’t be changed had no place in his role as a business owner.
    And clearly he could not be trusted to have a conversation with her in a cozy alleyway either. The subject of his educational spiel had completely slipped his mind while he’d been busy mixing it up with her.
    He had to do something to get the lid closed on his black box before he confronted her again, or the next meeting was going to go down just as badly. Plus he’d do just about anything to get that kiss to stop replaying in his head. After throwing on some jogging shoes, he clattered down the front steps to the sandy walkway that passed as the street.
    Evan and Rachel waved as they came out of their house across the way and walked hand in