Navy Seal's Match

“The only thing he’s suffering from is exhaustion,” Mavis said. “I don’t know if you noticed, but he’s shadowed your every move since you got here.”

“I noticed,” Gavin said. He skimmed the side of his foot along what felt to be the dog’s ruff in a quick rub before grabbling for the back edge of the stool next to Mavis’s and pulling it out from under the ledge.

“If he bothers you, all you have to do is say so,” she said while he took his seat.

“He doesn’t.” Gavin had forgotten how companionable the silent presence of a canine could be, though he’d felt a clench when the shaded form of Prometheus had blurred into another dog’s as the late-afternoon light failed.

Gavin turned his attention to the stacks of books on the countertop. The rubbed scent of lignin stirred memories of libraries and secondhand bookshops. They were old books, he assumed. Big, from the sound of her closing and stacking them. He squinted at the spine of one. When the letters blurred, he scowled. He’d never been a big reader, but there had been freedom in knowing, should he choose, it could serve as a distraction.

A bowl clacked onto the granite in front of him. The steam wafted up his nose and his stomach grappled for the contents. Sustenance. “Mmm,” he said, unable to help it. “Thank you, ma’am.”

“No ma’am,” Zelda insisted, waving a napkin in front of her face before she set it down next to his bowl with a spoon on top. “It makes me feel retro.”

“Are you?” he asked experimentally, picking up the utensil.

“You’re a rascal,” Zelda realized. “I like that in a man.”

“Is Errol a rascal?” Gavin muttered in an aside to Mavis.

“He’s been known to listen to metal on occasion...”

“All men are rascals in some vein,” Zelda chimed in. “Even the deeply repressed type.” Zelda stopped in front of Gavin. “I doubt you’re the repressed type.”

The corner of his mouth curved upward and kept tugging. “What makes you think that?”

“Well, for starters, look at our girl. Does she look like she’d go for that?”

Mavis looked up as she became the center of attention.

“I don’t know,” Gavin said. “I always thought deep down Mavis was kind of a tight-ass.” The snug grin dug in further when her oval face slowly revolved his way under the light. His smile pulled at the scars on his face.

“Pat my head and call me Freckles,” she said. “I dare you.”

Zelda chuckled. “Here’s your soup, dear. Stop and eat.”

“Thank you,” Mavis said, taking the bowl in both hands. She took the spoon and napkin, then began to stir. Her elbow nudged his. Then again. “This isn’t going to work, lefty,” she told him. “You should sit on my other side.”

He nudged her elbow again. “You’re wearing wool,” he said as her sweater grazed his arm.

“Yeah, why not?” she asked.

“It’s ninety degrees out,” he pointed out.

“I’m cold,” she said, her shoulder lifting close to his. Muttering, she went back to her reading. “I’m always cold.”

“What would you like to wet your whistle, Gavin?” Zelda asked him. “There’s water. We have herbal tea. There should be some organic orange juice. No liquor. Neither Mavis nor I drink much, particularly during working hours.”

“Water for me, thanks. And some working hours, by the way. You don’t drink?” he asked, turning to Mavis.

“Only once in a blue moon,” she admitted. “Dad’s a recovering alcoholic. Mom never kept liquor in the house. Some of us had better things to do in high school and college than binge drink.”

“Not me,” he remembered fondly.

“No, I never said anything about you, did I?” she said drolly.

“So you don’t drink when you go out?” he asked.

“Out where?” she asked, mouth full of soup.

“Out,” he said. “That place people tend to go when they leave the house. Particularly single people on Friday and Saturday nights.” He peered at her when she turned her face to his without answering. “You do know what I’m talking about, don’t you, Freckles?”

“Do I look like an idiot?”

“You look like a blur,” he said. “A sweet, spotted blur.”

He could tell she was frowning. “I work three jobs. One fielding customers at Flora for Mom. Another doing bookkeeping for Dad at the garage. And another on nights and weekends here with Miss Zelda. My social agenda is pretty limited. Not that I mind. And not that it’s relevant.”

“I think it’s relevant,” he claimed.

“Why?”

He shrugged, scarfing another bite. He stopped for a second to enjoy its impact before spooning another. “Because you are a tight-ass.” She scoffed at him and he added, “And in another life, you might’ve been a cheap date.”

Mavis made a choking noise, then coughed. Gavin dropped his spoon into his bowl, lifted his arm over the back of her chair. He gave her several raps on the back.

“Another life?” Zelda spoke with all the nonchalance of an innocent bystander. “Why not this one? Gavin, I assume you’re single. That Leighton boy was the last one to tickle Mavis’s fancy. And that was back when he was still a man-baby.”

Gavin demanded, “Which Leighton?”

Mavis choked again.

Zelda called his bluff. “So you are interested. Hot dog!”

When Mavis reached desperately for his glass of water, he asked, “Are you okay?”

“Mmph.”

He heard the water going down her throat. He thought about it—her throat.

Stop being weird, Savitt, he chided himself.

She was talking again, to Miss Zelda. She sounded husky. Vital. He felt an odd stir, the same one she’d cranked to life in the bougainvillea. Something told him to reel it in, but he kept his arm across her back, cupping her slender shoulder blade through the thin wool of her sweater. He’d never been good at listening to sense, especially when it came to warm, smart women of the unconventional variety.

This one happened to be his best buddy’s sister. But Kyle was training hard somewhere out in California. Helicopter rappelling. The bastard. And Mavis. She was in arm’s reach. The threat of Kyle was lessened by the miles between them and conversation with Mavis... Her proximity had kept the lingering threat of that afternoon’s headache at bay.

“The meal’s put color in your face,” Zelda observed as she ate from the other side of the counter. Her tone slid homily into something sly. “Or is it the company?”

Gavin felt Mavis go rigid and circled the spot of her shoulder blade beneath his hand before removing it, going back to his meal. “Both are unrivaled,” he granted. Zelda’s low laugh was one of approval. The knuckles of his drinking hand knocked into something hard. Another book, he surmised. Cautiously, he asked, “What about this genealogy thing? How does that factor into...whatever it is you do?”