“This way,” the hostess said as she seated them at a table that overlooked the water.
“I’m so glad we could pick up where we left off,” Ezio said after the hostess took their drink orders.
Sam didn’t know how to respond to that, and it must have shown. One hand was toying with her water glass, and the other was resting on the table. Ezio placed his palm over the back of her hand.
“I’m so sorry, I should have been more upfront on how I left things. I was called away on a mission the day I sent that last text, but that’s not an excuse for my abruptness or for not calling you back.”
Sam’s hand quivered under his touch. She thought about pulling away but wanted to hear him out.
“What was the reason?”
He sighed. “I didn’t think we had a real shot for two reasons. One, you lived halfway across the country. But the real reason was that I didn’t want to be your rebound relationship.”
It took everything she had not to move her hand. She thought about his words, really thought about them. “What if I told you I still haven’t had that rebound relationship? Would you still be here tonight?”
Ezio’s hand tightened on hers. He gave her a long look.
“What if I told you that since meeting you, I haven’t been able to get you out of my head?” he asked softly.
Sam felt herself smile. “I’d feel pretty good about that. But are you sure you’re not freaked about the rebound thing?”
“Should I be? It’s been almost a year since your almost-wedding. One of the things I learned about you is just how smart you are. I would think by now, you’d know your own mind.”
She arched her brow. “And don’t you forget it.”
The waiter came to take their orders. They both picked up their menus and quickly decided what they wanted.
“So, tell me, how do you like Virginia?” Ezio asked after the waiter had left. “I seem to remember you being really close to your parents and grandparents.”
“I was. I mean, I am. But I got this fantastic offer. I worked on three hotel projects with the same customer in the Pacific Northwest. They really liked what I was doing. They’re expanding to the East Coast, and they hired Lawton because they needed a powerhouse architecture and design firm to handle the scale, but they wanted me involved. They told Lawton that I had to be part of the package.”
“Samantha, that’s really impressive. So, what are you doing at your new job?”
“I’m supervising a small team right now that is probably going to expand,” she sighed.
“You don’t sound excited,” his green eyes held hers.
“Oh, I’m really psyched about the project. It’s the supervisory stuff that has me stymied. I’m out of my depth, and always playing catch-up. It’s fine with the good team members, but with the problem ones, it’s been a challenge.” Then she grinned. “But I have Eden on my side. She’s great at helping me with leadership issues. I just used one of her techniques and it worked beautifully.”
“You were pretty smart to ask for help. I’ve met a lot of officers who thought they knew what was best and ended up falling on their asses.”
Their dinners came.
“What made you want to become a SEAL?” Samantha asked as she took the first bite of her halibut.
“Since my family emigrated to America in the early nineteen hundreds, at least two or three men out of every generation have served in the armed forces. Nobody was ever drafted, they all volunteered. My great-grandfather was a colonel in the Army, my grandfather was a Major in the Marines during World War II. Dad served in the first Gulf War. After being the oldest of the family I wasn’t interested in a commission.”
“What’s that?”
“That means, I wasn’t interested in rising through the officer ranks. I wanted to play in the dirt.”
Samantha laughed. “You got tired of leading?”
“Not exactly. You can’t take that oldest child characteristic out of a person, but I really wanted to be a member of a team. I joined the Navy, and the more I read and saw about the SEAL brotherhood, the more I realized that was for me.”
“It’s a brotherhood?”
“Oh yeah. You can’t do anything at all without your teammates. You have to know deep in your gut that they have your back one-hundred percent of the time, and you have theirs. I might be the second-in-command of my group, but if I’m out for the count for a little bit, you can be damn sure any of my teammates can rise to the occasion.”
Samantha took another couple of bites of her fish, considering everything Ezio had told her. “How about when you go home? What’s the dynamic like then?”
“Oh, it goes back to my brothers and sisters coming to me with their problems, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
She looked at the man across from her and thought about how much responsibility rested on his broad shoulders. She felt like a lightweight in comparison.
“That’s quite a frown you have going on there, Ms. Brooks, what are you thinking?” Ezio teased.
“Just that comparatively speaking, my life is pretty routine and fluffy.”
“I wouldn’t say that. I’d say your life is normal,” Ezio laughed. “I’m the one with the odd
