She only jumped a little at the soft knock on the door.
“You okay in there?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Honey, you’ve been in there over twenty minutes mumbling to yourself.”
Daisy laughed and opened up the door. There stood her man in all of his confused naked glory.
“I talk to myself sometimes.”
He nodded solemnly. “I’m catching on.”
“You gave me this necklace. You had it waiting here for me.” She clasped it in her hand like she was afraid it would disappear.
“Actually, I told my mom exactly what I needed and she FaceTimed me so I could choose it. It was here waiting for me when I got home.”
“You…you…I can’t believe you did this for me. It’s so damned perfect. You’re so damned perfect.” She wrapped her arms around his waist and nestled her head against his chest.
“I’m just glad you like it, now come back to bed.”
She shook her head. “Need to tell you something first.” She took a deep breath. “I’ve been afraid that you would go away.”
He kissed the top of her head. “I’ve noticed. But I’m not. I’m here for the long haul, if you’ll allow it.”
Her head shot up. If she were taller, it would have bonked his chin. “You’re thinking long-term?”
He cupped her cheeks. “Daisy, I love you. I want to be in your life forever.”
Her eyes heated as tears threatened. It took her a moment for her to find her voice. “I love you too, Leo. I really, truly do. I don’t ever want you to leave my life.”
His lips hovered over hers. “That’ll do.”
“I’m not sure about this,” Daisy said for the umpteenth time.
“It’s fine.”
“Your lieutenant is mad at me.” Another thing she had repeated for the fortieth time. He glanced over and saw her fiddling with her new necklace as she watched the beautiful scenery. The drive to Kane’s lake house was gorgeous, just like his house was. Leo wanted to invite Daisy to his mom’s for Sunday dinner with the family but figured she’d have a heart attack. He’d been lamenting about that at work and Kane came up with the idea of her meeting the team first as her first baby step to meeting the family. Hence, a party at Kane’s house.
“No, Max is not mad at you. He was mad at me, but I finished all of his paperwork and even got some of his spreadsheets done. He is purring like a lion cub. So I’m now off the hook.”
“You do spreadsheets? I didn’t know that was in SEAL training.”
“You learn what you can to help out.”
He turned down an almost-hidden driveway, and then Kane’s house came into view. “You’ve got to be kidding me. This is one of your teammates’ houses? How cool is that? It’s gorgeous.”
He looked again at the contemporary wood architecture that seemed to blend with the outdoors and had to agree with her. There were only four vehicles in the driveway, so they were second to arrive.
Great.
He’d wanted to ease her into things.
“I thought you said there were going to be ten to twenty people, where is everyone?”
“We got here a bit early. I wanted you to get a chance to meet A.J. before everyone else arrived.”
“That’s nice of you. Thanks for stopping off at the store before we left so I could get some things to take to the party.”
Leo snorted. “You didn’t get ‘some’ things. You bought up half of the grocery store.”
“I did not, that would have been rude.”
He parked his truck, then laughed at her when it took the both of them to bring all the stuff up to the house.
Kane opened the door. “What’d you do, buy up half the grocery store?”
“We went a little overboard,” Leo said. “Now take the stuff from Daisy.”
“This is perfect,” A.J. said when they got to the kitchen. “Put the veggie tray over here, and I’ve got a bowl for the Greek salad.”
“And for being an ass, you don’t get any of the brownies,” Leo said as he put the treats down on the dessert table.
“Daisy, this is Kane McNamara and this is his much better half, A.J. Lancaster.”
“Hi, I’m so excited to meet all of you. A.J., you’re going to have to tell me what it’s like to produce all of those fun shows. Something tells me it’s a lot like herding cats.”
“Sometimes even herding large cats,” A.J. laughed as she unwrapped the cellophane from the veggie platter.
Leo followed Kane to the grill where Raiden was getting the coals just right. “How’s the leg doing?” Raiden asked. “Ready to have your ass kicked on the obstacle course on Monday?”
“I’m in an excellent mood, thank you very much.” Leo knew his grin could be seen from the moon, but he didn’t care. Daisy had said she’d loved him last night. His life was damn near perfect. Now he’d have to get a ring on her finger.
“Did you see that?” Raiden asked Kane.
“Yep, I did. Don’t let him man the grill, he’ll burn down my house.”
“What are you two talking about?”
“You just went into outer space, obviously thinking about Daisy. I was asking you a question and you didn’t even hear me, man.” Raiden chuckled.
Leo looked over at Kane for confirmation, but Kane was too busy laughing to nod his head. “You’ve got it bad, Perez. Has she met the family?”
“She has to go home tomorrow afternoon. No time for a Perez family dinner. But we are going to drop by and meet Mom. Otherwise, I’d
