Chapter 4
CHAPTER 4
M icah
Micah went back to the Stone Family Inn and made himself a frozen pizza. Luckily, his mother and Trey had decided not to have guests until they got back, which made him happy; he liked having the home all to himself.
He thought about the rodeo queen from Wyoming. Ha! He would have to call her that in person just to tick her off. Because quite frankly, she’d ticked him off. She seemed to have distaste at having him around. Well, forget her. He didn’t need to be around. In fact, he was sure if he wanted a date this week, he could get one.
Not that he wanted one. He was about to start training to become a SEAL. He didn’t want or need a date.
He puttered around the kitchen, taking out a protein shake mix and making himself a double protein shake. He added a banana and even some spinach. He liked taking good care of himself. Of course, he could eat pretty much anything he wanted, but he always tried to pair a good protein shake with junk food like pizza.
Micah sipped on the shake and thought of the way Cheyenne seemed determined to be on her own. Wait, not on her own— with Eli. The kind of dork that would prey on Cheyenne. Not that she would be easy to prey on, but he could see it in his mind. That kind of guy was much like his birth father, the one who still lived in Colorado and who Micah talked to very seldomly. The kind who would marry someone like Cheyenne and then cheat on her.
Sure, maybe he was jaded. Maybe the Duke Law School type was the exact type he tried to avoid being like. Maybe it was his childhood trauma that led him to try to be like his stepfather. He would take Trey over his birth father any day of the week.
Micah moved out onto the back patio, stripping off his shirt and climbing into the hot tub. He always wore board shorts when he was home in South Port—you never knew when an opportunity would arise to be in the water.
He let the bubbles surround him and heard the faint sound of laughter coming from the beach. For a fleeting moment, he thought of going out there and talking to what he knew was a group of spring break girls. It had been roughly three months since his breakup with Lila. He had thought they could be good together. Too bad Lila didn’t like the idea of him being in the military. He sputtered out a laugh. Maybe Cheyenne and Lila would get along. They would both probably like the jerk Eli who was in law school.
He didn’t know why the thought ticked him off so much. The truth was, it hadn’t been that hard to get over Lila. His mother had been pretty insightful about the whole breakup, and when he’d mentioned that he wasn’t struggling with it, she’d told him it was because Lila was just someone to fill time. She wasn’t the one for him. He had batted away her comment as if it hadn’t been a big deal. Of course his mother would say that. But the words had stuck around the edges of his mind and heart.
His mind flashed to the beautiful Cheyenne. Maybe she deserved to have a guy like Eli.
Micah stood and got out of the hot tub, disgusted with himself. Why was he even thinking about that situation?
His phone buzzed, and he stared at it. Trey. He really didn’t want to answer and go into this unavoidable back-and-forth about Cheyenne. But he knew Trey, and he was probably being watched right this moment from one of his cameras.
He pressed accept. “Hey. Everything okay in DC?”
He could sense Trey rolling his eyes. It had not been Trey’s idea to do this whole surprise party for Brooks. As Trey would say, it had been the women’s idea.
“We’re fine,” Trey told him. “I guess we’re going to go pop out and say happy birthday to Brooks tomorrow. Serenity is in on it, and it’s fine. You know it’s not me, but I’m not going to complain about this whole fiasco when everyone else is so excited.”
Micah grinned. He turned toward the path to the ocean and kept the phone against his ear. “I guess you’re checking in on me.”
“Of course I am. Plus, it gives me a reason to get away from all the screaming from the kids in the main room of this house we rented.”
It made Micah smile to know that Trey was uncomfortable. He opened the gate and stepped out onto the path. “It didn’t go well with her.”
Trey was quiet for a second. “Explain.”
Micah had to give Trey credit: he never broke from the appearance of being calm, even when he wasn’t. “I went to her place, and she was talking to this guy from Duke Law School. It looked like they were about to kiss.”
“What? How did she know this guy?”
“I guess the guy is staying next door to her. I met him, and he didn’t seem like trouble. Like I said, he’s going to Duke Law School, so he’s that type .”
Trey coughed. “What else?”
“Well, it didn’t bode well when I told her that I was sent there to check in on her. She jumped to all kinds of crazy conclusions about her brother checking up on her. I guess she was planning on coming to South Port with her friend for spring break, but the friend had to cancel. So she met the guy tonight, and he asked her out to dinner.”
Micah knew Trey would appreciate every detail, even though they didn’t have a dog in this fight with Cheyenne. When Trey was asked to do something, he fulfilled the assignment. And that meant Micah would fulfill this assignment as well.
“What else?”
“I asked her what she was doing tomorrow, and she mentioned parasailing at ten. I told her I would go with her and just buy the ticket that she probably had for her friend, and she refused.”
Trey was quiet for a second and then inhaled loudly. “I want you to go meet her at parasailing.”
Micah rolled his eyes. “That’s what I told her. Of course I will.” He wasn’t exactly excited about going, but he knew Trey would make him.
“Good. And one other thing. I don’t know what she’s doing here—maybe she really is on spring break—but I don’t like the idea of the Cross family in my town.”
Micah knew about all the good and bad blood between the Cross and Stone families. But he hadn’t really thought about anything with the gold. “Are you thinking she’s on a gold hunt?”
Trey grunted. “I’m always thinking that. I guess the fact that Porter called me to give me a heads-up is a good thing. I just don’t know how long he’s known about this trip and why he didn’t call sooner.”
Micah scoffed. “You would’ve had to go on this trip with Brooks. He’s your brother.”
“True. But I might not have asked all of my people to leave town.”
“Good thing I’m your people,” Micah said.
“Of course. I appreciate you. I would’ve liked you to be on this trip with my brother, but I’m grateful you were okay to stay and take care of the situation.”
Micah appreciated that Trey treated him like he was his biological son. He smiled. “I’m glad I could be of service.”
Trey sighed. “Okay, then. Keep me posted. Maybe try to have some fun, but not too much fun. You’re in training, and I expect you to give it your all in BUD/S. In fact, I expect that you will be a SEAL.”
That was a huge compliment from Trey.
“Okay, I’ll call Mom later to check in.”
“Good. ’Night.”
“’Night.”
Micah hung up and found that he had walked a good portion of the beach. He wasn’t all the way to the condo that Cheyenne was staying in, but he was close. He was next to his aunt Kensi’s house, so he went and walked the perimeter.
It wasn’t too long until Tim, Kensi’s husband, texted him.
What are you doing snooping around my house?
Micah laughed and texted back. Just checking on it for you, Uncle Tim.
You’re a good man. Have fun this week.
He texted back an emoji and kept walking, unable to stop himself from getting close to those condos again. For good measure, he walked to the area of beach where he would have a line of sight to the condos. He didn’t see anything or anyone.
Wait. He did see the douchebag. Eli was coming out onto the porch and seemed to be talking to some other guy. Nothing could be heard from this far out, but it didn’t strike him as suspicious.
Micah hated that he felt protective of Cheyenne. He turned away and decided to jog back to the inn.