CHAPTER FIFTEEN #3
He glanced toward the kitchen just as Nova came back out, then walked over to the ice cream machine. Christ, she could find the soft-serve machine faster than half my team could find an extraction point.
He looked back at the screen. “That was Nova.”
“Nova,” Jocelyn repeated the name slowly, and a slow grin spread across her face. “Is that the woman Bear and the guys were telling me about?”
Jesus fucking Christ! They could keep classified information locked down for decades, but tell one of them a teammate met a woman, and the entire team transformed into the Real Housewives of Naval Special Warfare.
“What exactly did Bear and the others tell you?”
“He just said you were working an op with somebody and that you were acting different.” She leaned closer to the camera, her eyebrows raised. “I’ve known that man long enough to know what different means.”
“It’s not like that,” he lied.
“Mm-hmm.”
“We’re working.” That wasn’t a lie.
“Mm-hmm,” she said again, grinning wider now. “So should I put a plus-one down for you for Amira’s party?”
He laughed, rubbing a hand over his jaw. “I don’t know.”
“Okay. Plus-one. Noted.” She was still grinning when Nova came back to the table and settled into her chair next to him with her cup of ice cream.
She was already working through the cup as she looked at something on her phone. She looked completely at ease.
Snow, on the other hand, was not at ease, watching her eat ice cream.
She slowly pulled the spoon from her mouth, her tongue catching a drop of ice cream on her lip, sweeping across it in one lazy, unhurried pass.
Stop staring.
But he couldn’t. The worst part was that she was just eating ice cream. Something that was a normal human activity that happened roughly a billion times a day across the planet, and he was sitting there as if he had never seen a woman eat it before.
Jocelyn was still talking. Something about glow sticks, and giraffes. But Snow’s brain wasn’t absorbing anything.
You’re a grown man. You’ve been shot at. You’ve jumped out of planes. You once spent eleven hours in a freezing duck blind with Bear eating cold beanie-weenies, and you maintained your dignity. Get it together.
Snow’s hand tightened on the phone hard enough that he heard the case creak.
“Hey. You still there?” Jocelyn asked.
“Yeah,” he said, too fast.
“You look distracted.”
“I’m not.”
“Mm-hmm.”
Nova glanced at him, that damn spoon back in her mouth. She looked back at her phone. The corner of her mouth twitched.
Fuck…he was so busted.
A small voice cut through from somewhere off-screen. He turned his attention back to the phone.
“Mommy, mommy, mommy, is that Uncle Snow?”
Jocelyn laughed. “Yeah, baby, hold on.”
“Snow, is it okay if Amira says hi real quick?”
“Do I even have a choice?” He joked, knowing that the tiny tornado was going to say hello whether he approved or not.
Jocelyn grinned. “You really don’t.”
“Alright, put her on.”
Jocelyn turned the phone, and suddenly the screen filled with a small face pressed so close to the camera that all Snow could see was a pair of huge brown eyes and the inside of Amira’s nose.
“Hey, squirt!”
“Uncle Snow!” Her voice was so loud he had to pull the phone back an inch. “I lost a tooth! Look!” she squealed, moving the phone and then proudly showing off the new gap in her smile.
“Wow! You better make sure you put it under your pillow for the Tooth Fairy.”
“Do you think Uncle Nails knows the Tooth Fairy, like he knows the Easter Bunny?”
Snow chuckled. “I don’t think so. The Tooth Fairy keeps her identity classified. Last I heard, Uncle Nails only had clearance for bunny business.”
“Oh! How does he get clearance?”
“I don’t think he can.”
“Why not?”
“Because from what I hear, once the Tooth Fairy approves someone’s clearance, everything they own sparkles forever because she loves glitter. And Uncle Nails isn’t sure he’s ready for that kind of commitment.”
A snort of laughter came from beside him.
Snow glanced over to find Nova covering her smile with her hand.
Amira’s eyes immediately darted toward the sound.
“Who’s that?” she asked, completely forgetting about fairy clearances.
Ah, shit! He knew he was going to regret this, but he knew Amira wouldn’t let it go. Snow turned the phone just enough for Amira to see Nova. “Nova, say hi to Amira. That’s Bear’s daughter.”
Nova leaned more into the frame, her face softening. “Hi, Amira.”
Amira stared at her for a long second as if she was studying Nova. She then smiled. “Hi. You’re pretty.”
Nova laughed. “Thank you. So are you.”
In typical Amira fashion didn’t waste any time. “Are you my Uncle Snow’s lady friend?”
Jocelyn’s laugh rang out from behind the phone. “Amira!”
“What?” Amira said, completely unbothered.
Snow pinched the bridge of his nose. He caught Nova’s eye and saw her fighting a smile.
Nova leaned closer to the phone. “Well, that depends. What is a lady friend?”
“A lady friend is when one of my uncles has dinner with a lady, and then they get married,” Amira stated.
Nova opened her mouth, but nothing came out.
Snow quickly grabbed the phone back, grinning. “Alright, squirt, we gotta go. Tell your mom I said bye.”
“Bye, Nova!” Amira hollered, loud enough to rattle the speaker.
“Bye, Amira,” Nova laughed.
Jocelyn was still laughing when she leaned back into frame. “Bye, Snow. We’ll see you when you get home. And maybe a plus-one.”
“Bye, Joce.”
The screen went dark, and Snow set the phone down on the table.
Nova was watching him, her chin resting on her knees, and he could see the amusement working at the corners of her mouth. He cleared his throat, but no words came out.
Finally, Nova tilted her head. “First, that little girl is adorable. Second, dinner and then marriage? That’s a pretty efficient timeline.”
Snow groaned, dropping his head back against the chair. “Can we please change the subject?”
Her smile turned positively wicked. “No way.”
“I think we should probably clean up,” he countered, pointing toward her empty ice cream cup on the table.
“Easy,” she replied, picked up the cup, and tossed it into the nearby trash can. “There, all done,” she said, smiling.
His eyebrows shot up. “What?”