Page 28 of Protecting What's Mine

“Ladies’ Man Chief Lincoln Reed, meet Dr. Mackenzie ‘Hero is my Middle Name’ O’Neil,” Aldo said.

Linc held out his bandaged hand. “Real nice to meet you officially, Doc O’Neil.”

Mack accepted it and pretended to ignore the flutter in her stomach when his grip tightened suggestively.

“A pleasure, chief,” she said, the picture of innocence.

“It will be,” he predicted.

“Don’t even start, man. She’s too good for you.” Aldo teased, but Mack caught the flash in Linc’s eyes.

But then his grin grew degrees more charming, his gaze warmer, and she wondered if she’d imagined it.

“Watch out for this one. He’s a connoisseur of the opposite sex,” Aldo said, elbowing Mack. “Linc loves ’em and leaves ’em.”

A hatchback drove by slower than the mom with the double stroller on the sidewalk. The driver gawked at them, and Linc gave her a lazy wave.

“You better move out before all of Benevolence is talking about your illicit affair,” Linc said. “I’ll see you around, doc.”

“I should stop blocking traffic,” Mack said, jerking her thumb in the direction of her SUV.

“Cookout. Next week,” Aldo said, pointing at her. “You can meet Gloria and the kids. I’d say tonight, but we just got back from Disney a few days ago, and we’re still drowning in laundry and wondering how the kids packed an entire suitcase full of sand.”

Mack shook her head and grinned. “A lot to catch up on,” she said.

At least on Aldo’s part. He’d been shipped home, retired from the National Guard, gotten married, and started a family. Five years ago, the only sand he’d seen had been desert. Now he went to Disney on family vacations.

But she was still doing the same thing. Her deployments were over. But wasn’t this basically the same? A short-term placement.

“Sounds great,” she said.

“I’ll text you.”

Mack waved Aldo off as he resumed his run. She felt the weight of Linc’s gaze on her.

He stared out his windshield. “You know there’s more to me than my dating history.”

“I’m not not sleeping with you because you enjoy women,” she assured him.

He turned to look at her.

“Maybe I’m not sleeping with you because ofmydating history.”

“Just get out of a long-term relationship?” he guessed.

“Opposite. If you’re a ladies’ man, I’m a man’s lady. Men’s lady? Anyway, I’m taking a break from it.”

“Maybe we should both try something different. We’ll just have to get married,” Linc decided with a grin.

He drove off and left Mack blinking after him.

11

“Leah, if you stop trying to kick your brother in the nuts, maybe he won’t be such a little turd to you,” Linc called from his patio where he warmed up the grill for hot dogs and burgers to feed his young hostages. He’d gotten up early on his day off and had put in a full day of paperwork and maintenance work at the station by noon.

“Uncle Linc! Make her stop,” Bryson screeched, his voice cracking in the middle of the whine as puberty asserted its presence.

“Why? If you stop taking her water gun and she stops kicking you, you’re just gonna find something else to fight about.”