Read Surrender: A Little Harmless Military Romance for Free Online

minute. Then, throw a kink into the schedule and she will hunt you down and kill you.”
    “Really?” Mal asked, and she could feel his gaze resting on her. Her face started to burn.
    “Yes. You know, one time there was this groom who was military, and he was late to his wedding and she lost it on him. He wasn’t fully dressed when she burst into the groom’s room at the church and gave him a dressing down that would have frightened even the scariest of drill sergeants.”
    “I thought you were leaving to open the shop?” she asked and winced inwardly at the prim tone in her voice.
    “Right, boss ,” Addy said with a smile. She leaned down, gave Amanda a kiss, then abandoned her.
    She looked at Mal, who was still standing and watching her as if he were on a security mission and she was his detail.
    “Eat.”
    She frowned at him, but she wasn’t going to say no. She could already smell the gooey cheese and eggs, and her stomach rumbled. Mal watched her as she picked up the plate and started to eat.
    “If you stare at me, it’s going to make me nervous.” He didn’t stop looking at her. “At least get yourself something to eat and sit down.”
    He sat. “I ate earlier.”
    She nodded as she gobbled up the eggs. She knew he would have been up at dawn, especially considering he slept on the couch. There had been enough room in her bed for him. Waking up next to him would have been much better than waking up alone.
    Oh Lord, that wasn’t where her mind should be going. Thinking about Mal in her bed was not a good idea. It led to thinking about all kinds of silly things like…would her sheets smell like him when he left?
    She cleared her throat. “Don’t you have to go in to work today?”
    “I took the day off.”
    “Oh, Mal, I didn’t mean for you to do that. I didn’t even know that you could take time off during a deployment.”
    He shook his head and leaned back in the chair, stretching out his long legs. “No problem. I always have ‘use or lose’ leave come September, so it never hurts to take a few days here and there. And when I explained who you were, there was no problem.”
    She nodded and took the last bite of omelet. Of course it was because she was Kyle’s wife. It was something she admired in the military. Whether you liked each other or not, you were a family of sorts, and especially with the Seals and other special forces. The constant deployments made it hard for many of the families to cope. A little help from other people in the group was usually normal. She just hadn’t expected it to last so long after Kyle’s death, but then Mal was different.
    She swallowed the last bite and tried to ignore him. It was hard because he was staring at her as if he were worried she would pass out.
    “What?”
    “Just making sure you keep it down.”
    She snorted. “No nausea here. I know the warning signs of a concussion.”
    He cocked his head to watch her. “Had experience with it?”
    “Two brothers who played football. And all three of those idiots used to beat the hell out of each other.”
    He nodded as he stood and took the plate from her.
    “I thought you should take it easy today. If you have some pain, the doc said it was okay to take the meds we got last night.”
    She was about to refuse, but when she shook her head, pain radiated through it. "Maybe I'll take you up on that."
    He nodded again and then left her alone to her thoughts. Which, with Malachai Dupree, was a problem. Now that Addy had put it in her head that he was somehow attracted to her, she couldn't get the idea off her mind.
    She thought back over the last eighteen months and his support. Her folks had been great. Her brothers...not so much, but they were guys who had never handled her tears well. There had been a part of her that thought of moving back to the safety of Texas. Her parents were there, and that's where she went to high school. They had made no concrete plans about the business, so if she had decided