A Special Ops Christmas Read Free Page A

were arguing a lot, but Cindy just wanted to
joke around and have fun. He was missing his wife; he naively never thought how
flirting with someone else would make her feel. Somehow, it had even seemed
like a reasonable way to ease the pain of missing Vivianne. He could see how
stupid he’d been now, but hindsight wasn’t going to fix this. What a mess.
    “Who?”
    Aiden shrugged like it didn’t matter, and really it didn’t.
It could have been anyone. “Remember Cindy?”
    Daniels grimaced. “And was it worth it?”
    “No, it wasn’t like that exactly…” Aiden tried explaining
about the joking and playing around, and how it made him forget about the
troubles in his marriage. It had been exciting, something outside and separate
from his relationship with Vivianne. But it wasn’t right. He knew that now. But
he’d gotten caught up in it and had acted like a fool.
    Daniels stepped back, studying Aiden for a long time. Maybe
he was adjusting his opinion of him. That stung because they’d been SEAL team
brothers for over three years. The SEALs were a tight-knit family. They had
each other’s backs, and their families were all close as well. Part of him
feared the others, especially Daniels, would judge him, get angry, and even cut
off friendships. Another part of him thought that maybe Daniels desperately
wanted Aiden to succeed where he had failed—at marriage.
    He waited but the tongue-lashing didn’t come.
    “So make it right,” Daniels said calmly. “Start a family.
You’ll be there in a few weeks. Don’t let your marriage be a casualty of this
war.”
    Daniels’ words surprised Aiden, but he shook his head and
looked away. “It hasn’t worked. The getting-pregnant part. Everything is
dragging her down,and I haven’t been there emotionally or
physically for her. I let her down. I lost her. Get it?”
    He wanted to yell at someone, but it shouldn’t be his
friend. Daniels stood there and took it anyway. Now that they were both quiet,
the only lingering noise was his ragged breathing. There were sounds off in the
distance, but they didn’t matter. 
    Vivianne had always trusted him once he had won that trust
in the beginning. The first time they were together, she looked up into his
eyes, her own eyes wide, and asked him, “Be gentle, okay?” She tried to laugh with
it, like it was an offhand comment, but he felt her tremble. She might have
been worried that he was too strong or too much for her, but he showed her just
how gentle and loving he could be.
    He didn’t want to lose her. All this fighting hadn’t been because
he was tired of her, didn’t like her, didn’t love her, or any other sorry
reason. It stemmed from his frustration at being away from her and at being
angry with himself for hurting her.
    “What will it take?” Daniels asked, confusing Aiden.
    He stared at Daniels for a minute, trying to understand the
simple words. What would it take? Was it even possible to convince her
that they had a chance? That they should try to hold on to their marriage?
Aiden heaved a sigh, realizing he wanted to cry. He never cried. “She wanted me
home for Christmas.”
    Daniels slapped his hands together like that was the
solution. “Then we’ll get you home!” He turned and strode back inside, yelling
back, “Get in here. We’ve got planning to do. Everyone, here, right now! We
have a mission.”
    Aiden followed him with slow steps. “Daniels?”
    “We’re going to get you home for Christmas so you can save
your marriage. We’ll arrange a special covert ops.”
     

Chapter Four
     
    The phone rang, jolting Vivianne. She picked it up, looked
at the screen, and dropped it by accident.
    “Aiden!”
    She snagged it off the floor, cursing the way her heart
jumped. Everything felt right for a second, before she reminded herself that
things were over between Aiden and her. They’d tried. They’d failed. She
controlled her voice to answer simply, “Aiden.”
    She wanted to hang up on him