Hot SEAL, April's Fool by Becca Jameson (smart books to read .txt) 📗

ignoring the fact that Cole was standing close by, trying to get between him and April. “Your name is April. You ran into this fool, Joker, on April Fool’s Day, and you decided to move to San Diego with him after he spilled coffee all over you?”

April giggled and swatted Cole out of the way. “Yep.”

“You do realize the man doesn’t have many serious bones in his body, right? We call him Joker for a reason,” Zig continued to tease.

“Yep. I’m well aware. He was the same in high school.” She tipped her head back to look up at Cole as he rolled his eyes. “Trust me, he can be serious when it’s called for.”

Cole leaned over her, his hand on the back of her chair. His lips came to her ear. “If you stop flirting with my teammates, we can go home, and I’ll show you another one of my personalities. I guarantee you won’t be laughing.”

She visibly shivered and then reached up to kiss him. “We just got here. I’m meeting your teammates. We’ll go home in a while.”

Cole sighed as he slid into the seat next to her, wrapping a possessive arm around the back of her chair. He might as well get comfortable. Several of the guys were here tonight and they all wanted to grill April.

Heartbreaker was the next to lean in and speak to April. “So, you finally managed to reel this Joker in, huh?”

Pops shoved Heartbreaker’s arm from his other side. “Hey, now. If you can reel a woman in, anyone can.” He laughed, but Cole just rolled his eyes. Pops wasn’t lying. Heartbreaker had finally gotten tied down and stopped breaking women’s hearts.

Mars strolled up holding a beer and pulled up a seat next to Cole. He was on his first beer so he hadn’t started in with the teasing yet. He spoke to Cole. “How’d it go with that investigator in Alabama today? You said you’d be talking to him this morning, right?”

Wolf leaned forward too. “That’s right. What’d you find out?”

April set her hand on Cole’s thigh and smiled up at him. Relief had finally caused her to relax for the first time in weeks. That was half the reason he’d consented to going out tonight. He knew she needed to blow off steam, even though he’d rather be using that excess energy between the sheets right about now.

He kissed her briefly and faced the guys. “It went well. The mayor’s wife has chosen not to attempt to collect money from anyone who owed her husband anything. Once she learned how many schemes he’d been involved in and how underhanded he’d behaved to take over people’s businesses, she declined to even attempt to extract money from any of us.”

Mars nodded. “That’s great. I bet you’re relieved.”

“Very.”

Zig motioned for the waiter to come by and moments later ordered a round of beer for everyone. “We’re celebrating.”

Even though Cole hadn’t really expected a different outcome, it was a relief to finally have the entire mess behind him. He hadn’t heard a peep out of Amanda or Jacob since he left town. When he’d spoken to Bart, he’d learned that Jacob hadn’t attempted to get a job working for the older man either. Bart hadn’t seen him. As far as Cole was concerned, good riddance to both of them.

It was a shame that he had no relationship with his half-brother, but sometimes family had nothing to do with blood and everything to do with friendship and love.

Cole sat back and let out a long exhale. He curled his hand around April and squeezed her shoulder while his teammates clinked glasses over his good fortune. These were his people. The only people he needed.

He didn’t pressure April to leave McP’s again. She was having fun getting to know the guys and making friends with Heartbreaker’s girlfriend, Alicia.

It was almost midnight before they made it back to Cole’s condo, and he didn’t give April time to take a complete breath between when he shut the front door and plastered her to it. He kissed her until she was moaning with want, just the way he liked her, and then he lifted her off the ground and carried her to their bedroom.

He dropped her on the mattress with an intentional plan.

Sure enough, she landed on the small box he’d left in the middle of the bed and squeaked as she leaned to the left to pull it out from under her.

Her eyes went wide as she held it up. “Cole?”

He grinned mischievously and sat next to her.

“What is this?”

“What does it look like?”

Her eyes widened further.

He took it from her hands and held it. “There’s a story here.”

Her eyebrows drew together. “A story?”

“Yeah.” He suddenly felt stupid thinking this would be a good idea. He’d thought about it for the past two weeks since they’d gotten home. Some days he’d decided not to mention this ring, and other days he was certain she would think it was the sweetest thing on earth. Earlier this afternoon, his plan had seemed sweet. Now, he had doubts.

“Cole?” April slid her hand over his on top of the box. “Is that a ring?”

“Yeah.” He met her gaze.

“You gonna show it to me? Is there a question you’d like to ask me? I’ve never seen you this nervous.”

He licked his lips. “First, I just want to say that if you don’t like it, we’ll sell it and get another ring.”

She frowned. “Why on earth would I not like it?” She crawled over his lap, straddling him, closing the space so that there were only inches between them, inches that now contained the ring box.

“It’s not at all what I would buy you if I were buying it today. When I look at it, I cringe. But I know you can be sentimental, so…”

Her breath hitched. “When did you buy that ring, Cole?”

He swallowed. “Ten years ago.”

She started breathing heavily. “Oh my God.” Her hands shook around his as she squeezed his