The Navy SEAL's Bride Read Online Free PDF

liking him in that way. And if he’d been interested in her, surely he’d have made a move by now? Guys like Tom were used to playing the game, knew how to attract a girl and how to reel her in.
    Which was another reason she wasn’t interested in him.
    “I’ve got to get back to class,” Caitlin said, raising her fingers in a wave and scurrying toward the door. “And nothing happened, okay? I mean, jeez, I only just met the man. I was hardly going to jump him in the hall!”
    “Admit it, Miss Rose,” Lucy called out, voice all prim and proper. “There’s nothing about him not to like and you know it.”
    She ignored Lucy and kept on walking. That part her friend was wrong about. Caitlin had perfectly good reasons for not being interested in Tom, for wanting to keep her distance from him, she just had no intention of sharing them. Of delving into the past and letting those feelings resurface.
    Not now.
    Besides, she was happy. Liked her life the way it was. If a man came along to tempt her, he’d have to be perfect husband material. And Tom Cartwright sure as heck didn’t fit the bill.
    “Miss Rose, Miss Rose!”
    She looked up to find a little girl from her class jumping up and down in the hallway. “Honey, what’s wrong?” Caitlin bent to talk to her, preferring to be on the same level as the children.
    “Sarah fell over in the playground and hurt her knee. She’s crying.”
    Caitlin took the girl’s hand and let herself be led outside. “You did the right thing, sweetheart, let’s go find her.”
    * * *
    Tom found it hard to indulge in the simpleness of guzzling water on a hot day. He’d spent so long rationing every sip, being so careful to preserve what he’d come to think of as his lifeline. Yet here he was, back on American soil, gulping water as though he had an endless supply of it.
    He stopped and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.
    It suddenly hit him as if he’d been slammed into a wall—a solid, massive brick wall.
    He was back for good. There were no more rations, no more missions. Nada . He was back now and he had to lump it or leave it. Or however the hell that saying went.
    “Sir?”
    Tom turned, bottle almost squashed in his hand, the plastic pressed tight between his fingers. He paused, wanting to calm down before he risked snapping unnecessarily at his pupil. Just because he hadn’t been able to sleep last night didn’t mean he could take it out on anyone else.
    “Yes?” He fought not to glare. The poor kid was suffering enough through his training without him being an ass, as well.
    “Sir, I saw your name on the board and the guys wanted me to ask if it was you.”
    Tom nodded, a tick starting to pulse at this temple. He could feel it, like a pressure point, thumping away. “Yes, that’s me.”
    He’d taken the top honors in the water for his year. Had been in the top five percent consistently, one of the strongest of the bunch in all their training. Tom raised a hand to his ear as he so often did these days, rubbing, worrying it. Self-conscious of his hearing, he angled his body further to make sure he could hear the young man without having to ask him to repeat himself.
    If he hadn’t been so close to the explosion, hadn’t suffered such damage to his eardrum he’d still be in the water instead of being on the sidelines with nothing to do other than coach others, encouraging them to do the same.
    “You sure set the bar high, sir.”
    Tom smiled as the young man walked back off to his buddies. A giant’s fist clenched around his throat, squeezing the lifeblood from him as he watched the group of men bond, knowing how close they’d become, those that made it.
    It was something he’d miss for the rest of his life, but he was going to have to get used to it.
    Because the doctor had been pretty clear about his prognosis. He could still go permanently deaf in one ear, and he’d never be able to get in the water again. Or at least not in the way he had to be