Breaking Boundaries (SEAL Team Heartbreakers Book 5) Read online

  “Already? You’ve only been out there a couple of weeks.”

  “And I’ve been ignoring my social life for the last six months so I could finish school and my internship. It’s time I got back out into the world.”

  “You’re not jumping into something too quickly are you?”

  “No, it’s been six months.”

  “Good, because there’s someone here who wants to speak to you. Please don’t hang up.”

  “Kathleen.”

  At the sound of Lee’s voice every muscle in her body went taut.

  “I made a big mistake, Kathleen.”

  Rage shot heat into her face, and for a moment she went deaf as her heart beat like a drum in her ears, drowning out everything he was saying. When the hammering in head cleared, he ran on. “Tamara and I both know we made a mistake.”

  “She’s found out about your serial dating, hasn’t she? I knew you’d screw her over just like you did me. I even told her, but she wouldn’t listen.”

  “I know what I did was reprehensible.”

  “You don’t understand the half of it, Lee. And you never will, because you’re incapable of basic human decency. Put my Mom back on the phone.”

  “Kathleen… please listen to me. I still love you.”

  “Put my mom back on the fucking phone!”

  “Not until you listen to what I have to say.”

  Kathleen hit the off button. “I need you to pull over, Cal.” The movement of his truck was making her more nauseous than the sound of Lee’s voice.

  Cal whipped the truck into a parking lot in front of an insurance agency.

  When the phone rang again she blocked the call. Her hands shook as she dialed her father’s number.

  “Kathleen, how are you, honey?”

  “I’m fine. Are you at the house, Dad?”

  “Yeah. I’m in my workshop repairing a lamp. What’s up?”

  “I need you to go into the house and give Mom your cell phone.”

  “She has hers. Has she turned it off? Is something wrong?”

  His concern had quick tears burning her eyes. “I’ve blocked her number because Lee is at the house, and he’s used her phone to call me. I need to speak to her.”

  For several seconds total silence filled the distance between them. “All right.” She could hear him moving, a door opened and closed, then another. His breathing quickened while he presumably rushed to the house. “She loves you, Kathleen. She just wants you to be happy. Don’t say something you’ll regret later.”

  “I don’t intend to. I know firsthand what a lying, conniving con man he is, and how he can look you right in the eye without the slightest tell and talk his way around every lie. She wants to believe in the goodness of people, so she’s an easy mark. But she needs to hear the truth, and I’m going to give it to her.”

  “You’re going to have to explain all that to me later, Kathleen. Olivia, it’s our daughter.”

  “Kathleen?” The tentative anxiety in her mother’s voice angered her all the more. She gripped the oh-shit handle over the door to keep from punching something.

  “I want you to listen, Mom. Lee is using you. He used me for three years, he’s used Tamara for six months, and now he’s using you. Do you think Tamara was the only one he cheated with while we were together, Mom? There were more. Many more. At least eight women came out of the woodwork after we broke up to let me know he’d gone out with them, and he’d slept with at least four of them, maybe more.

  “While I was in class, he was getting busy. While I was planning a wedding, he was screwing my best friend in my bed. It wasn’t just a breakup, it was a divorce, and he took everything. Everything but my self-respect, and I’m not letting him have that.”

  She drew a deep breath. “I know you think you know what’s best for my happiness, but you don’t. I’m making my own happiness, and it won’t be tied to a lying, cheating, scumbag like him.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me all this before, Kathleen? Not just about Tamara?”

  “Because it was my business, not yours. I’m a grown woman, not a two-year-old. And I wasn’t going to let him make me feel anymore a fool than I already did. And I didn’t want you to be disappointed in me, in my judgment.”

  For several beats the only thing she heard on the line was breathing. “I could never be disappointed in you, Kathleen. I love you. I need to go.” Her mother’s voice shook. “If I had known any of this…Please unblock my number so I can call you in a few days.”

  “Don’t ever let him back in the house, Mom.”

  “I won’t.” Her mom sounded entirely too calm. Spooky calm. “I love you.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “Yes, I’m fine. Your father is here, and Lee will be leaving in just a few minutes. We’ll speak again later.”

  Alarm jangled every nerve. That deadpan voice sounded a lot like Zach’s when he was at his most intense. “Mom?”

  Silence met her inquiry. Kathleen looked at the screen. Her mother had ended the call. She found her mother’s number and unblocked it. She felt as if she’d just dumped a ten-ton weight off her shoulders. She tilted her head back and rolled it to loosen her taut neck muscles. She set aside the phone, and for the first time since her mother’s call, looked at Cal.

  He scanned her face, then raised his brows. “Do you need me to take you home?”

  God, he was gorgeous. And what made him even more attractive was his genuine look of concern.

  “No. I’m good.” She studied him and her heart sank. She groaned and covered her face with her hands for a moment. “Has hearing all that changed your mind about us going out?”

  “No. It hasn’t changed my mind.”

  She might as well start everything with a clean slate, since he knew everything else about this particular disgusting and painful situation. “There’s one more thing I want to tell you that I didn’t mention to her.”

  “What is it?”

  “After I found out about…everything…and we split, I had myself tested for sexually transmitted diseases. They did follow-up tests some months later to make certain, and I’m clear.” She couldn’t bring herself to look at him. “I think that was the worst humiliation, and the most painful. I’d saved myself for the one man I wanted to spend my life with, and he put me at risk without a second’s thought. I dodged more than one bullet by ending things with him.”

  Cal Leaned across the console, cupped her cheek with his hand, and turned her face to him. He brushed her lips with a soft kiss. “You won’t have to dodge any bullets with me, Kathleen. That’s a promise.”

  A gorgeous guy like him? Despite his leg, he probably had women begging to go to bed with him.

  What if she just let everything go and believed him? How hard would that be?

  Hard. But she really wanted to.

  Chapter 10

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  Cal watched the cursor skip from one thing to another while Kathleen sat at the kitchen table building the clips of taped activity into a consolidated whole. She was a whiz at the program she was using to splice them together. “I’m going to add the part I taped yesterday while you changed my tires,” Kathleen said, reaching for her phone. Her fingers flew across the keyboard as she emailed the clip to her computer.

  The savory aroma of simmering pot roast filled the room and Cal’s stomach growled. “I don’t have a shirt on.”

  “So? You look hot without your shirt.”

  “Yeah, I was. I was sweating.” He glanced at Zach, who was sitting on the couch, and caught the momentary flash of his teeth as he grinned.

  “That wasn’t the kind of hot I meant.”

  “Stop trying to rattle your brother’s chain,” he murmured close to her ear.

  Her green eyes held a gleam of mischief. “But it’s so much fun.”

  He was glad she’d bounced back from yesterday’s upset. She’d been subdued for most of the day after her ex’s phone call and her admission. Coming on top of the quick hit a
t work, then the two flats, he understood why she needed some time to regroup. But he could tell she enjoyed the drive, dinner, and the late movie. Her good night kiss had left him with a sexual buzz that lasted halfway across town.

  They had some powerful chemistry going on. Just being in the room with her was a turn-on.

  A cell phone rang behind them. Zach answered it, “Hey, Dad.”

  Kathleen looked over at Zach.

  “She what? Is she okay?”

  Kathleen twisted in her seat at those two questions in quick succession, worry tweaking her brows. “Zach?”

  “Mom broke her hand, but she’s okay,” he answered and gave a clenched-fist signal to hold up. “How long will she be in a cast?”

  Though Kathleen continued to work on the video, Cal could tell her attention was on the unenlightening conversation going on behind them, which consisted of yeahs and nos.

  As soon as Zach hung up, Kathleen swiveled around to face him. “Is she really okay?”

  “Yeah. They’ve put her in some kind of plastic brace thing she’ll have to wear for a couple of months, but she’s okay.”

  “Well, how did she break it?”

  “She broke your ex-boyfriend’s nose with a sucker punch.”

  Cal’s bark of laughter was spontaneous and uncontrolled. He cut it off at Kathleen’s quick look of worry.

  “Oh my God! Oh my God!” Kathleen covered her mouth with a hand.

  Zach grinned like a Cheshire cat. “I can’t wait to tell the guys.”

  “Is she in trouble?”

  “Dad doesn’t think so, but he had a long talk with their attorney last night. He’ll reach out and offer the boyfriend compensation for the hospital bills. But he’ll also warn him that if he ever wants to date another woman in the Boston area, he’d best not rock the boat. It seems your best friend Tamara—”

  “Ex best friend,” Kathleen corrected him.

  “When she found out he’d cheated on her, she put an ad in the paper, and all of the women he’s slept with in the past three years have banded together to spread the word on social media sites about what a scumbag he is.”

  “So he calls me. That’s just perfect.”

  “Well, he won’t call again,” Zach said, a gleam of satisfaction in his eyes. “He was probably hoping you’d call Tamara off.”

  “Not a chance.” Kathleen went back to the program. “I’m publishing the video to the web, Cal.”

  “Wait a minute. Is that a good thing for it to be out there for anyone to see?” He’d flown under the radar for so long, in so many ways, he wasn’t sure how he’d feel if the video went public.

  “It’s just one of a million unless we draw attention to it. Public opinion might be a good thing to have on your side later.”

  Zach cut in. “Or it could be a double-edged sword. We avoid it like the plague for a reason. People think they have the right to know everything, even if it puts our lives in jeopardy, or their own.”

  “We’re not talking about state secrets here, Zach. It’s Callahan doing his job.”

  It was him lifting things, tightening bolts with a hydraulic wrench, walking steel, and doing manual labor on the site. Nothing unusual for a construction job. What harm could it do, even if someone else saw it besides him and Kathleen?

  Zach quirked a brow at her. “Do you fish, Cal?”

  “Yeah. I haven’t been in a while.” The last time he’d gone with his brother. For a while he and Douglas spent quite a bit of time out on the water every weekend. He’d needed that undemanding time to sort things out mentally, emotionally.

  “Bowie and I are going this coming Sunday. Want to come along?”

  Surprised by the invitation, he studied Zach. “All my gear is in Texas.”

  “Most of the guys leave their gear on board my boat. We’ll find you a pole and I’ll furnish the bait and the beer.”

  If this was some kind of get to know the boyfriend thing… Was he a boyfriend after four dates? With Kathleen’s hand resting on his arm, he felt like one. “Sure. I’d like to come. I’ll bring some food.”

  “Good. Zero six hundred at the Fiddler’s Cove Marina. Just come here and we’ll drive over together.”

  “I’ll be here.”

  “If our schedule changes for some reason, Kathleen will let you know.”

  “Okay. Thanks.”

  Zach flipped off the television. “I’m going to test drive the haircut,” he announced and ran his fingers through the freshly trimmed rust-colored hair that fell over his forehead in waves. Kathleen had done a professional job, leaving it longer on top and shortening the sides and back. “I’ll be back at five for dinner.”

  He kissed Kathleen’s cheek, then sauntered out the door.

  The silence that followed his departure was steeped in intimacy. There was just something wrong about jumping a guy’s sister under his roof. “Want to go for a walk on the beach?” Cal asked.

  Kathleen smiled as though she’d read his mind. “Sure.”

  Cal laced his fingers with hers as they wandered down close to the water. “Did you really want to go fishing with Zach and Bowie?” Kathleen asked.

  Would she have rather he didn’t? “Sure. I haven’t been in a while. Not since I moved here.”

  “Good. I didn’t want you to feel obligated because Zach’s my brother.”

  “And because he probably asked me so he could give me the third degree without you being there to run interference?”

  She grinned. “Probably. I hope you’ll have a good time despite all the BS.”

  “My brother and I used to drive across from Houston to the coast and rent a boat. There’s something calming about being out on the water. Your brother probably needs it as much as I did.” And still do, he realized.

  Kathleen remained silent for a beat or two. “How bad were your injuries besides your leg?”

  “I had a severe concussion and two cracked vertebra in my neck. My jaw was broken in three places, and I lost some teeth. I had shrapnel from the car embedded in my hip and legs. Cuts, bruises, but I was alive.” He swallowed. “The other three men with me were killed almost instantly. The brunt of the explosion went up and over me.”

  Kathleen looped her arm through his and leaned in close. He chewed back a groan at the way her breast brushed his arm. “You’re a walking miracle.”

  “Yeah, I am.” He brushed his fingertips along her arm. Kathleen pulled him to a stop. She slid her arms around his waist and held him tight.

  He shouldn’t have told her. He wanted, needed something normal in his life. Holding her, feeling her body tight against his, he realized he hadn’t had normal since…. since he’d left for Afghanistan.

  He needed a woman’s touch and everything that went with it. Kathleen was the first woman he’d felt an instant connection to since his breakup with Stacy, and he didn’t want it to disintegrate into pity. They fell into a silence while they continued down the beach. In his jeans and T-shirt, he didn’t fit into the carefree Sunday afternoon crowd stretched out on towels and soaking in the sun despite the breeze. How long had it been since he’d felt the ocean breeze on his legs?

  “The tattoo on your chest?” she asked. “They were with you?”

  He nodded. “After they died, I promised myself I was going to live as full a life as I could to honor them. That meant not allowing this thing to hold me back.” He raised his leg, kicking up sand. “I’ve been able to live up to that promise in some ways, not so much others.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I wear steel toe boots with my prosthetic at work so the crew doesn’t see it. In order to be able to do the work, I’ve been hiding that part of myself from the rest of the world. The physical therapist who got me up on this thing and walking was five foot nothing, and her legs were scarred from an accident. She strutted her stuff anyway, wore shorts all the time.” And she’d be the first to kick his ass for being such a coward.

  “Is it Zoe Yazzie? She works at the naval
hospital as a physical therapist.”

  “If it’s the same woman, I knew her as Zoe Weaver. How do you know her?”

  “Her husband, Hawk, is Zach’s commanding officer and team leader. Big guy, tall, with dark hair and piercing gray eyes. I went over to their house for a barbecue when I first got here. The calf muscle of one of her legs is damaged.”

  “That’s her. I didn’t meet her husband; he was deployed.”

  “It’s a small world.”

  “Yeah,” he agreed.

  “Why do you feel like you need to hide anything?” The ocean breeze gusted and blew her hair every which way, so she gripped the heavy fall of hair and secured it with a rubber band.

  He breathed in the sea air and studied the curve of her bottom lip until her lips parted and he dragged his mind back to her question. “If I was doing a desk job, I wouldn’t have to go through any of this.” He ran his hand over his hair, bristling it. “A lot of times, when someone sees you with a prosthetic attached, they automatically view you as…less capable. Even when you prove you can do something, there’s still a lingering doubt in the back of their minds that undermines their confidence in you.”

  If a man’s father couldn’t believe in him—But Tom Hill had given him a shot, and he’d proven himself. “I can’t chance that with the work I do.”

  “But you don’t have to hide anything with me, Cal.”

  Didn’t he?

  She’d told him about the most humiliating things she’d been through in the past six months. Just because the scars didn’t show on the outside didn’t mean they weren’t there. Some of them weren’t healed yet, and might never completely go away.

  But he wasn’t ready yet to match her courage and honesty.

  They returned to the house to tend to the pot roast. Cal leaned back against the counter while she whipped up some corn muffins. She was so easy to be with.

  Too easy. It made him want more too quickly. She wasn’t ready yet. He wasn’t ready.

  “I have to leave after dinner. There are things I have to do for next week.” Fuck! He knew he was running. But he couldn’t help himself.