Surrender: A Little Harmless Military Romance Read Online Free

cancer.”
    Addy stopped in gathering up the equipment. “Oh, I didn’t know that. Well, that makes sense. Still, there was nothing wrong with my green hair. And, to be nice, I dyed it purple to match her bridesmaid dresses.”
    Amanda chuckled. “She did thank you.”
    “Not our worse, huh? I think our worst would be that Denise Charles. It was hard not to run down the aisle and rescue the groom.”
    “They just got divorced.”
    She smiled. “Oh, see, I could have saved him a lot of money.”
    They finished packing away their supplies and headed out to the van. “What do you have on tap tonight? Why don’t we go clubbing?”
    “Addy, I don’t know how you do it. All day at work and out at night. And worse, I’m five years younger than you.”
    “So that’s a no, right?” she asked. “You have no social life.”
    They were walking up the path to the church. “I have a social life.”
    “You can’t count these functions as a social life, even if you go to the reception afterward. Are we going to this one?”
    She hadn’t thought about it. They’d made the arrangements and they usually went and checked, but they had worked with the reception hall before, and it wasn’t part of the contract. Amanda had thought a hot soak in the tub sounded heavenly, but now going back to her little apartment didn’t hold the same appeal.
    “I heard they were going to have shrimp.”
    Addy glanced at her. Four inches taller than Amanda, her best friend could eat just about anything. It was disgusting, and if she didn’t love her like the sister she never had, she would hate her.
    “You don’t say.”
    Amanda shrugged. “Yeah.”
    “Is there some reason you don't want to go home?"
    Addy was a little too smart for her own good. From the moment they met in a survivor's support group, they had hit it off. Addison's older brother had been killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq, and Amanda had been dealing with the repercussions of the death of her husband and the lies he left behind.
    "Nope. I just think a nice big meal, then a relaxing night in is just what I need."
    "You did that last night. I know you went to bed before ten."
    Of course she had. She hadn't had much sleep because images of Mal looking at her with heat in his eyes had kept her awake all night. She had never seen that look on his face before and it made her...burn.
    "Ohhhh, what's his name?"
    She glanced at Addy and saw the interested look in her eyes. Dammit. "What do you mean by that?"
    "You got a dreamy look on your face, and I have never seen that look on your face. Well, except when you talked about going to the Netherlands for the tulip shows. Did you hook up? Come on, tell me."
    She sighed. "I did not hook up and there was no dreamy look on my face. Mal was over last night for dinner."
    "Dupree? You had him over for dinner? And you didn't invite me?"
    She chuckled. "It was by accident. We bumped into each other at Wegmans."
    Addy let out a little sigh of pleasure. "Wegmans. Wait, let me think about that place for a sec." She stopped walking, closed her eyes and hummed. "I love that place."
    "Yes, I know you have an abnormal attachment to Wegmans."
    "There is nothing abnormal about it. So you bumped into him, and then how did he end up sponging a meal off you?"
    "I invited him."
    There was a beat of silence. "You invited him over on a Friday night?"
    "Yeah. You should have seen what he was eating. Some kind of wings or something, it was disgusting. And I was in the mood for scallops--"
    "You made your pan seared scallops and didn't invite me?" Addy asked, pouting again. “I can’t believe you did that.”
    "You had a date last night."
    "Oh yeah, he was boring. And definitely not a Seal I have a crush on."
    "You have a crush on Mal?"
    She rolled her eyes. "No, you do, Amanda."
    She sat down in one of the chairs lining the hallway in the back of the church. Since there was a row of windows and a door that separated them from the wedding guests, she felt