Risking It All. Stephanie Tyler

a high-ranking Navy officer—she and Stella were on the Little Creek base in Virginia for two days last month in order to get proper footage and the necessary clearances. It had been a good video, highlighted her and Stella’s skills, but wasn’t long enough to be included in their grant proposal. No, that film needed to be bigger.

      “He’d tell you himself, but he’s away,” her aunt continued. “He’s so proud of the work you’ve done.”

      “I don’t know how you do it, Jenny, with Mac away all the time,” she said, thinking she sounded an awful lot like her mother.

      “Practice,” her aunt replied. “It helps that he’s hot, too.” She and Rina both laughed at that. Rina had to agree that Mac was a good-looking guy. But Jenny’s marriage to Mac was a frequent source of tension in the family, even though Mac had tried his best in the beginning to win her mother over, it became painfully apparent that that wasn’t going to happen.

      Of course, Stella found the whole thing completely romantic, and even though Rina would never admit it out loud, she had to agree.

      Eloping in the middle of the night after a first date—well, Jenny told her that even she had to finally admit that what had happened between her and Mac technically wasn’t a date—but she and Mac were still solidly together after eleven years, Mac’s numerous travels with the SEALs and her two miscarriages.

      They were talking about adopting. Jenny planned to try until she was forty—two more years—and then she’d consider the alternatives. And Mac seemed more than willing to do whatever it took to make her happy.

      But Mac had more than one strike against him, at least in Rina’s mother’s eyes. Not only was his Navy SEAL job and lifestyle completely unconventional, he was also fifteen years older than Jenny. They’d also married right after Rina’s Uncle David had been killed, another strike, since her mom blamed the military for what had happened to David in Africa.

      Even though her Uncle was a retired Special Forces Soldier and now worked for JAG, he still did what was considered highly classified and confidential work for the government, which required his schedule to be top secret most of the time.

      “It was great having you here. You’re welcome back any time,” Jenny was saying, but Rina barely heard her. Her mind had already begun a steady turn, and her imagination took off.

      Maybe it wasn’t too late to apply for the grant this year after all…. “I might take you up on that one. Soon,” Rina said, her pulse racing nearly as fast as it had been last night.

      “What do you have in mind?”

      “Could you have Mac call me when he gets back? I’ve got another video idea I think the Navy might like.”

      “Will do,” Jenny promised.

      Rina hung up and dialed Vic’s cell phone number immediately. “I’ve got a pitch for you,” she said, dispensing with the usual hello.

      “You’re supposed to be finishing up the job you’re on now. But I’m listening.”

      “Bigger, Badder, Faster—X-treme jobs,” she said, scribbling notes to herself on a napkin even as she spoke.

      “I like it. Tell me more.”

      “We could do things like roughnecks, race car drivers, stunt men. Navy SEALs,” she continued, encouraged by the way Vic sounded.

      “We’d need some kind of in,” he said.

      “I think I’ve got the in for the SEALs,” she said. “And I want behind the camera on this one.”

      Her mom was always saying how crazy her Uncle Mac was. So really, what could be more extreme, more exciting, than a day in the life of a Navy SEAL?