Night Watch. Suzanne Brockmann

Wes told her, reaching across the table to take her hand. “Your ex.”

      The smile she gave him was stunning as she squeezed his fingers. “Thank you. I’ve always thought so, too.”

      Brittany took a sip of her coffee. “Melody told me you had leave for a week—”

      “Two,” Wes interjected.

      “And that you were spending that time here in L.A. as a favor to a friend?”

      “Yeah.” Wes Skelly had a nervous tell. Even sitting at the table, he was constantly in motion, kind of like a living pinball. He was always fiddling with something on the table. His spoon. The saltshaker. The tablecloth. His soda straw. But when he got nervous—at least Britt thought it was nerves he was feeling—he stopped. Stopped moving. Stopped fiddling. He got very, very still.

      He was doing it right now, but as he started to talk, he started stirring the ice in his soda. “I’m actually here as a favor to the wife of a good friend. Wizard.” He glanced up at her, and she knew it was an act. He was working overtime to pretend to be casual.

      “I don’t know if your sister ever talked about him,” he continued. “She may not know him. I don’t know. He’s with SEAL Team Six, and he’s always out of the country, so…Very hard to find. So he’s gone again, and his wife, Lana, she’s, you know, very nice, very…We’ve been friends for years, too, and…Well, she was worried about her sister. Half sister, actually. Her father’s second marriage, and…Anyway, Lana’s half sister is Amber Tierney and—”

      “Whoa.” Britt held up her hand. “Wait a sec. Information overload. Your friend Wizard’s wife Lana’s—” Lana, who was very nice, “—half sister is Amber Tierney from High Tide?”

      “Yeah.”

      “Holy moly.” With her heavy schedule at school and exhausting rotations in the hospital, Brittany didn’t have time to keep up with the various TV and movie stars who made headlines in L.A. But Amber Tierney had been impossible to miss. She’d been TV’s current It Girl ever since her sitcom, High Tide, had first aired last September. “Her sister’s worried…that she’s making too much money…? That Tom Cruise wants to date her…? That—”

      “She’s being stalked,” Wes finished for her.

      Britt cringed. “Sorry. That is a problem. I shouldn’t have tried to make it into a joke.”

      “I’m not sure how real the threat is,” Wes told her. “Lana says Amber’s shrugging it off, says the guy’s harmless, he wouldn’t really hurt her. But see, Lana’s a shrink, and some of this guy’s patterns of behavior are freaking her out. It’s a little too obsessive for her comfort level. So she called me, and…Well, here I am.”

      Lana, who was, you know, very nice calls and Wes jumps all the way to L.A.? Oh, Wes, please don’t be having an affair with the wife of a friend. That was just too snarky and sleazy and downright unforgivable. You’re a far better man than that.

      Brittany chose her words carefully. “I know Navy SEALs are very good at what they do, but…isn’t this a job for the L.A.P.D.?”

      Wes finished his cheesecake, and he wiped his mouth on his napkin before answering. “Amber doesn’t want to involve the police. It would be instantly all over the news—especially the tabloids. Like I said, she thinks this guy’s harmless. So Lana asked me to come to L.A. and quietly check out Amber’s security system, make sure it’s good enough, make sure she’s really safe.”

      “And the reason that what’s-his-name—Wizard—can’t do this is…?”

      “He’s out of the country. He’s been gone for—I don’t know—ten of the past twelve months.”

      “So Lana called you.”

      “Yeah.” He wouldn’t meet her eyes.

      “You must be really good friends,” Britt said. “I know you don’t get a lot of vacation time, and to spend some of it here, doing this kind of favor…”

      “Yeah, well…” Again, no eye contact.

      “Although, of course, Amber Tierney…Sheesh. She’s gorgeous. And currently single, according to the National Star. If you play your cards right…”

      Wes laughed. “Yeah, right. No, thank you. That’s the dead last thing I need. And Amber—I’m sure she doesn’t need another idiot drooling over her.”

      “You don’t think your friend Lana sent you here to set you up with her little sister?”

      He looked up at her then, seriously taken aback. “God, what a thought.”

      “Sisters do those kinds of things,” Britt said. “They know a single guy who’s really nice, they really like him a lot, they have a sister who’s single, too…”

      He was shaking his head. “I don’t know…”

      Are you sleeping with her? Brittany didn’t ask. That was definitely a question that required a friendship that was more than a few hours old. And even if she had known Wes for years, it was none of her business. She kept her mouth tightly shut.

      Although, what better way to spend a few weeks with a lover? Husband is conveniently out of town ten out of twelve months a year, but the neighbors might notice if one of his best friends starts coming over for slumber parties. Little sister needs a brave Navy SEAL to check out her security system, so Wes toddles off to L.A. Whoops, there’s some kind of a problem, Lana comes to town to “help…” And gee, there they are. Wes and Lana in L.A., away from everyone who knows that she’s married to someone else, for two blissful weeks.

      Ick. Britt hoped she was wrong.

      The waiter brought the check, saving her from asking nosy questions.

      As Wes looked it over, he took out his wallet.

      Brittany opened her purse, too. “Let’s just split it right down the middle.”

      “Nope,” he said, taking out a credit card, sliding it into the leather folder that held the bill and holding it up so the waiter could grab it on his way past. “This one’s mine.”

      “Nuh-uh,” she disagreed. “This wasn’t a date.”

      “Yes, it was,” he countered. “And actually, I think it was the nicest date I’ve ever been on.”

      What a sweet thing to say. “Wow, you don’t get out much, huh?”

      He laughed.

      “Seriously, Wes,” she said. “It’s not fair that you should have to pay for my dinner just because my brother-in-law—”

      “How about I let you pick up the tab next time?”

      The waiter was back. “I’m sorry, sir. Your credit card’s expired. Would you like to use a different card?”

      Wes swore as he looked at the credit card. “I only have this one.” Brittany opened her mouth, but he cut her off. “No, you’re not going to pay. I have cash.” He looked at the waiter. “You do take cash?”

      “Yes, sir.”

      He opened his wallet and just about emptied it. “Keep the change.”

      “Thank you, sir.” The waiter vanished.

      “Well, that was embarrassing.” He looked at the credit card again. “I thought they were supposed to send me a new card before the expiration date runs out.”

      “What do you do with junk mail?” Britt asked.

      He looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “I throw it away. What do you do with it?”

      “Do you throw it away without opening it? Mailings from mortgage companies and insurance companies and…” She paused dramatically. “…credit card