Embattled SEAL by J. M. Madden Page A

she wouldn’t let him drill holes in the walls. It’s a damn rental house, for shit’s sake , she’d told him.
    Suddenly the anger just drained out of her. If they were going to put this marriage back together they needed to let all this little stuff go. Harper was fine—that was the main thing. “If you go out again, at least tell me. That way I’m not looking for you in places you aren’t. Okay?”
    Harper nodded and seemed a little surprised she was letting it go. “I will. I promise. And I didn’t do it to piss you off. I just…” his voice trailed away. He looked out over the ridge as if he could see insurgents sweeping over it, then back to her. “I need to know we are secure.”
    She nodded and walked forward to hook her elbow through his arm. “Okay, Harper. So what did you find?”

Chapter Eight

    H e started walking again, navigating around larger rocks. They walked down a short slope then had to go single file. Cat couldn’t tell what he was following, but she made sure to step where he did. They walked like that, kind of sideways on the hill, for about ten minutes before he finally slowed. There were bigger rocks here, reddish, that they had to weave around. Suddenly he paused and stepped to the side so she could see around him.
    Cat gasped and walked forward, fascinated. The little spring seeping up from the rocky ground was an oasis. It was no bigger than a puddle really, but grass and bushes had crowded around it. “How on earth did you find this?” she whispered.
    Harper grinned at her. “I followed the trail we were just on and it led me here.”
    She frowned at him, not understanding. “What trail? I thought we were just walking.”
    He shook his head, then suddenly reached out for a rock to steady himself. But he didn’t go down this time. After a few deep breaths he blinked at her. “We’ve been following small animal trails for the past fifteen minutes. I noticed them when I was scouting the area the other night. There were so many heading in this direction I knew there had to be something close.”
    Cat shook her head, amazed and exasperated. There had been no trail that she’d seen, just rocky, sandy ground. She snorted. Leave it to the SEAL to find the only movement in the area. And the only water.
    Circling the spring she tried to see the trails. There were a few faint lines through the underbrush, but that was it. She never would have seen them if he hadn’t pointed them out.
    Harper knelt down, swirling his fingers through the clear water. Cupping his hand, he raised a handful to his mouth and swallowed. Then, groaning, he drank more.
    Frowning, she shook her head. “Aren’t you worried about getting a nasty belly bug from that?”
    Laughing, he looked up at her, water dripping off his chin. “If you had ever seen some of the places we’ve drunk from before, you wouldn’t worry about this little spring.”
    Though his words didn’t relax her completely they did take some starch out of her spine. The chances of getting something nasty were probably infinitesimal, but that didn’t mean she was going to do that.
    Cat took a swig of water from her bottle, then found a patch of dirt to sit on that wasn’t too rocky. Harper finished drinking and swiped some water up over his head. It wasn’t particularly hot, but he was sweating a bit. He plopped down beside her in the dirt.
    “Thanks for not freaking out too bad.”
    Cat sighed, knowing she’d always been a little tight around him. “I never meant to make you feel defensive about what you did. I’ve just always been used to being the one in charge. The kids listen to me.”
    “I’m not the kids.”
    She snorted. “I know that. But it’s a control thing. When you weren’t there I kept control. Sometimes even when you were there I kept control.”
    Harper picked up a rock, turning it in his hand. “When I came back a lot of the time I didn’t want anything to do with being in charge. I’d been in charge of a lot