Enlisting Her Heart by Willow Brooke

and doing it...”
    “So, we do what’s right together. Let’s go start our groveling now. Tonight, we show her how well our team skills are.” Kodiak grinned.
    Hulk hated hearing it, but he was right. It was stupid to make a complicated situation when there was a simple solution to their problem. The more he thought about it, the more clarity he saw. Damn she had been so responsive to them during their dance. As much as he hated to admit it, it turned him on to watch Kodiak touch her. “Let’s do it. But one thing we need to clear up if I’m gonna commit to something like this. I’ve never got the details on Rock and Maverick’s arrangement and don’t really want to know the logistics of it, but keep your junk to yourself, get my drift?” Hulk pointed, his nose wrinkling up.
    Kodiak laughed. “Agreed. You’re not my type.” He snickered, “Come on, let’s go wake sleeping beauty. You get breakfast, I’ll go hunt down some Tylenol and Gatorade. Meet you there in ten?”
    “On it.” Hulk all but ran out the door excited. For the first time, he didn’t have anything holding him back. With a new bounce in his step and a brighter future just over the horizon, Hulk couldn’t help but smile.

    Ten minutes later, he walked up to Violet’s room toting breakfast to find Kodiak sitting outside. “Chow time. I got a little bit of everything just to be safe. Let’s go eat.” He pushed open the door and set the food on the table, looking around. “Violet?” He listened for the shower, assuming she’d gotten a late start after the night of drinking but the bathroom door was open. He walked through the room only to find her not there. “Hey, where’d she take off to?” He noticed Kodiak’s drawn expression and concern arose. “What happened?”
    “She went home,” Kodiak sighed.
    Hulk looked through the door again, still not registering what he meant. “What do you mean she went home? She’s not here.”
    “Not here home, home-home. Left on a plane first thing this morning.”
    Hulk sat down beside him, not believing his ears. “Why?”
    “Because of us. Mrs. Sanders read me the riot act when I went to get the pain relievers. Said Violet wanted to go home and forget this trip ever happened.” Kodiak stood, walking inside. He mindlessly began to shovel food in his face, not tasting anything but cardboard.
    “Here.” He tossed a plastic fork at Kodiak, motioning for him to sit. The two sat silent, mindlessly eating in silence. It wasn’t until most of the food had been picked through that the silence broke.
    “We need to strategize.” Kodiak rested his elbows on the table, his expression somber.
    “I don’t even know where to start. Hell, Violet’s the first woman I’ve been serious about.”
    “Humph. Yeah, me too.” Kodiak thought about it all for a minute, his eyes widening with an idea. “So we treat it like a mission. Divide troops and conquer. If we take her from both sides, there’s nowhere for her to run.”
    Hulk nodded. “I like it. So what’s the plan?”
    “Come on, let’s get out of here before housekeeping shows up.” Over the next two hours, the two men discussed how to take their target from both sides in an ambush while sitting in the warm sun. With their disposition taking on more of a positive light, some of the others had come out to join them. Bella took it upon herself to get drinks and snacks for everyone, setting bowls of chips and dip in the middle of the table and two pitchers of frozen lemonade.
    “Brain food. Nothing beats the salsa here. Fill up on lemonade though, that stuff is hot.” She smiled, handing glasses out as people arrived. Vince seated himself next to Hulk, eyeing the two with a smirk.
    “Please tell me you two have a plan other than sitting and feeling sorry for yourself,” Vince asked with one hand planted on his hip, his finger wagging at them.
    Hulk and Kodiak chuckled. “Yeah we do. We’re leaving this afternoon so we can grovel in