A SEAL's Christmas Surprise: SEAL Team Alpha, #5

By Jennifer Lowery

Navy SEAL, Michael Kreegan, gets the surprise of his life when he runs into an old friend on his way to dinner. He never expected to see his childhood flame, Lizzie Lawson, in California. She was a Michigan girl at heart and a green Christmas would never do. Yet, here she was. And with a Christmas present that none of his training could prepare him for. Will Lizzie bring Christmas to this hardened SEAL or will she return home with a broken heart?

 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jennifer Lowery
• Release date: Dec 4, 2018
• ISBN: 9798215867419

Book preview

Chapter 1

Michael Kreegan stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, staring into the paned store-front windows of a candy shop. Fake snow had been sprayed in the corners of each pane to give the illusion of frost since it didn’t get very cold in California. Not even in December. Colorful Christmas lights lined the windows on each side of the door. The display in front of him sported a miniature Christmas tree and shiny wrapped packages with bright bows. Red and silver balls hung from ribbons at different lengths from the top of the windows.

But it was the silver wrapped box of chocolates with a hand-crafted tag that read ‘Lizzie’s Sweet Shop’ that had his heart pounding like a jackhammer.

No way. It couldn’t be.

Hey, Mikey, you coming?

The sound of his SEAL buddies voice brought him out of his stupor. Jace waited with brows raised on the curb with Brogan.

Hold on. He pushed through the door of the shop, tiny silver bells chiming as he walked inside. Immediately the scent of chocolate enclosed him. Familiar in so many ways his steps faltered.

People milled around the shop, almost filling the small space. Everywhere he looked he saw Christmas. Shiny wrapped boxes of handmade chocolates, a real pine tree in the corner decorated to the hilt with presents underneath.

A musical laugh drew his attention to the counter. He knew that laugh. Spent his entire childhood listening to it. Wishing he could be so open and free. That laugh had gotten him into trouble more times than he could count. With parents, teachers, neighbors, the law. It had driven him into the military to avoid prison.

Drawn to the sound, Mike wove his way through the crowd to the glass display case at the back of the store. Chest high and filled with chocolates that he knew were handmade with the Lawson ladies’ secret ingredient. He’d pried relentlessly trying to get Lizzie to share the secret only the women in the Lawson family knew, but the secret was locked up tight. For women only. Damned if it still drove him nuts wondering what made their candies so incredible.

He approached the counter and saw a brunette with a dazzling smile handing a customer a shiny red bag. The shock of seeing her for the second time in eight months about brought him to his knees. Not because she hadn’t said anything about opening a shop here, but because she was the most incredible woman he’d ever known. She’d haunted his dreams for years. At first, a forbidden fruit. And now, fruit he would die to taste again.

Last he knew she would be taking over Lizzie’s Sweet Shop in Michigan, in their home town. Then again, they hadn’t talked much during her three-day visit.

Images of Lizzie, head thrown back, lips parted as he slid inside her filled his head. Pushing those thoughts away, he stepped up to the counter.

Happy Holidays. Welcome to Lizzie’s Sweet Shop. What can I— She stopped midsentence when she saw him. Her pretty light green eyes widened. Michael.

Hi Lizzie.

Looking flustered, she tucked a piece of dark hair behind her ear. Can I get you something?

Really? They’d spent three hot and heavy days in bed last April and she thought he wanted to make a purchase?

Is there somewhere we can talk?

I’m really busy with the grand opening and holiday shoppers.

Mike frowned. She’d been happy to see him during her last visit. Hell, she couldn’t keep her hands off him. Blame it on not satiating their attraction as teens or the fact she was the most beautiful, spirited woman he’d ever laid eyes on, but either way they’d connected on a whole new level. Now, she didn’t seem to want to see him.

Unwilling to be dismissed so easily, he asked, What time do you close?

Something flashed in her eyes. Unease? What the hell? They’d known each other since they were kids. And now, intimately.

After a moment, she answered. Come by the shop at nine-thirty.

I’ll be here.

She forced a smile, not at all like the carefree woman he’d watched just a moment ago, and turned her attention to the gentleman waiting to be served.

Baffled, he left the store.

Where’s the chocolate? Jace asked once he caught up with them.

What? Mike asked, distracted by Lizzie’s attitude.

You went into a candy story, man. Where’s the chocolate?

Preoccupied, he said, No candy. Let’s go. Donovan won’t hold our table all night. He strode ahead of them and turned the corner toward Demarco’s Italian Restaurant and Café. Although he’d lost his appetite after the uncomfortable exchange with Lizzie he wouldn’t back out of dinner plans with the guys. It wasn’t often the team got together as civilians.

He managed to skate through dinner and conversation without anyone realizing his thoughts were on a certain brunette that had turned his life upside down so many times he didn’t know which way was up. Although Brogan, stoic and silent as always, had his eyes narrowed on him most of the night. In Brogan-speak that meant he was contemplating something. Right now that something happened to be him.

Mike took a long swig of his beer, relieved when Donovan’s youngest sister, Angela, brought