Page 27 of Building Courage
He was surprised to see the entire platoon congregated in the classroom. Usually, it was one team or the other. Something big had come down.
Denotti glanced up from texting on his phone as he slipped into a seat next to him.
“How are the scuba lessons going this week?” the big man asked.
Brynn seemed to be taking to scuba like a duck to water. “She’s a natural. She swims like a fish, surfs, and kayaks.”
“Cool.”
“She videoed the trip to the dive shop and some of my instructions the first week. This week, we did a short dive at La Jolla Cove, and she took some underwater photos with her camera. The next dive, she’ll use the rig she’ll have to wear when she does the shoot in Australia.”
“Videoed?”
“Yeah. She has a podcast.”
Denotti opened the phone again. “What’s it called?”
“Being Human.”
He surfed the net, and the minute he came across Brynn’s site, his brows shot up, and he grinned. “Whoa, Brother! If you’re not going to tap that, I want her number.”
Tucker resisted the urge to punch him and crossed his arms instead. If he put up a fuss, Knotty would be relentless in his pursuit. The guy had an unwavering sense of competition—unless he waved him off. A brother didn’t trespass on another’s girl. But he couldn’t resist yanking Denotti’s chain.
“Not giving it to you, Denotti.”
Denotti challenged. “Why not?”
“Trust me, I’m doing you a favor. She’d eat you for breakfast.”
“She’s a ball-buster?”
“Yeah. And worse. The only thing she’s interested in is her career. Her camera goes everywhere with her. I bet she sleeps with it. If she doesn’t have it, she’s got her phone. She’s laser-focused.”
Denotti’s attention returned to her website photo. “She could laser-focus on me any time. And I don’t mind a little camera action, in bed or out.”
Tucker laughed. “She isn’t learning to scuba for pleasure, Knotty. She’s training to take pictures of the Great Barrier Reef and the aquatic life in Australia for the magazine she works for.”
Denotti scrolled through the photos on the site. “I don’t know jack shit about photography, but even I can see she’s good. Actually, better than good, exceptional.”
“Yeah. Photography seems to be her calling.”
“Everybody’s got to have one,” Denotti said with a shrug. “Like us.”
He was right.
“So, how far did you get with her?”
Tucker finally broke and laughed. “We had dinner together the first night after the scuba lesson. She had a shoot she had to get to after this week’s dive, so I’m going to ask her over for dinner and a movie tonight.”
“Asshole.” Denotti punched his arm. “She’s beautiful.”
“Yeah, she is. And I don’t know if she sleeps with her camera or not, but I’ll let you know.”
Denotti laughed. “Hold the pictures of yourself. I’ve already seen it all, and I’m not interested.”
He couldn’t see that happening too quickly. Brynn seemed to see-saw between friendliness and being wary. She was interested. He read it in her body language, but… The way she’d reacted to the unexpected meeting in the park…. He had no social media pages and couldn’t connect with her there, but she wouldn’t share personal info on those outlets anyway. He’d resisted the urge to go online and Google her name. He’d rather earn her trust so she could come out and tell him straight up what had triggered her anxiety the day they’d met and what had inspired her podcast.
Lieutenants Sam Harding and Clayton Cramer strode into the room, distracting him from his thoughts. The rumble of male voices fell silent.