Loved by a SEAL by Cat Johnson Read Free Book Online

don’t make the rules, Grandmother. I just follow them.”
    “Well, at least you’re here now. How long are you staying?”
    He braced himself for her reaction. Whatever he said, it wouldn’t be long enough in her opinion. The truth was, he’d been lucky to get as much time off as he had. Even so, command could recall him at any moment.
    “If I don’t get called back in before, I won’t have to leave until Sunday afternoon.”
    “Good. You’ll attend church with me Sunday morning. If I’m allowed to go, that is.” She shot Ashley another accusatory look. “Ashley, have you offered Brody some sweet tea?”
    “No, ma’am. Not yet.” Ashley turned to him. “Can I get you something to drink?”
    Nurses must be trained to deal with difficult patients, because Ashley didn’t even flinch at his grandmother treating her like she was a servant rather than a highly skilled health care professional.
    “Sure. I’ll come and help you.” Brody stood.
    He wasn’t about to let his ex-girlfriend wait on him in his own home. Besides all the personal stuff, she was a nurse, not a waitress, and he was able to get a drink for himself just fine.
    “The girl is perfectly capable of handling two glasses of tea, Brody.”
    “I’m sure she is, but you raised me to be a gentleman and I’d like to help.” He led the way into the hallway before his grandmother could make more of a fuss.
    It wasn’t until they were in the kitchen that Ashley spoke. “Miss Eleanor was right, you know. You didn’t have to help. I could have handled two glasses of tea.”
    “Well, it goes without saying that Miss Eleanor is always right. And it’s three glasses because you’re going to sit with us. You’re not the housekeeper.”
    “You mean like my grandmother was? No, I’m not.” It was clear from her tone she was insulted.
    Brody leveled his gaze at her. “That’s not what I meant and you know it.”
    After a pause, she drew in a breath. “I know. You just have to realize, I’ve changed, the whole world’s changed, but to Miss Eleanor, as far as social niceties go. . .”
    “It might as well still be fifty years ago.” He finished her sentence for her.
    “Exactly.”
    He watched as she moved to the cabinet and took down two glasses. He took a step forward and reached for a third glass, placing it pointedly on the counter next to the other two. “Did she always treat you and Nana like you were—”
    “The help?” She glanced over her shoulder at him as she reached for the pitcher of tea on the counter. “That’s exactly what we were.”
    As a kid, he had been too wrapped up in his own life, and later when he was a teenager, in trying to find more ways to spend time alone with Ashley, to have noticed.
    It wasn’t until now he realized the full impact of what she’d probably felt all those years ago. That his grandmother had been raised in an age when, in her mind, he and Ashley shouldn’t be together.
    Being employed by his family didn’t make Nana, and shouldn’t make Ashley, second-class citizens. As if they were lesser, but it probably had and he just didn’t notice.
    Nana was simply the woman who had raised him.
    Now, he had to wonder at Ashley’s motivation for everything. Her insistence no one ever know they were secretly dating. Even her breaking up with him took on a whole new light.
    All these years he’d assumed her decision had come from a place of selfishness. Had she been worried about being accepted by his family because of her family’s position in their lives?
    In the absence of the anger and resentment he hadn’t realized he’d been holding on to, some empathy had room to begin to creep in. He reached out and brushed a hand across her cheek.
    When that one move startled her and had her drawing back he realized how distant the time was when she’d wanted him to—had expected him to touch her.
    He pulled his hand away. “I’m sorry you have to deal with all this.”
      “Brody, it’s my job