Chapter 48

Telling Sarah to wear her swimsuit under her clothes, AJ would offer no other information when she wanted to know his plans. He made sure he had the cell phone with him and they left the room together. The basket, blanket, and towels were all waiting for them at the front desk when they went down.

Allowing her to only carry the blanket and towels, AJ hefted the heavy basket in one hand and put his other arm around her waist. Since they were so close to the beach, AJ suggested that they walk and Mac agreed. They walked along the beach, looking for the perfect spot to have their picnic. When they came to a secluded cove, Mac said that was the place. Only wanting to please her, AJ agreed.

He spread out the blanket and asked, "Would you like to swim before we eat? That way we could watch the sunset as our meal settled, before swimming again."

"That sounds lovely," she told him.

They swam for about an hour, enjoying the peace of the night and not really saying much. AJ could tell that she still had something on her mind, and he hoped that she might feel free to confide in him if he gave her the room to do so. He felt that they had become friends on this mission and he hoped that some of that could carry over when they were back home. Even if that were not possible, he was still very glad he had this time to come to know her better. The only problem was, that the more he learned about her, the more in love with her he felt. And no matter what Ms. Bea had told them, nothing could ever come of those feelings, because they were not returned on her part.

Mac was pleased with the variety and quantity of the meal that the hotel had provided. AJ grinned and told her, "Well, I either had to tell them I was feeding a hungry Marine, which would have blown our cover, or tell them to pack enough for four people!"

"You didn't!" she exclaimed indignantly.

Chuckling, he said, "No, I just asked for our normal waiter and told him I was feeding you!" He ducked the towel she sent sailing towards his head.

"You had better not get used to throwing things at me, Sarah. How would that look back at JAG?"

"And why is that? I could just tell them it was some kind of special spy training we had learned," she teased.

"Oh, yes, that would go over well in staff meetings!" The mental picture caused him to grin.

"I could say it was my wifely duty to keep you alert and on your toes!"

"Ah, yes, great for dodging the advances of all those sailors after my luscious body in Leavenworth!"

Mac would normally have had a snappy come back to that, but she was busy staring at that luscious body he was talking about, sitting just a few feet away in that scrap of a suit Webb had bought for him. She made a mental note to do something nice for Clay for that purchase!

AJ saw her staring at him and wondered what she was thinking. That couldn't be desire in her eyes could it? NO! 'You are dreaming, Chegwidden!' "Lovely sunset, wasn't it?" he asked trying to get his own mind off of the thoughts he was having.

"Yes, very nice. Thank you for thinking of this, AJ. I really needed this."

"I could tell that you had something on your mind. You know that you can tell me anything, don't you, Sarah?" he asked gently.

'Not what I was thinking earlier!' she thought.

When she didn't speak, he decided to try and probe just a bit, "Does it have something to do with the mission?"

She blessed him mentally. That was a perfect topic, because there were aspects of the mission that had been on her mind, and that she could talk to him about! "Yes, AJ. This whole thing is going to be a mess when it is broken open, isn't it? I mean, with all the adoptions that have already happened…Webb said this has been going on for months."

To be continued….