There was a beat of silence. “How about we go out tonight?”
Madison wanted to say no. It was her first instinct always. Even now, three years later, she tended to stay away from crowds. But, she did need to start pushing her boundaries or she would be a wreck for the rest of her life.
That she could not live with.
“Sure, and to show you how much I love you, I’ll drive since I can’t drink much.”
Elena let out an Oh-ra so loud, Madison had to hold the phone away from her ear.
“You do love me. In fact, if I went that way, I would propose marriage. Give me your address so I can head up your way.”
“Make sure to bring a change of clothes,” Madison said.
“Why?”
She rolled her eyes. For a woman who planned her career down to the minute detail, Elena tended to just go with the flow. Most of the time it was fun.
“So, if you drink too much, you can just crash here.”
“Hot dang, woman. I might just have to marry you.”
Madison laughed. “That’s what all the pretty girls say.”
After giving her friend directions to her house, she hung up and headed back into the house. She had a night of fun to get ready for.
CHAPTER FOUR
Blaring music assaulted her senses the moment Madison and Elena stepped inside of the bar and grill. The sound and the activity crawled under her skin. Charlie leaned heavily against her leg. He felt her agitation. Maybe she had made a mistake. She glanced over the crowd looking for some kind of table up against the wall. Madison knew she would fare better that way.
“This place looks questionable,” Madison murmured.
Elena laughed and clapped her hands together. “Yeah, that’s what makes it great.”
Madison shook her head and couldn’t fight the smile that curved her lips. Elena was wearing an old Supernatural t-shirt, a pair of worn jeans and barely any makeup. This is why they had gotten along from the first. They were more focused on being comfortable in their own skin.
The music seemed to grow and Madison looked down at Charlie, who didn’t look phased at all by the noise. He didn’t look all that impressed either. There were a lot of people in the bar, and it was rapidly filling up. Her heart started to pound like it always did before a panic attack took hold. Charlie sensed it and leaned more heavily against her.
Elena glanced at her. Her smile faded. “Aw, damn, Mad, I should have known this would be too much. We can go somewhere else.”
Madison wanted to turn tail and run. It would be easier, safer. But she needed to push those boundaries. She shook her head. “No, let’s try it. If it gets to be too much, I’ll let you know.”
“Are you sure?”
Madison looked over the crowd, squared her shoulders, and nodded.
“That’s the Mad I know,” she said.
Elena hurried them both over to a corner booth. As they sat down, Madison surveyed the perimeter. She was thankful she didn’t have to fight the manager about Charlie. It happened more than people thought it did, but since there seemed to be a ton of Marines in the bar, he was probably sympathetic to her issues.
The waitress came up. “I’ll take an extra-large margarita, frozen,” Elena said.
“I’ll take a light beer. What do you have on tap?”
She named off a few and Madison picked one. The waitress left them with a bowl of pretzels. She picked one up and continued to watch the crowd as she nibbled.
“You should be ready to party,” Elena said, pulling her out of her thoughts.
She looked at Elena, who was bouncing away to the music. “First of all, someone has to drive. I have a feeling that you are in the mood to drown your sorrows. Plus, with my issues, I like to keep my head on straight.”
Elena nodded but said nothing to that. She surveyed the perimeter, looking over the patrons not as threats as Madison did. This was more personal. Elena had more than one reason she was out that night. She was looking for someone to use if the margarita didn’t work.
“One of these days you’re going to tell me who broke your heart.”
Elena looked at her then sighed. Madison regretted dimming her friend’s spirits.
“Sorry.”
Elena shook her head. “Nah, you didn’t do anything to me and unfortunately, neither did the guy.”
“They always claim it was an accident.”
“No. He really had no idea. It was a crush kind of thing on an older guy.” Elena shrugged. “I could never get him out of the mode of thinking of me as a little sister.”
“And now?”
“Same thing. Just saw him the other day, and he practically patted me on the freaking head.” She rolled her eyes. “Like I need to be treated like a little girl.”
Madison nodded. “Yeah. Let me guess, he’s military?”
“Not anymore.”
The waitress returned with their drinks. Once she left, Elena held up her glass. “Screw all the sad talk. Let’s just have fun.”
Madison clinked her glass to Elena’s. “Agreed.”
She definitely needed a little fun tonight.
* * * *
Dante looked around the bar and smiled. The place Jack recommended was rowdy and filled with Marines. It didn’t surprise Dante at all. Every military town had a bar or two that was favored by the military. This one definitely catered to the military. The wood paneled walls were filled with pictures of military men and women and plaques he was sure had something to do with the same subject. There was a large wall filled with windows and above them were flags representing each branch of the service.
They grabbed a table when a group got up to play pool, which was at the end of the bar and grill.
“Damn, this takes me back. Do you remember the first time Anthony and I took you out drinking?” JT asked as he settled onto his chair.
“Of course I do. You let me drink until I started puking my guts up. Mom was reading me the riot act and Elena was pissed she’d been left behind.”
The waitress came over and they ordered a couple of beers.
“Well, yeah, your sister never understood being left behind.”
He chuckled. “That’s why she is bucking to make rank before me. Nothing like having a younger sister trying to outdo your accomplishments.”
“Younger by just a few minutes.”
“That’s the truth. Lord knows when we hit fifty she will be happy to remind me of that fact.”
“How are your folks doing?”
He smiled. “Fine, although I think Mom is ready to move again. She just never wants to settle down. You would have thought she was the military brat.”
“They’ve been in Arizona for how long now?”
“Four years. Well, almost four years. She claims it’s too hot. Of course, she claimed that San Francisco was too cold.”
JT smiled. “But your dad will move if she wants to.”
“He is a Santini. They do get led around by their soul mates.”
“Any feelings that you might head that way any time soon?”
Dante shuddered dramatically. “Take that back. Don’t even mention it. I have three older brothers who can go first. Plus, a younger one.”
JT chuckled as the waitress brought their beers. She was sweet looking, with sparkling brown eyes and sexy smile. She dropped a few hints to JT, but he didn’t pick up on it.
Dante chuckled. “Your dating skills are worse than mine at the moment. And seeing that I spent six months on deployment recently, that’s kind of bad.”
JT took a swig of beer and shook his head. “Got too much on my plate right now.”
“So, what brought you out of the woodwork, JT?”
“Just finished an undercover assignment. Felt like I wanted to be myself for a night.”
As NCIS agents, JT and Anthony played lots of different roles. Both prior military, they knew how to get in good with other service m
embers to investigate, so they were tapped a lot of times for undercover assignments.
“Didn’t end happily?”
He shook his head. “Got the bad guys, but it was a long few months I’d rather forget. Unfortunately, I have…”
JT’s words trailed off as his attention fixated on something over Dante’s shoulder. Something Dante couldn’t discern moved over his face. Dante glanced behind him and groaned. His sister was baring down on them, a determined look on her face.
“Hey there, loser,” she said, giving him a kiss on the cheek. “I can’t believe you’re in this place.”
“Me? What do you think Mom is going to say when she finds out you were here?”
“She’d like to know what the hell you were doing in such a place too.” She looked over at JT. “Hey, there. I didn’t know you were heading up here tonight.”
JT seemed to pull himself out of some kind of stupor. “Yeah, well, I had a meeting and ran into Dante on the base.”
“Why don’t you come join us?”
“Us?” he said, but he had a bad, bad feeling. He followed his sister’s direction and found his gaze lock with Madison Baker.
“Yeah, unless you’re afraid of being shown up again. And let’s face it, the booth is more comfortable.”
JT was already standing up and Dante gave him a dirty look. JT shrugged.
“Hey, I’m not here looking to score and the truth is, the booth would be more comfortable.”
“You’re such a gentleman,” Elena said, sarcasm dripping from her voice as she punched him in the arm. “Come on, Dante. Let’s rehash Annapolis.”
He sighed and gave in, following his sister through the crowd that seemed to swell. When they arrived at the table, he realized she had brought her dog with her. He was sitting beside her.
“So, we meet again, Santini,” she said with a smile curving her lips.
It was the same smile she always gave him, but this time, it did something different to him. The familiar irritation was replaced with something that felt like hot, wet, lust.
He rolled his shoulders and looked away from her. He noticed that there was one beer, half empty, and a rather large margarita glass completely drained of its contents. Elena slid in and JT didn’t hesitate to slide in beside her. Madison stood and lost her balance, falling against him.
Intermixed with the stale beer and greasy food smells, Dante caught a very faint hint of her scent. Woodsy, familiar, and all Madison. Every drop of moisture seemed to dry up in his mouth.
“Sorry about that,” she murmured, then she stepped back. “You don’t mind if I sit on the outside to have Charlie near me, do you?”
He shook his head, hoping it would clear soon, but had a feeling it wasn’t going to happen soon enough. He sat down and realized it was going to be one really long night.
CHAPTER FIVE
Three hours later, Madison had to fight the urge to peel the label from her beer bottle. It had been a long night. She should have remembered when the Santinis got together, they always argued. Elena and Dante were the worst. Until they parted ways after Annapolis, they had spent so much of their time together. Worse, they both remembered it differently. She couldn’t remember how many arguments the two of them had in her presence.
The alcohol didn’t help either.
“I say that you were hitting on that freshman and you lost her to Fernando,” Elena said giggling. Fernando was the youngest of the Santinis and known for being kind of a dog with women.
“I did not.” Dante turned his head to look at Madison directly. “Did you know that in high school, Elena had a crack problem?”
For a second or two, she couldn’t respond. Her entire thought process broke down because he kept his gaze locked with hers. They were sitting only inches apart and every time he moved, she could feel his leg brush against hers. Now, he was staring at her with those amazing chocolate eyes of his and every brain cell seemed to evaporate.
“Did you?” he asked again.
“Did I what?”
He gave her a lopsided smile and blinked. She’d never seen a man with such long eyelashes in her life.
“I think Madison has had too much to drink,” he said. “Kind of a lightweight with just a light beer in ya.”
JT took pity on her apparently. “First of all, according to Anthony, you did lose the girl to Fernando. Secondly, I doubt very much that super pilot here would be able to get into the top twenty at Annapolis if she had a crack habit.”
“Aw, isn’t that sweet,” Elena said. She slung her arm over JT’s shoulders and gave him a loud, sloppy kiss on the cheek. “He called me a super pilot.”
Madison looked between the two of them and everything clicked into place. Elena had known JT a huge chunk of her life, and he was a bit older than Elena. But, from the look on his face, Madison didn’t think that the man had brotherly feelings towards Elena. His face flushed and his eyes darkened when he turned to face Elena. Madison was pretty sure he would have kissed Elena back if she and Dante hadn’t been there.
The waitress returned with another margarita for Elena and food for the entire table. Madison had insisted on getting food when Elena had started her second margarita. This being her third drink could end badly for all of them. It wasn’t that Elena was a mean drunk, but she was a persuasive drunk. She liked to get others to do reckless things right along with her. With her innocent smile, Elena usually could convince her companions everything would turn out okay. It never did.
She made a note to talk to Elena tomorrow about JT as she dug into her nachos. It hadn’t been a healthy choice for dinner, but she had figured she would live dangerously for one night.
“You’re gonna share some of that, aren’t you?” Dante said, his breath hot against her ear. She shivered and tried to ignore the heat pulsing through her body.
“I don’t think so,” she said.
He ignored her and grabbed a chip off her plate. She smacked his hand.
“Hey!”
“Hey, yourself. You should know better than to mess with my food, Santini.”
He smiled again. Heat doubled, pulsing through her veins. He leaned closer and for a moment, she couldn’t breathe. All the air backed up in her lungs as he continued to stare at her. Then, a waitress dropped a glass on the floor. The crashing sound had him pulling back with a strange look on his face. He said nothing else as he applied himself to the mammoth burger he’d ordered. Uneasily, she picked up another chip and tried to forget the strange moment.
Dante Santini was starting to be a really hard man to ignore. But in the next instant, the brother and sister started to argue about some incident when their father had been stationed at Quantico MCB, and she pushed aside her worries.
Three hours later, they finally escaped the bar. By that time, Madison wanted to just crawl under the covers. The one thing that kept her from doing it had been Charlie and—well, her own damned will. She would be able to report to Dr. James that she had succeeded in one night out with friends. Well, one friend at least.
They made their way over to her Jeep. “I think you need to stay with me tonight, Elena.”
“Maybe.”
Elena had something planned and Madison didn’t think it was a good idea, but she didn’t know what to say. She looked over at Dante. He shook his head.
“I came with JT.”
“Oh, that’s good.” Which it was. Dante wasn’t as bad off as Elena, but he was still a bit tipsy. “Then tell her to come home with me.”
Elena gave her a sloppy smile. “I don’t wanna go home with you. I want to go home with JT.”
There was a long strained silence. She looked at JT, who seemed to flush red again. The former Marine and now NCIS agent was blushing.
“What?” Dante asked, apparently oblivious to what was going on between the two.
Elena shrugged. “We live closer to one another. I want to sleep in my bed tonight.”
�
��I can take you,” Madison offered. With what she had figured out over the course of the night, it wasn’t a good idea sending Elena home with JT. “We can stop by my house, grab some stuff and your bag, then head down.”
“You would have to drive all the way back here because you can’t stay the night. That is a silly waste of time, Mad.”
“Mad?” JT and Dante said at the same time.
“Old nickname. Mad Madison Baker,” Elena said, giggling.
She’d had too much to drink, that was for sure. Madison wasn’t comfortable with the situation. “You can’t—”
“I’ll make sure she gets home,” JT said. “But then, you have to take care of the other Santini who will have no way home.”
“I’ll take a cab,” Dante offered.
She looked at him. It would be easier on her to just send him on his way. She was having an issue with being out so late. Keeping her schedule was very important. Of course, she passed her bedtime an hour or so ago. And, he was a fellow Marine. If the roles had been reversed, he wouldn’t hesitate to take her home.
She sighed. “I’ll take you.”
“That sounded so sweet,” Dante said.
“Hey, man, beggars can’t be choosers,” JT said. He gave Madison a leveled look. “I’ll take care of her, I promise.”
“He’s an honorary Santini,” Dante said.
JT nodded and she realized he understood the situation, and he would not take advantage of it. “Come on, Elena. Let’s get you home.”
She watched as JT led Elena away to his truck. She still wasn’t too sure about sending her off with him. He might not take advantage of her friend, but that didn’t mean that Elena wouldn’t convince him to stay the night.
“Text me when you get home,” she yelled out. Elena held her hand up in the air indicating she heard Madison.
Dante was already sitting shot gun in the Jeep smiling at her. She looked down at Charlie.
“He stole your seat.”
Charlie wagged his tail and then hopped up into the Jeep. He sat in the back seat, a big stupid doggie smile on his face. She sighed again, then slipped into the driver’s seat.
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