by KB Winters
Carly came out the side door with two plates, balanced together on one arm. She set them down, one in front of each of us, and gave me a wink before she started back to her shop. I blushed and took an extra moment before looking back at Jack. His eyes were deep and intense, waiting for my response to his news. I wanted to say it would all be fine, that something would work out, but I couldn’t.
“I appreciate you telling me everything. I understand why you didn’t bring it up yesterday. I had a lot of fun with you too, and obviously my dog is obsessed with yours,” I stopped, and we shared a laugh, “But, I’m not really sure I’m ready to date, period, much less get involved with someone in the military. I’ve been down that road once before, and I got burned. Bad. I’m not in a hurry to throw myself back into that life.”
Jack nodded, his posture and expression understanding, but a flash of sadness in his eyes gave him away. “No worries. What about friends? Can we try that?”
My heart hammered in my chest, and I couldn’t sort out whether I was relieved or disappointed by his reaction. I hadn’t rejected him simply to see if he would try harder to convince me, but the lack of fierceness surprised me. Especially after he had been so adamant the day before, when inviting me to Sunset Bay.
He was waiting for an answer, and I nodded, offering him the best smile I could muster. “Yeah. I’d like that.”
After we finished our sugary confections and coffee, I went inside to pay—reminding Jack of the deal we’d made the day before—and Carly was standing behind the counter with a cat that ate the canary grin.
“Where’d you find him?” She asked, her smile only growing.
I smiled, and followed her gaze out the window to where Jack was squatting down next to Princess and Hunter, giving them attention. “On the beach.”
“Well damn, that’s better than a seashell collection!”
I laughed and nodded, not wanting to break it to my new cheerleader, that it wasn’t going to be anything that lasted.
I paid the tab and as I was leaving, Carly called after me, “Get it girl! That hunk oughtta get you out of your funk!” As I opened the door, I heard her mumble something about being a poet and just smiled.
Chapter Fourteen
Jack
Keeping my hands off of Holly was damn near impossible. After leaving her rental the night before, I’d kicked myself for not going in and taking the kiss I’d been dying for all afternoon. At the time, I’d rationalized that she was already one foot in, one foot out, and that it would pay off if I took it slow, ignoring the countdown timer in my head, that continually reminded me that my days of freedom and ease were all too quickly, coming to an end.
I’d planned on having that kiss the next evening.
But after our conversation at the coffee shop, that was ruined as well. There would be no kiss. I’d been pushed into the friend zone, and I didn’t have enough time to change that.
Even though my true intentions towards Holly were sidelined, it was nice to spend another afternoon together. After coffee we’d walked around town and checked out the shops. She hadn’t had a chance to really explore, and although not much had changed since my last visit, I had a good time shopping with her and walking around, our two dogs in tow. As we wandered, I gleaned more information about her, finding her more open to share details of her life now that the romantic pressure was off.
Or at least it was on her side of things.
I was even more drawn to her after a day spent talking and joking around, talking about our jobs, our friends, hobbies, and pet peeves. Holly was the perfect mix of character traits. She was soft spoken and sweet, but there was also another, deeper side that was quietly fierce, in a way that set her apart from most soft spoken women, who, in my experience, had tendencies to become doormats for more overpowering people. Holly wasn’t like that at all, but as she opened up more about her past, and her failed marriage, I could see that the strength she possessed had been instilled in her through that struggle and loss.
When the sun started to go down, we’d made our way back to her beach house to drop off the few bags of purchases she’d made. Most of it the typical tourist stuff: a bottle of sand with seashells, a sterling silver necklace with a starfish charm, a few containers of sea salt scrubs, candles, and a new pair of sandals. I laughed to myself as we unpacked the bags on her couch.
“What’s so funny?” Holly asked, pausing as she unloaded one of the bags.
I shook my head. “Nothin’, I’ve just never done this before. Normally I consider myself allergic to shopping.”
“Allergic,” she repeated, with a raised brow in my direction.
“Seriously. You should see me, I’m like a ninja at the grocery store.”
She laughed as she shook her head, and the tinkling, melodic sound rolled over my skin. We were standing side by side at the couch, close enough for our arms to brush. I stuffed my hands in my pockets to resist reaching for her. Our eyes met and she shied away, abandoning her bags and crossing the living room, back to the kitchen.
“Speaking of groceries,” she started, tucking her hair behind her ears, before reaching for the refrigerator handles. She swept the doors open and peered inside, her eyes ticking off the contents like she was taking inventory. “I could whip up something really quick. Do you like shrimp scampi?”
“Sure,” I answered, my eyes roving down the back of her long, toned legs that peeked out from under her denim shorts. “Can I help?”
She pulled a package from the fridge and closed the doors. “Uhm, sure. You can zest the lemon.”
I rolled up my long sleeves, cuffing them at the elbows, as I joined her at the counter. She rattled off the instructions as she whizzed through the creation of the dish, and I did my best to keep up. If grocery shopping was at the bottom of my list of favorite things to do, cooking was right behind it. But, I sucked it up and did my best to help, which, mostly involved keeping out of her way.
When the meal was ready, we sat at the table, and Holly lit some of the candles she’d just purchased, the soft, sandalwood filling the room with a warm, intoxicating scent.
“So, you said something, earlier, about not doing the whole shopping thing,” Holly started, after we’d savored the first few bites and exchanged compliments on the result of our combined efforts. “I don’t mean to pry…but didn’t your past girlfriends ever drag you out shopping? It just seems like an obligatory boyfriend thing.”
I smiled. “Probably so. The short answer, I suppose, would be that I’ve never really been with anyone long enough to establish that normal, couple-gelling process that seems to happen.”
“And the long answer?”
I cleared my throat. “My longest relationship ended just before the one-year mark. And most of that year, was spent long distance. Emails, calls, Skype chats.”
Holly nodded, her eyes narrowing thoughtfully. “Why did it end?”
“She cheated on me when I was deployed. Not that I blame her, I certainly wasn’t available to give her what she needed.”
“Cheating is never your fault, Jack. Or, at least, so I’ve been told.” She sipped her wine. “Repeatedly.”
I arched a brow at her, the weight of her statement sinking in with a dull ache in my chest. “Your ex-husband?”
She nodded slowly, looking to the left of me, her eyes not fixed on anything in particular. “Yeah. So, anyways, I don’t know why she cheated on you, or why my ex cheated on me, but I know that it doesn’t do you any good to blame yourself. Not that hearing that really makes it any easier.”
Her hands rested on the table, her fingertips clinging to the curved edge. “I’m sorry, Holly.”
She shook her head, doing her best to put on a brave face, but when her eyes blinked and refocused on me, a tear glistened on her cheek, sparkling in the candlelight. She cursed under her breath and smoothed it away.
I got up from my seat and rounded the table, reaching for her hand. “You wanna go get some air?”
&
nbsp; She didn’t answer, but she took my hand, and let me lead her out the back doors. I left Princess and Hunter behind with a hand signal at Princess to keep her from bounding out after us, and closed the door. Holly had already walked ahead a few paces and stood with her back towards me, looking up into the night sky.
“I’m sorry, Jack,” she said, when I joined her. “I didn’t mean to have a meltdown like that.”
“Hey, you don’t have anything to be sorry for,” I said firmly.
She broke away and looked down the beach. “Do you want to walk with me for a little bit?”
I started to reach for her hand, wanting that to be my answer, but stopped myself short. “Sure.”
We walked together, for several minutes, with only the sound of the waves and our footsteps in the sand. My mind tossed through things to say, but every idea was rejected before it could reach my lips. I had no idea what Holly was thinking, or feeling, and didn’t want to say or do anything to make her uncomfortable. In some corner of my mind, I knew it was pointless to agonize over. I’d already run the impending scenario in my mind. Likely, we’d spend some time together, get to know each other even better, and it would be great, but the timetable was all wrong, and no matter how much we had in common, or how easy going it felt to be beside her, it wasn’t enough to change the outcome. I was leaving. Holly was a sweet soul, she’d mean well when she promised to email or send cards, but over the span of my deployment, the messages would fade off in frequency, until eventually I stopped hearing from her. If I bothered to ask her about it directly, she’d apologize and gently let me down, letting me know she’d moved on with her life. And that would be the end of it.
It was a grim outlook, but I’d lived the scenario a few times before.
In the end, it didn’t matter how much I wanted things to be different, or how strongly I felt about my connection with her.
With each footstep, my heart grew heavier, as the reality of what I needed to do sank in. It would be kinder for me, and for her, to pull the plug now and not make her do it in three to six months.
We reached an abandoned life guard station, and Holly strode up to it, wrapping her hands on either side of the ladder that led up into the tower. Without a word, she climbed, and every last whisper of breath left my body as I watched her shapely legs and the way her ass cheeks peeked out from the edge of her tiny cutoff shorts.
When she reached the top, she looked over the edge and smiled down at me. “Come on up. The view is pretty great.”
She had no idea how nice the view had been from where I stood moments before.
I shimmied up the ladder, two rungs at a time, and joined her at the edge of the tower, where she leaned on her elbows against the railing, staring out at the moonlit ocean. “It’s so peaceful out here.”
I nodded and leaned over beside her, our elbows meeting with a buzz of shared heat. Her eyes flashed to mine at the brief moment of contact, and I knew she’d felt it too. “Holly, there’s something I want to ask you,” I started, my words formulating as I spoke them, suddenly unsure about the destination I’d been turning over during the walk down the beach.
She waited, her lips parted just a touch, making them more kissable and enticing than normal. I tore my eyes away from them and forced myself to keep my eyes locked with hers. “What is it, Jack? Is something wrong?”
“No, no. I just wanted to know if you’re free tomorrow?”
The low hanging moon cast a gentle light over her cheeks and added a glow to her eyes as she thought about my question. After a long, agonizing moment, she leaned over and pressed her lips to mine. I swept her into my arms, holding her against me, our bodies melting together as our kiss deepened. Her breasts pressed against my chest and I couldn’t hide my excitement from her.
Holly shivered as I parted her lips with the tip of my tongue, wanting to taste every inch of her velvety smooth mouth. She tasted like wine and lemon and smelled like salty, sea air and lingering hints of sandalwood from the candle. Her body felt even better than I’d imagined, and I carefully smoothed my hands over as much of her as I could reach, without breaking away from her passionate kisses.
I broke away from her sweet lips and trailed down the soft line of her jaw, licking, kissing, and sucking until I reached her earlobe. She shuddered as I tugged at the soft flesh with my teeth and her legs buckled. My hands slid down her back, and into the waist of her tiny shorts. My fingers dipped lower and lower, and my mouth returned to hers, hungry for more. Her skin was hot, despite the chill in the air. She moaned and pushed her hips against me, begging for more.
I slid a hand up the front of her loose fitted shirt, lingering over every soft inch, until I reached her bra. I palmed her breast, growling into her ear when her nipples went stiff through the thin fabric, straining for more of my touch.
“Jack,” she breathed, her voice an angst-filled whisper.
My thumb found the delicate swell of skin above the bra and traced the lines of her cleavage, before slipping around the back to locate the hooks.
“Jack, Jack, wait,” she pulled away, her voice stronger, more lucid.
I released her and she backed up a step from where we’d just been forged together. Her breasts heaved as she panted, sucking in breath after breath, while she raked handfuls of her long hair away from her face.
“What’s wrong?”
She flicked her eyes away from me, looking back over the rail, to the ocean. After her breathing slowed, her eyes shifted back to me. “I just don’t want to rush…this…” she said, gesturing between us.
“Okay,” I replied, putting up my hands. My body was still running at searing temperatures, but was cooling quickly without her in my arms, grinding against me.
I ached for more, but was consoled by the small glimmer of hope that had inserted itself into the situation. Just maybe, she would be different.
We would be different.
Chapter Fifteen
Jack
“Oh, look who decided to be social.” Aaron looked up from the notepad in his hands, as he stood to the side of the front counter of the museum. Princess trotted ahead and went to Aaron’s side. He set the pad down on the counter and leaned over to scratch her ears. When he looked back at me, his eyebrows were raised. “Where the hell have you been, man?”
I rubbed the back of my neck and smirked.
“Oh, shit! Really?”
I chuckled. Aaron had obviously made the leap to thinking I’d been out getting some ass, and while that wasn’t exactly what had happened, the reality of what had happened, left me in the same mood, so I didn’t bother correcting his assumption. “Yep.”
“Good for you, man.” Aaron looked down, consulting Princess. “Guess he’s still got it after all, huh?”
She wagged her tail, swishing it against the concrete floor.
“Hey, listen, I actually came to ask for a favor,” I started. “I was thinking about inviting Holly out here, take her up for a flight up the coast.”
Aaron shrugged. “Sure, man, whatever you need. Just let me know when.”
“Today?” I asked, going to lean against the counter.
“All right,” he replied, chuckling. “So, who is this girl?”
“Her name is Holly Parker. She’s from Irvine, here on vacation.”
“Wait,” Aaron paused, his eyes wide, “this your mystery girl from the beach?”
I nodded. “Yeah. We ran into each other by the market the other day and went up to Sunset Bay, stopped for dinner at Joe’s.”
“Niiice.” He swiped up the notepad and started walking away. Princess looked over at me, but then got up to follow after him.
I arched a brow at his retreating form, before shoving off the counter and chasing him down. “Player, wait up.” Aaron turned. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, I just have to get ready to open.”
“You need any help?”
He shook his head as he looked back down at the pad. “No. I got it. Been doi
ng it for a long time now. Just go call your girl.”
“Player!” I barked. He snapped his attention back to me. “We straight?”
He sighed and dropped his arms to his side. “Yeah, I guess I’m just a little butt hurt that you haven’t been around the past couple of days. I haven’t seen you since you got home from the last tour, and pretty soon, you’re gonna be gone again. I just figured we’d get to hang out.”
A twinge of guilt twisted me up. “I’m sorry, dude. I want to, but you’ve been pretty busy working, and there isn’t much for me to do around here.”
Aaron held up a hand, pressing his eyes closed for a moment. “I get it, it’s cool.”
I groaned. “You were the one telling me to take advantage of my leave and get some action!”
“Yeah, I did, but I meant more like go out with me, get a few drinks, have a one nighter. I didn’t realize you’d go out and start pickin’ out fuckin’ china patterns or whatever.”
I scoffed. “It’s been two days, Rosen. I hardly think that’s the same as planning a wedding.”
Rosen shook his head. “Like I said, you do you. I’m fine.”
He stalked off, into the hangar, and this time, I let him go, without bothering to try and convince him to stay and have it out with me. I was eager to meet Holly and didn’t have time for his left field bullshit.
* * * *
Before leaving Holly’s the night before, I’d managed to get her to agree to be surprised by an outing for the following day. After packing Princess into the Camaro, we hit the road and wound down the hill into town. I made record time through the sleepy beach town, and pulled into the spare parking space next to her SUV just as she and Hunter were making their way down the three stairs from the porch. Her face lit up when she saw me sitting behind the wheel and my heart went into a double time beat, flashing back to the night before, making out like a couple of teenagers in the lifeguard tower.
