The Marine Meets His Match

“This is nice.”

Rad nodded. “You’ve never been here before?”

Serena shook her head.

“You’re not originally from around here, are you? No accent,” he added.

“I’m from all over. Mostly east coast although we lived in Indianapolis for a year when I was eight.”

“Are you an army brat? You said your dad had been out of the military for a while now.”

“He left the army when I was ten.” Her crisp tone of voice made it clear that she didn’t welcome any further discussion on that topic.

“What made you decide to settle here?”

“My best friend lives here. We were college roommates our freshman year at UNCW, the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. I came to visit her for her wedding several years ago and liked the area. I’m an ocean person, so I like being on the coast.”

“I know what you mean. My older brother Striker has a beach house out on Pirate’s Cove. It’s a little island off the coast. I get over there as often as I can when he’s not using the place. Since he’s moved to San Antonio, it’s vacant a lot of the time.”

“Is he a Marine as well?”

“He’s in the reserves. Most of his time these days is spent running King Oil and chasing after his baby son. He’s as smart as a tree full of owls, to quote my Texan brother.”

“Did you grow up in Texas?”

“No, although I did spend a summer or two there. Like you I grew up all over. My dad was a Marine, he’s retired now. All my other brothers are Marines.”

“All? How many are there?”

“My momma had five sons. The youngest two are twins.”

“Are you the second oldest?”

“No, that honor goes to my brother Ben. I’m the middle child.”

“Which means, if I remember my birth order character traits correctly, that you’re the peacemaker in the family.”

“Negative. That role falls to Ben. What about you? Do you have any brothers or sisters?”

“No. I’m an only child.”

“Which means you’re a high achiever and expect a lot from life.” At her surprised look, Rad added, “Hey, I’ve read some of that birth order stuff, too. As an adult, only children tend to have high self-esteem.”

She laughed and shook her head. “Not me.”

“Why not?”

“My dad didn’t want me getting a big head.” Her tone was mocking but she could feel the muscles in her neck tensing up.

“Sounds like he gave you a hard time.”

“You could say that.”

“Did he hit you? Beat you?”

Not with his fists but with his words. But she couldn’t say that because her throat closed and her mouth went dry.

She reached for her iced tea. The condensed moisture made the glass slippery and she almost lost her hold on it. The ice cubes clattering against the sides sounded unnaturally loud in the sudden silence.

“Steady there.” Rad reached over to straighten the glass and set it back on the table. His fingers brushed against hers.

Had he tried to capture her hand in his, she would have snatched it away. Instead he gently rubbed his thumb against the back of her hand.

Serena frantically tried to come up with something sophisticated and funny to say, but was so distracted by her awareness of him and her turbulent emotions that all she could come up with was, “I don’t like talking about my childhood.”

Right. That was an understatement. Brilliant, Serena. She pulled her hand away, exiling it to her lap where her fingertips continued to hum from his touch.

“Then we’ll talk about something else. Like how we met.”

She frowned. “We met at the school two days ago.”

“Where you were madder than a rained-on rooster.”

She lifted an eyebrow at him. “Another of your Texan brother’s quotes?”

“Actually that was one of my grandfather’s.”

“Yes, well, if I was aggravated with you, I had good reason.”

“So you told me at the time. But we obviously can’t use the truth in this case about how we met, so we need to come up with something else. How about you saw me and fell instantly in love with me?”

“How about you saw me and fell instantly in love with me,” she instantly countered.

His slow smile was worth the wait. “That’ll work too.”

Okay, there went her hormones again. Time to haul out the common sense practical stuff. “I think we should just go with something vague, like we met through a mutual friend.”

“That sounds boring.”

“Boring is good.” Hormones are bad. Bad hormones. Behave.

“Marines are not into boring.”

“Fine,” she retorted. “Then you think of something.”

“Hmmm…”

She noticed the outer corner of Rad’s eyes got all crinkly when he was thinking.